Quotes from WSOP bracelet winners to start off the week

Added: January 18, 2021

Many poker players from around the world aspire to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. This bracelet itself inspires players to play the game with their friends or even turn this hobby into a profession by making poker their job.

And who better to learn from than seven players who have each won their own WSOP bracelets, the renowned gold trinkets that reflect your arrival as a player to be reckoned with?

Here are some of the best poker quotes to give you the type of inspiration you need to start off this week:

1. “Fold and live to fold again.”

Said by none other than Stu Ungar, who won the 1980, 1981 and 1997 World Series of Poker Main Events. So if ‘The Kid’ says that folding is simply a path to folding again, then consider our cards discredited. If the man was still around today, Stu Ungar would probably still be winning, and winning big. His words are still relevant today and gibe hope to many players.

2. “Hold’em is to stud what chess is to checkers.”

Johnny Moss was another man who acquired three WSOP Main Events, with ‘The Grand Old Man of Poker’ winning, which would go on to become the world’s biggest poker tournament in 1970, 1971 and 1974. It’s a nifty comparison, with the complexity of Texas hold’em given due respect by one of the founding fathers of the modern game a long while before it would attain fame compared to other poker variants, including stud.

3. “If I lose, I don’t give a damn about the money, but I just hate the embarrassment of being beaten.”

Jack ‘Treetop’ Straus won the WSOP Main Event from ‘a chip and a chair’, so if anyone knows about the real feelings of a poker player, it’s definitely him. Straus also had an incredible record in heads-up poker, becoming an early specialist in this area long before others prioritised the most vital aspect of winning big.

4. “I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a champion and make a sucker out of him.”

Amarillo ‘Slim’ Preston was never one to be afraid to talk up his chances of beating anybody. He won four WSOP bracelets, the best of which being the 1972 WSOP Main Event. Amarillo Slim was a poker legend and won bracelets across three whole decades of the game.

5. “Losing is like smoking. It’s habit forming.”

This was said by Puggy Pearson, who also won four WSOP bracelets and took the Main Event trophy exactly one year after Amarillo Slim. Inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1987, Pearson is still looked back on fondly until this day by players since his love for the game was so genuine and real. His four bracelets were acquired between 1971-1973. Travelling across the country by RV, Pearson’s emblazoned this legend on the side of the vehicle: ‘I’ll play any man from any land any game he can name for any amount I can count, provided I like it.’

6. “Those chips are your weapons, your arsenal. It you’re afraid to use them, don’t play.”

Doyle Brunson’s words on the power of the poker chip are still relevant to this day, and while Brunson himself stopped playing WSOP tournaments in 2018, mainly due to health issues, his feelings resonate among poker players, both young and old, until this very day. Brunson has never been scared to use the chips to build his bankroll and has made alleged millions playing the game he loves. ‘Texas Dolly’ still plays cash games to this day, and he is 87 years old!

7. “All I did was eat, sleep, and breathe tournament poker and the results showed that.”

Daniel Negreanu has won six World Series of Poker bracelets, even though he has never attained the final table of the WSOP Main Event. His words show just how successful you can be when you focus your precious time on the game of poker, however, something ‘Kid Poker’ has done constantly in the latest years.

Whether you’re tackling online tournaments this week, playing at home game against your household members or merely practicing your skills for live tournaments that will resume soon, keep your head in the game and these words of inspiration close to you.

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