poker-players-from-the-united-states

"It doesn't matter what their social or economic background is — it's very cheap to play, and you can get good just by practicing. Kids from rural areas can play kids from private schools. It develops confidence and the ability to work with logic."

"With my first Twitch stream, like 60% of it was just people trying to flirt with me and chat, or people just commenting on my appearance the entire time. They didn't care about the game play at all."

"Women in chess is not something very common. It has taken very long to get to the point where we're starting to change the stereotype that women are not genetically inferior to men at playing chess."

"The growth of chess has been so healthy on Twitch, and it's one of those games that is never going to die out. Chess has really survived the age of time. So I think it's gonna survive on Twitch as well."

"Sometimes it's the people who are your closest friends that think females are genetically worse at chess. I've often heard comments like, 'you're playing the girl, it's an easy win.' It gets in the back of your head when you've heard it for so long, and it messes with your sense of confidence. Maybe you start doubting yourself a little bit more, but you just try to keep fighting those thoughts."

"It's crazy to me to have this kind of support and this kind of viewership online for chess. Chess has always been a passion of mine, but it was never something that was popular. It was never something I would have imagined would have grown to what it is today."

"The successful funds in any given year are mostly lucky; they have a good roll of the dice. There is general agreement among researchers that nearly all stock pickers, whether they know it or not— and few of them do— are playing a game of chance."

"When it comes to learning, Triumph is the real foe; it’s Disaster that’s your teacher. It’s Disaster that brings objectivity. It’s Disaster that’s the antidote to that greatest of delusions, overconfidence. And ultimately, both Triumph and Disaster are impostors. They are results that are subject to chance. One of them just happens to be a better teaching tool than the other."

"Your likelihood of slipping in a shower is orders of magnitude larger than your likelihood of being in a terrorist attack— but just try convincing someone of that, especially if they knew someone who died in the Twin Towers."

"I suppose I am called a red-handed murderer, which I deny. That I have killed men I admit, but never unless in absolute self-defense, or in the performance of an official duty. I never, in my life, took any mean advantage of an enemy."

""Wild Bill" was a strange character, just the one which a novelist might gloat over. Me was a Plainsman in every sense of the word, yet unlike any other of his class. In person he was about six feet one in height, straight as the straightest of the warriors whose implacable foe he was; broad shoulders, well-formed chest and limbs, and a face strikingly handsome; a sharp, clear, blue eye, which stared you straight in the face when in conversation; a finely-shaped nose, inclined to be aquiline; a well-turned mouth, with lips only partially concealed by a handsome moustache. His hair and complexion were those of the perfect blond. The former was worn in uncut ringlets falling carelessly over his powerfully formed shoulders. Add to this figure a costume blending the immaculate neatness of the dandy with the extravagant taste and style of the frontiersman, and you have Wild Bill, then as now the most famous scout on the Plains. Whether on foot or on horseback, he was one of the most perfect types of physical manhood I ever saw. Of his courage there could be no question; it had been brought to the test on too many occasions to admit of a doubt. His skill in the use of the rifle and pistol was unerring; while his deportment was exactly the opposite of what might be expected from a man of his surroundings. It was entirely free from all bluster or bravado. He seldom spoke of himself unless requested to do so. His conversation, strange to say, never bordered either on the vulgar or blasphemous. His influence among the frontiersmen was unbounded, his word was law; and many are the personal quarrels and disturbances which he has checked among his comrades by his simple announcement that "this has gone far enough," if need be followed by the ominous warning that when persisted in or renewed the quarreller "must settle it with me." "Wild Bill" is anything but a quarrelsome man; yet no one but himself can enumerate the many conflicts in which he has been engaged, and which have almost invariably resulted in the death of his adversary. I have a personal knowledge of at least half a dozen men whom he has at various times killed, one of these being at the time a member of my command. Others have been severely wounded, yet he always escapes unhurt. On the Plains every man openly carries his belt with its invariable appendages, knife and revolver, often two of the latter. Wild Bill always carried two handsome ivory-handled revolvers of the large size; he was never seen without them. Where this is the common custom, brawls or personal difficulties are seldom if ever settled by blows. The quarrel is not from a word to a blow, but from a word to the revolver, and he who can draw and fire first is the best man. No civil law reaches him; none is applied for. In fact there is no law recognized beyond the frontier but that of "might makes right." Should death result from the quarrel, as it usually does, no coroner’s jury is impanelled to learn the cause of death, and the survivor is not arrested. But instead of these old-fashioned proceedings, a meeting of citizens takes place, the survivor is requested to be present when the circumstances of the homicide are inquired into, and the unfailing verdict of "justifiable," "self-defence," etc., is pronounced, and the law stands vindicated."

