But if practicalities were the only motive, why do players, both recreational and pro, bring such elaborate card protectors to the tables? In this case, a simple chip or coin does the job. Placed over your hole cards, they prevent the dealer from accidentally mucking your hand if they think you’ve folded.

Here are the most common poker superstitions still present at the tables.Ĭard protectors serve a practical purpose. While today’s modern crusher will claim they’re not superstitious in the slightest, dig a little deeper and you might see some peculiar behavior. They spend the other half carefully balancing a lucky rabbit’s foot on top of their chips.” They spend half their lives patiently explaining that poker is not ‘gambling’ like roulette or the Lottery: it is a game of skill, judgement, perspicacity, and wisdom. Victoria Coren Mitchell, the European Poker Tour’s first two-time champion, once wrote: “It is odd that poker players are quite so superstitious as they are.

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