Luck can seem synonymous with randomness. To call someone lucky is usually to deny the relevance of their hard work or talent. As Richard Wiseman, the Professor of Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom, puts it, lucky people “appear to have an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time and enjoy more than their fair share of lucky breaks.”
What do these people have that the rest of us don’t? It turns out “ability” is the key word here. Beyond their level of privilege or the circumstances they were born into, the luckiest people may have a specific set of skills that bring chance opportunities their way. Somehow, they’ve learned ways to turn life’s odds in their favor.
Oh, I think a case could be made for luck AND skill, Maya. The ability to read the table is skill; the good fortune of hole cards with potential is luck.
If you get good cards, that’s luck. What you do with them is skill. If someone else beats you with weaker cards that’s luck. You will find both luck and skill at the tables. But skill isn’t responsible for luck. You don’t get lucky because you’re skilled. Luck and skill are 2 separate entities.