"I hardly know where to begin. Pretty near all these stories are true. I was at it all the war. That affair of my swimming the river took place on that long scout of mine when I was with the rebels five months, when I was sent by General Curtis to Price’s army. Things had come pretty close at that time, and it wasn’t safe to go straight inter their lines. Everybody was suspected who came from these parts. So I started off and went way up to Kansas City. I bought a horse there and struck out onto the plains, and then went down through Southern Kansas into Arkansas. I knew a rebel named Barnes, who was killed at Pea Ridge. He was from near Austin in Texas. So I called myself his brother and enlisted in a regiment of mounted rangers. General Price was just then getting ready for a raid into Missouri. It was sometime before we got into the campaign, and it was mighty hard work for me. The men of our regiment were awful. They didn’t mind killing a man no more than a hog. The officers had no command over them. They were afraid of their own men, and let them do what they liked; so they would rob and sometimes murder their own people. It was right hard for me to keep up with them, and not do as they did. I never let on that I was a good shot. I kept that back for big occasions; but ef you’d heard me swear and cuss the blue-bellies, you’d a-thought me one of the wickedest of the whole crew. So it went on until we came near Curtis’s army. Bime-by they were on one side Sandy River and we were on t’other. All the time I had been getting information until I knew every regiment and its strength; how much cavalry there was, and how many guns the artillery had. You see ’twas time for me to go, but it wasn’t easy to git out, for the river was close picketed on both sides. One day when I was on picket our men and the rebels got talking and cussin each other, as you know they used to do. After a while one of the Union men offered to exchange some coffee for tobacco. So we went out onto a little island which was neutral ground like. The minute I saw the other party, who belonged to the Missouri cavalry, we recognized each other. I was awful afraid they’d let on. So I blurted out: "Now, Yanks, let’s see yer coffee — no burnt beans, mind yer — but the genuine stuff. We know the real article if we is Texans." The boys kept mum, and we separated. Half an hour afterward General Curtis knew I was with the rebs. But how to git across the river was what stumped me. After that, when I was on picket, I didn’t trouble myself about being shot. I used to fire at our boys, and they’d bang away at me, each of us taking good care to shoot wide. But how to git over the river was the bother. At last, after thinking a heap about it, I came to the conclusion that I always did, that the boldest plan is the best and safest."

"If you spend hours and hours of your life acquiring money and then die without spending all of that money, then you’ve needlessly wasted too many precious hours of your life. There is just no way to get those hours back. If you die with $1 million left, that’s $1 million of experiences you didn’t have. And if you die with $50,000 left, well, that’s $50,000 of experiences you didn’t have. No way is that optimal."

"Remember: In the end, the business of life is the acquisition of memories."

"But I still ask you: Why wait until your health and life energy have begun to wane? Rather than just focusing on saving up for a big pot full of money that you will most likely not be able to spend in your lifetime, live your life to the fullest now: Chase memorable life experiences, give money to your kids when they can best use it, donate money to charity while you’re still alive. That’s the way to live life."

