They spend the other half carefully balancing a lucky rabbit's foot on top of their chips. I once made the terrible faux pas of saying the word 'seven' near a dice table, and the whole room fell silent in horror. But dice is a pure gambling game, so you might as well believe in magic breath and bad words as anything else. Poker, meanwhile, is fighting a daily battle against moralists and law-makers to prove itself as skilled as snooker, far above casino table games but coincidentally found nearby. They embrace the colour red or avoid the colour green, squeeze lucky coins or wear particular shoes.
Some players dismiss their superstitions as simply 'habits'.
The legendary Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson once said, 'I don't eat peanuts at the card table. This is particularly ironic given the rumours coming out of Vegas at the moment, which would have us believe that not only does Doyle Brunson not rely on luck, he doesn't rely entirely on skill either. And the money changing hands ain't peanuts either. For my part, I'm superstitious about a particular HoldEm hand. There are two weakish cards in the deck which most players will throw away, but if I find them I always raise.