Poker is hundreds of years old. In that time, a very culture has developed that has never been more popular than it is today. And, you can’t have a culture without some memorable quotes that people still repeat decades after they were first uttered. There are some famous poker quotes that poker players today still use at the table or in passing conversation. I wanted to collect poker’s greatest and most famous quotes, and I found a couple dozen of them. In organizing them, I noticed that they fall quite neatly into categories that just might say something about the game itself. Well, certainly the vocal part of the game.
Some of those categories:
Poker is a tough game.
Poker and life.
Famous quotes made during poker play.
Poker and luck.
Quotes relating to the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Quotes made by “Amarillo Slim” Preston.
Poker is a Tough Game
Poker is not a game for the weak. You have to be tough in poker, or you will be eaten alive. Here are some of the famous quotes that drive this point home.
“If they’re helpless and they can’t defend themselves, you’re in the right game.”
Mike Caro, poker writer.
“We’re not playing together, but we’re not playing against each other, either….You don’t see piranhas eating each other, do you?”
Matt Damon, the movie ‘Rounders’
“Anyone who thinks cardplaying is a ‘game’, I’ll show you a loser. Money….That’s how you measure success….That’s how you keep score.”
Stu Ungar, 1980, 1981, and 1997 WSOP Champion
“Poker is a game of people. That’s the most important lesson you should learn….People…and the strategy you use against them. More than any other game, Poker depends on your understanding your opponent.”
“If you can’t spot the fish at the table, you’re the fish.”
Unknown, quoted in the movie “Rounders”
“I’d bust my own grandmother if she played poker with me.”
Jack Straus, 1982 WSOP Champion
Poker and Life
Many players have drawn parallels between poker and life itself. Some have pointed to poker as the ultimate representation of competition. Many have even read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as a book on poker strategy. Here’s how poker compares to life itself.
“Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.”
Anthony Holden, Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player
It would be an enormous undertaking to compile every clever and unique line that's been uttered at the poker table from one player to another. But, here are a couple of the most classic.
“You call this one and it’s all over, baby.”
Scotty Nguyen, 1998 WSOP, said before his opponent called and Nguyen won the championship
“Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”
Nicholas “Nick the Greek” Dandalos, after playing poker for five months with Johnny Moss in the pre-cursor to the first WSOP
Poker and Luck
There are some poker players who are more 'unprogressive' than they know. They have a tendency to look for the bad luck in their losses, and the good luck in the wins of their opponents. Here are a couple quotes from World Poker Champions on the subject of luck.
“I think that we are all in the right place at the right time almost every day. It’s the people who are prepared to be lucky who can take advantage of being there.”
Phil Hellmuth, 1989 WSOP Champion
“…How lucky I am. I’ve been hearing that for a lot of years.”
Made popular by having the largest prize dollar distribution of any poker tournament, and for having turned casual poker players into millionaires, the WSOP is the staple poker event of the year. Many previous WSOP champions are still recognizable faces today. Here are some quotes made at the WSOP.
“We had 13 players this year. I look to have better than 20 next year. It’s even liable to get up to be 50.”
Benny Binion, after the 1973 WSOP (there were 5,619 entrants 32 years later in the 2005 WSOP)
“Shuffle up and deal.”
Official start to WSOP
“Squeaky tight when sober, possibly the best player in the world when half-bagged, and horrible when drunk.”
T.J. Cloutier, describing 1985 WSOP Champion Bill Smith
Quotes from "Amarillo Slim" Preston
Thomas Austin "Amarillo Slim" Preston is not only the embodiment of professional gambler to many people, he's also one of the most outspoken. Slim likely has more long-running one-liners that even he could compile. Here are some of them:
“…I don’t believe in hunches; hunches are for dogs making love.”
“I won the [1972 WSOP] and, neighbor, at one point I had a better chance of getting a French date with the Statue of Liberty than I did of winning that tournament.”
“There have been some good books written on poker, but most of them have been by college professors, or by people who have run something through computers….I had to learn to use my eyes and my ears, and neighbor, I can see a gnat’s keester at a hundred yards and hear a mouse wet on cotton.”
“I like you, son, but I’d still put a rattlesnake in your pocket and ask you for a light.”
And the Rest...
Finally, here are some other quotes that might not categorize as easily as the previous, but they're still great quotes.
“There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker….It is enough to make one ashamed of the species.”
Mark Twain
“I’m a gambler. I’ll always be one. I couldn’t be anything else.”
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Poker is hundreds of years old. In that time, a very culture has developed that has never been more popular than it is today. And, you can’t have a culture without some memorable quotes that people still repeat decades after they were first uttered. There are some famous poker quotes that poker players today still use at the table or in passing conversation. I wanted to collect poker’s greatest and most famous quotes, and I found a couple dozen of them. In organizing them, I noticed that they fall quite neatly into categories that just might say something about the game itself. Well, certainly the vocal part of the game.