"Once you’ve finally determined your net worth peak, you must start spending down, or decumulating. This means you will be spending more in your real golden years, when you are in reasonably good shape in both health and wealth—between 45 and 60—than people usually do, because most people who save money for the future save for too late in life."

"When we’re infants, we get very little enjoyment out of money. Babies are expensive to take care of, true, but it’s not like they get a lot of enjoyment from spending money. When you’re a baby, there’s no greater happiness than Mom and the crib. In a way, the amount of utility that babies get from money is very similar to what the elderly get. Money is nearly worthless at the very beginning and the very end of life."

"Limit poker is a science, and these kids are scientists. But no-limit is an art. In limit you're shooting at a target. In no-limit the target comes alive and shoots back at you."

"I always enjoyed horror, both as a kid and as a young man. Then when I was doing stunts in horror movies and was lucky enough to get the role as Jason the first time then that’s when everything changed. Once you get known in horror then every small horror film wants you to be in their movie because your name is known in the horror genre and that helps sell the movie. Very often, if they’re smart, they will offer you different kind of roles which I personally love. When somebody offers me something that I’ve never done before, that’s what I’m looking for."

"I always wanted to be a working stunt person and that’s all I anticipated doing, never thinking that I would do any kind of acting because i have never been trained in any way and certainly never thinking anyone would ever want me to sign an autograph for them! (laughs) Of course everything changed the first time I played Jason. All of a sudden it was completely different – it was fantastic, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike it but I just never expected it. I think I tend to appreciate my situation and appreciate the fans sometimes more than other people might because I know without the horror fans I wouldn’t be known as I am now. I attribute all that notoriety to the fans and that’s why I try to be as accommodating and friendly to them as I can."

"There are those of you who may choose to live in a dream world where the glass is half full, but if you do, you're an imbecile. The glass will never be half full. Nor full ever again. It's simply on its way to empty. It's half empty, three-quarters empty, then totally fucking empty."

"I don't think we're politically correct when we're private. I don't know what politically correct means. I'm just watching this thing going down in Baltimore, all the officers charged in the Freddie Gray death and I just think it's wonderful and sad at the time because this has been happening since the beginning of time in America and if it wasn't for cell phones these cops would be getting off."

"As a side note, I'd like to propose that aim is more mathematical than we tend to acknowledge. For me, it's: smallish dick ÷ long torso = distance to bowl."

"The harsh reality is that my sequestered twins are advancing in the opposite direction of my earhair. Mother Nature has me by the balls, literally. They have actually started a race with my ex-wife's tits. And she will prevail, because she will get hers "done" as I continue to disappear into the abyss of recycled toilet brine. In the end, gravity always wins, people. Remember: when you have a heart attack, you fall down, not up.Middle age is upon me, and I don't remember this shit being in the brochure. I have six different doctors on speed dial, and the font size on my smartphone is at ten with a maximum setting of twelve. That doesn't give me much wiggle room for the golden years."

"[M]iddle age is the window to your eventual end…"

"As stated earlier, I am a pessimistic optimist, or what I like to call a "pissed-omist." This is a person who has lived long enough to know not to expect much from most people or life in general, but still allows him- or herself the hope that somewhere under all the horseshit there may possibly be a pony."

"I was such a large sperm, my mother went into labor during conception."

"When I hit the six-foot mark at thirteen, I noticed the majority of the population was in denial with regard to my athletic potential. The townspeople refused to believe that I couldn't play ball."

"The goons needed some comic relief, and I needed an audience. I had found my niche."

"Pride can make you look like a dick if you're not careful."

"At first I got lots of discouragement from friends and stranger who are loser! You know what these people kept telling me? They kept saying, 'Well Tom Vu, you a crazy nut, here you are, a poor immigrant, poor minority, speak no English, no contact, on and on, and you trying to be rich in America! You crazy, man! Look at people out there! They smarter than you are, they not even rich! Who are you to try?' And you know what? I have to keep telling these people every time, I kept saying, 'You are loser! Get out of my way! I make it somehow!'"

