Famous (Often Amusing) Poker Quotes

We all have our heroes and people we look up to. Whether it be in “real life” or on the game floor, there are people we consider our role models. Poker is not an exception, and when we look up to people we watch their every move and look out for their every word. Just to lighten things up a bit, here are some quotes from famous – and not so famous – players. More than giving you a good time, these quotes may actually give you an insight into how the game is played too.

“Poker is generally reckoned to be America’s second most popular after-dark activity. Sex is good, they say, but poker lasts longer.”
– Alfred Alvarez

“I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a Champion and make a sucker off of him.”
– Amarillo Slim

“Poker is a game of people… It’s not the hand I hold, it’s the people that I play with.”
– Amarillo Slim

“In the absence of any mathematical explanation, one thing is for certain; if you engage in games of chance long enough, the experience is bound to affect the way you see God. Successfully draw to an inside straight three hands in a row, and you’ve got to be blessed. But if you’re the person drawn out on, the one whose trip aces just got snapped for the third time, you will go home feeling cursed.”
– Andy Bellin

“If you know poker, you know people; and if you know people, you got the whole dang world lined up in your sights.”
– Brett Maverick

“Poker reveals to the frank observer something else of importance – it will teach him about his own nature. Many bad players do not improve because they cannot bear self-knowledge.”
– David Mamet

“It’s hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Think about what it’s like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that’s the way it is at the poker table. If you don’t believe me, then you’re the lamb that’s going off to the slaughter.”
– Stu Ungar

“The strong point in poker is never to lose your temper, either with those you are playing with or, more particularly, with the cards. There is no sympathy in poker. Always keep cool. If you lose your head you will lose all your chips.”
– William J. Florence

“There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about poker. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of poker, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a flush. It is enough to make one ashamed of the species.”
– Mark Twain

And last, but not the least:

“There is more to poker than life.”
– Tom McEvoy

For more amusing and inspiring quotes like these, check out our Poker Quotes page…