Cover

Dedication

For Emily.

10 Rules for Living a Lucky Life

From the author of Get Lucky: A Player’s Guide to Poker and the star of Get Lucky TV!

1. Don’t take things personally.

2. Look for the upside.

3. Never show an unlucky hand.

4. Learn about people. Then learn about cards.

5. Put together a winning team.

6. You’ve got to answer the door when luck knocks.

7. Don’t chase a losing streak.

8. If your cards keep coming up bad, change the deck.

9. Surf the waves of fortune.

10. Avoid the negative.

1

Hey, Larry,

I know you’re really busy right now and will get back to me when you can. That’s what your housekeeper said when I called your house because you didn’t answer my texts or DMs. No problem, man. I get it, even though it’s kind of weird not to talk to you for so long. I’m not taking any of it personally. That’s the first Rule for Living a Lucky Life: Don’t Take Things Personally!

But I thought I might write to you about how it’s going here, so I don’t forget anything when we finally talk again. Don’t worry—I won’t actually send you a whole bunch of letters. That would be weird. But I might use them for notes when my mom and my sister and I move back to Vegas and everything goes back to normal.

Hey! Do you think letters like this would work for our Personal Writing assignments? I know we’re not allowed to take that course until seventh grade, but maybe this will help me get a head start.

The main thing I wanted to tell you is that it’s impossible to let people know you used to be cool, especially when you can’t tell them who you are. You can’t just walk up to them and say: Hello there! You may not know this, but at my old school, I had friends and some people thought I was funny. A couple of girls, such as Trelawny Johnson, even said I was handsome or whatever. Explaining former social success is not cool. It’s like a catch-23, or whatever that’s called.

As you know better than anyone, Lar, the coolest thing about me was always my dad, and my mom says we can’t mention him here. What good is having a dad who is a famous professional poker player who wrote Get Lucky, one of the best-selling poker books of all time, and who is also the star of Get Lucky TV if you can’t mention it? You know how it is since your mom is the head producer of Get Lucky TV, and we get to share in the glory together. Anyway, the point is that we’re using my mom’s last name until “things settle down.” Whatever that means.