"My first goal is to create an attractive, interactive website that forms a community of chess lovers. I want to keep it light and keep people coming back ⎯ heavy on photos, humor, and simple chess tactics and strategies. I want to promote our top players to increase their visibility and their chances to make a living at chess."

"Tournament chess is not relaxing. It's stressful, even if you win."

"I’m only interested in playing competitively if there’s serious money on the line. I love playing, but at this point I need a concrete incentive to devote the time necessary to make that happen. If chess was my only love, I’d do it in spite of the financial hurdles. But because I love so many other things, writing and editing in particular, it makes sense to me to focus on that now."

"The biggest challenge in a simul is finding the right shoes! I want to look good in front of fifty people, but really sneakers are the best bet. I try to finish a simul as quickly as possible and don’t worry if I lose a game or two along the way. It becomes a manic workout. I’m literally running around playing moves as fast as my fingers and legs will go. My brain usually follows. The simul is a great chess illusion. It makes the simul-giver seem like a genius, when really they’re just speaking their language. Chessplayers rely so heavily on instincts developed from years of training and practice. Chess is not all about thinking, there’s a lot of feeling involved."

"I love chess, but it's the height of decadence."

"Most chess books only sell a few thousand copies, and a book titled something like “Women in Chess” would sell even fewer. The idea with this title was to spread the book outside the competitive chess world. I’m interested in attracting readers who love chess but play only casually, and feminists interested in male dominated fields."

"If you ever bought a dog what did you buy? You bought a fucking puppy. You don't buy a 13-year-old German shepherd. You buy a nice young puppy - what are you crazy?"

"I think James Wood is a great actor, despite the fact that he’s a Republican, you know, psychopath… [and] was hitting on me as a teenager, in full monster makeup."

"James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once. He wanted to take us to Vegas. "I'm 16" I said. "Even better" he said."

"I can't believe I ever went out with him. That's one of those relationships you look back on and say, "What was I doing?""

"I will be suing the Democratic National Committee, no matter what. Whether I win or lose, I am going to stand up for the rights of every American, not a so-called celebrity, I’m not a celebrity anymore. I’m hardly recognizable anymore because my career has been destroyed by these very people. And I will sue and I’m hoping other people will sue. And if it turns out there are a lot of us on this list where the DNC targeted us, and I will quote the immortal words of Joseph Wells when he attacked Joe McCarthy for the enemy’s list he had, at long last sir, have you no shame? President Biden, all of your Stasi little operatives in the DNC who have targeted American citizens, have you, Mr. President, have all of you at last, no shame?"

"Scratch a liberal, and you will find a fascist every time."

"He is a Muslim. He can deny it, his apologists in the media can refute it, and his enablers can promote a narrative that he is a Christian. It’s a pack of lies. Obama is a Muslim and that is where his allegiance lies. Always has. Always will."

"Susan Sarandon ruined the world when she had a kid when she was, like, fucking 96 years old. Now, every actress wants to wait to have a kid at 90. I said to Heather, “How do you know you’ll get the same attention from men when you’re that age?” She was like, “Oh, you just like me for my blonde hair, my blue eyes and my big tits?” There was too long a pause before I answered, “Well…” and she just stormed out."

"People who get what they want are often surprised when they also get what they deserve."

"Asians are ruthless in war. Ask any American who fought in WWII, in Korea, or in Vietnam. Could China have engineered this virus (high contagion/low lethality) as a warning to President Trump not to interfere with the cozy globalist trade deals arranged by Clinton and Obama?"

"#Antifa is merely a pawn in the plan engineered by Soros and the Deep State."

"Let’s be clear. Our problem today is not black versus white. Our problem today is George Soros versus America."

"The degree to which this one Nazi collaborator has undermined the stability of Western democracies is virtually incalculable. He is satanic."