Lifestyle & Parenting

How To Change Your Luck

April 8, 2020

The concept of luck is one that most people realize is make believe. However, these same people often still attach the idea of luck to certain happenings in their lives. It is easy to feel like your luck is in when good things happen to you, and that you are on an unlucky streak when bad things occur. Of course, there’s no higher power dictating that one day you will experience good fortune and another day you won’t. Poker players know more about these swings than anyone and call this idea variance. By taking a lesson from variance in poker, we can learn constructive ways to deal with swings of fortune in our day-to-day lives.

luck

what factors can influence luck? In fact, there has been a lot of scientific research into the concept of luck, and whether it can actually come in streaks. One study of gamblers found that people who win a game a couple of times are more likely to continue winning, and similarly those who lose will go in the other direction. But is that really luck? There are other factors in play here. Research published in the Cognition Journal discovered that those who were winning were more likely to place bets with safer odds. In contrast, players on losing streaks would choose riskier odds in an effort to recoup their losses. British illusionist Derren Brown conducted his own experiment to find out whether people could actually be lucky or unlucky. He filmed The Secret of Luck for television in 2011. As part of this show, he went to a small English village and started a rumor that people would get lucky if they were to stroke a local statue of a dog. He found that the people who believed in the idea of luck were more likely to put themselves into situations that would give them the opportunity to get lucky. The main example of this was a competition at the end, with a cash prize for the winner—a person who ultimately came round to the belief that luck existed.

case study. Poker is a game which has thrived and become popular all over the world in recent decades because it can be mastered. Skillful players don’t rely on hitting the good cards every time, and instead have carefully thought out strategies to deal with various different situations. If the game came down to the turn of the cards and the winner was the one with the best hand, how can you explain the fact that Stu Ungar won the World Series of Poker Main Event on three occasions? Poker players have to learn to mitigate the effects of chance and play around situations that could come down to the luck of the cards. However, if playing regularly, there will always be occasions when players win and other times when they go on losing runs. This is referred to as variance, and players need to be aware that this is simply part of the game. It’s the strong players that are able to continue playing their A-game even when they are on a downward swing. To be able to do this, you need to have a good bankroll strategy and be able to adapt your usual game to changing situations. You also have to avoid "going on tilt" and making rash decisions. Variance can occur in other games, too, like slots and online video poker. In fact, learning how to deal with swings of fortune in these games can help poker players improve their strategies on the felt. They tend to increasingly do so online, in fact. Players can click here for numerous slot and video poker options. In any of these games, players need to adapt accordingly when variance changes. For example, when on a losing run, they try not to get tilted and start making outrageous bets to recover losses. The point is to have the self-discipline to stick to the same betting strategies that worked for you when you were on the winning run.

apply these lessons to real life. The biggest question that may be on your mind now is how to apply these ideas about dealing with variance to everyday situations. Everyone has had one of those stereotypical bad days where everything seems to go wrong. Let’s take that as an example and think about how to deal with this negative swing of variance. Imagine you’ve missed the bus and you find yourself walking to work. It starts to rain and you realize you’ve forgotten your umbrella. Things get even worse when a truck speeds past through a huge puddle and soaks you from head to toe. This kind of rotten luck is going to put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day—if you let it. It’s then going to affect your work and make you less productive. By understanding how these early mishaps have affected you, you may be able to overcome them. Try to think of every situation in a positive way and remember that the world isn’t conspiring against you—see here. For instance, instead of cursing the truck for splashing you, think yourself lucky for not being run over by it. By becoming more positive, you’re also more likely to avoid further "bad luck" in the rest of the day. Even the most skilled poker players know that some situations come down to chance. They know that some things can go in their favor, while other situations can go against them. The most important thing is to not get tilted by bad fortune, and instead try to continue playing in an optimal way even when things aren’t going well. This philosophy can also be applied to real life.

share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Contests
Shopping

get social

VITA

get more out of

READ THE MAGAZINE

Want the best, curated headlines and trends on the fly?

get more out of vita

Sign up for one, or sign up for all!

VITA EDITIONS