by Anthony Megna

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: August 02, 2010

"If God wanted us to hold on to our money, he would have put handles on it". Who said that? If you answered Jack Straus, you are right. Jack Straus was the legendary gambler who won the World Series of Poker with one chip that he had left.  He thought he busted out and was leaving the table but noticed one chip under a napkin. He sat back down, got lucky and won the next couple of hands and was back in business. Soon enough, he won the thing. In fact, the saying "A chip and a chair" came from this story.  The moral here, never give up. This is probably one of the greatest gambling come-back tales I know, excluding what happened to me a few years ago...

I had one of those Kentucky Fried Chicken coupons for about 5 bucks and was temporarily out of money at the time. I went down to the restaurant and bought a coke, got the change and placed the rest on a horse. I won the race and picked up about 35 bucks. Then I took that money and entered a poker tournament. I ended up placing 2nd and winning close to two hundred dollars. That is nice, I thought. Now I am really going to build this up. Well, for the next 8 months I played seven-card stud live at the Hollywood Park Casino in L.A. I built my playing bankroll up to a few thousand dollars. All because of one 5 dollar coupon. The lesson I taught myself is never give up. Never! The old saying, a chip and chair is quite true. That saying was invented after Jack Straus won the World Series.

I believe the mindset of a gambler is one of the eternal optimist. If you are not optimistic of your chances to win, you never will win. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have courage to place that last wager if you believe you have the best of it. Not just in gambling, but in life.

Look, we all have to take chances in life. Marriage is one of the biggest gambles we make as adults. We are risking everything we own, plus our hearts, on one person. If that isn't the biggest gamble we take, what is? What compares to that? This is the closest we face to a life and death decision, which comes around in life every once in a while. We have to suck it up and look death in the eye and scream "I am not ready yet"! This could be a health emergency or getting face to face with a criminal who is ready to snuff out your life. I know, as I have faced both. Just take all of your adrenaline and focus it at the problem. It is not easy, but living never was.

Everything else pales in comparison to life and death decisions. So gambling should be a breeze. It is not life and death. You aren't going to die if you lose. Sure, it could be financially uncomfortable, but you will recover.

The mindset of a gambler is one of eternal optimism, mixed with a healthy dose of strong belief in yourself. If we want to succeed in life, we can't be afraid to take the calculated risk. The worst risk of all is not taking any chances.

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