Phil Laak, on the value of money

favicoNine out of ten times, when I’m waiting for a bigger game, I’m in the $10-$20 games because there are more tables and a constant stream of people. It constantly amazes me that people don’t understand how big $10-$20 is. [...] You can sit in the $10-$20 and make $1,500 a day and it’s so effortless to smash that win-rate. I know people who wouldn’t get out of bed for $1,500, but I think $1,500 matters. It’s a big number. Or it’s what I would call a small-big number, and a lot of the 10-20 players don’t realize how fast it can add up. I never got desensitised to money. When I make a bet with friends for 10 or 20 bucks, I try to win that too. Most gamblers aren’t sensitive to the actual value of money.

Phil “Unabomber” Laak – 01/2010 – in Bluff Europe

 
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Manfred Bodner, on innovation

favicoThe next 10 to 15 years in this industry will be about innovation. The last ten years have been about big branding and being the industry’s Red Bull, but the next ten will be about being an Apple, and offering consumers something new that revolutionizes the market. Media spending will not be the answer.

Manfred Bodner (Bwin co-chief) – 12/2009 – in eGamingReview

 
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Lou Krieger, on the evolution of poker

favicoPoker, like life itself, is flexible, supple, elastic, constantly in a state of change, and nearly organic. It’s always shifting, however slight and imperceptive that shift may be, until it morphs into something you would probably not recognize if you stayed away from it for a while.

Lou Krieger

 
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Katja Thater, on being a female poker player

favicoAs a female player, you are always being watched. Everyone remembers you and if you make one single mistake, you will hear it for the rest of your life.

Katja Thater – 08/2008 – in Poker News Daily

 
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John Lukacs, on poker

favicoPoker is closest to the Western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents, and where — at least in the short run — the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.

John Lukacs – 1963 – in Poker and the American Character

 
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Annette Obrestad, on living for poker

favicoDeep down inside, poker is what I do, and it’s what I live for, so if I knew I wouldn’t be able to win another poker tournament again, I would quit and my life would have no meaning anymore.

Annette Obrestad – 11/2009 – In PokerNews

 

John Vorhaus, on having other goals in life

favicoDoes poker rule your life? Or does it exist in the context of a conscious, well-balanced, self-aware existence? It may surprise you to learn that the less obsessive you are about poker, the better your game will be. Why? Because if poker is all you have going on in your life — if getting that money is the only thing that matters to you — you’ll be so hooked on outcome, and so dependent on a positive outcome, that the pressure of performance will cripple you.

John Vorhaus – 07/2009 – in CardPlayer

 
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Scotty Nguyen, on European poker players

favicoI admire the attitude among the top European players. In US, so many players just think about surviving until the next day. European players come out to play and they attack. I see a younger me in some of the younger European players I met. They fear nobody and really have attitude. Some of them even intimidate me.

Scotty Nguyen – 12/2009 – in Facebook

 
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David Mamet, on courage

favicoIn poker, one must have courage: the courage to bet, to back one’s convictions, one’s intuitions, one’s understanding. There can be no victory without courage. The successful player must be willing to wager on likelihoods. Should he wait for absolutely risk-free certainty, he will win nothing, regardless of the cards he is dealt.

David Mamet – 09/2005 – in Los Angeles Times

 
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Annie Duke, on the virtues of legalizing poker

favicoI have played a lot of poker in my time, so I know a winning hand when I see one. Giving the American people more freedom, collecting more tax revenue for the government, enhancing regulations to protect children, and bringing more common sense to our legal system looks like a Royal Flush to me.

Annie Duke – 07/2009 – in The Huffington Post

 
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