Lucky works for me

I was musing some time back on the topic of luck, the fickle mistress of the bridge player: She comes when she pleases. Along of the side of luck.

My club game was going along, not very well at all. I had been sitting iddle for a while, and I was waiting for the cards that gave me an opportunity to raise our score.

Then came this hand. Not worth to give as a problem.  It is not partificularly difficut, though I guess our opponents did not think so at the time.

The play was

S5 S2 S9 ST

S4 S8 SK C2  (upside down attitude signal as it turned out)

For lack of a better plan

D7 4 6 9

C3 5 K A

And that was the end of the hand. I played DA and a D and W returned JC but  had to give me a major suit trick in the end.

Well I could not wait to see where the C9 was to tell you the truth.

So the morale of the story is: luck come in all sorts of shape, defensive errors, lucky lie of the cards... But you have to be there to collect it. And then being there, make sure you give it the opportunity.

Was it L-U-C-K ?

I have been watching the Spingold with much interest. A lot of interesting hands with a lot of opportunities to do the right things.

One hand in particular in the semi final seemed to illustrate the concept of luck as Luck Under Current Knowledge

All the other 3 tables all played in the 4H. At one table, East opened 1S, competed to 3S and defended 4H by North making 10. The two other tables were in 4H by South (after a 3S bid by East) and made their 12 tricks.
Clearly you could say that EW was very unlucky on this hand at this particular table.
But my question is:
If it was plain old luck, when did this bad/good luck start
Did E open a windown of opportunity and brought bad luck with the 3S bid and did NS capitalise on it by bidding a "lucky slam"
At the other table, was the 1S bid made by East a bit of L-U-C-K?
Any opinions?

Taking a detour along the side of luck

To talk about LUCK, the dreaded luck, the unfaithful mistress who seems to desert you when you wanted her most.

How many time have I barely stopped myself from saying.: “Mmmm, really did not have much luck this tournament! As if somehow, it would wash my sins away and redeem me as a good player who was just not lucky that day.

So, L-U-C-K - What is it?

Acronym for “Living Under Correct Knowledge

..

If you have the correct knowledge on how to do something, you will succeed. That’s what everyone call successful people lucky people. If you bake a cake without the right knowledge and burnt the cake, is it unlucky? If you take driving lessons before, apply your hard gained knowledge to drive your car and never knock it into a tree, are you lucky?

"Luck is where preparation and opportunity meet”

You have to be the right person at the right time in the right place and doing the right thing." You are doing something to make it possible for luck to be on your side. It is a matter of whom you are becoming.

"Luck is probability taken personally. It is the excitement of bad math.”Penn F. Jillette

Or according to the likes of Jean Paul Sartre or Sigmund Freud:

“Bad Luck is an escape from personal responsibility.”

...

"A belief in luck has more to do with a locus of control for events in one’s life and the subsequent escape from personal responsibility. According to this theory, one who ascribes their travails to "bad luck" will be found upon close examination to be living risky lifestyles."

Luck really is the life story of the postage stamp:

A stamp with an attitude that is. The postage stamp that sticks till it gets to the destination.

So no matter where we are, no matter how bad it is, no matter how frustrating it has been, we must stick to the end, although it can really very difficult to achieve, We don’t leave because things don't  look like they were going to be good. Because you must assume that the opportunity will arise. To stay is to practice the art of being lucky The advantage of staying put is that consistency will  pay off and if we have done the right amount and type of preparation, (a big if,  admitedly) success is inevitable. Albert Einstein said it correctly:; Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Even when you are doing the right thing, do it to till luck comes.