I have often talked about how we are “fighting the good fight” here at Poker Pro, and sometimes people ask me exactly what I mean by that. Yes, we are founded on the principle of promoting what is best for the game and its players, as well as providing an upscale vehicle for quality advertisers to get their messages to the public. To that end we often lash out against misguided laws, as well as the cheaters, angle shooters, colluders and the sleazeball losers who occupy the darker corners of the game.

But that usually isn’t what I mean by fighting the good fight. In poker, for those who love the game, it’s a fight to stay in action. For those trying to make a living at it, it’s a fight to stay alive. The fact that for everyone in the business – especially the pros whose poker skills are their only stock in trade – there is a fatalistic realization that there are forces outside your control in play as they try to earn their daily bread.

The good ones take the long view, because in the short view lies madness. But players love the life, and with that life often comes the risk of going broke, or at least not getting a weekly/monthly/yearly paycheck – not due to poor work, but due to a freak accident (ace on the river!). While if you really think hard on it this is true of everyone in their daily lives, poker players have it in spades, and the role of chance in our lives hits home for them on a daily basis. Staying both cheerful and fair and staying the course in the face of Lady Luck and all her whimsy is what fighting the good fight is all about.

What if you worked hard all week, did a great job, were very proud of your work, yet for some inexplicable reason when Friday afternoon rolled around you had no paycheck. And not just once. Week to week you are left wondering if there will be a paycheck on Friday. On other Fridays, you might find two checks, but you can detect no pattern, yet every week your bills are due just the same.

Among those who understand the life, this can only create camaraderie. You may be trying to take everyone’s money while at the green felt, but away from it you have to respect those who are in the trenches with you. The daily dependence on small edges, which can by so fickle in the short term, brings forth a smiling resignation in some, but a maniacal insanity in others without the mental fortitude to withstand “the swings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (apologies to Shakespeare).

Lady luck has caused many to overrate their skills, others to change a solid game into a bad one, still others to go mad from the uncertainty. Only the few have both the bankroll management skills and the poker skills – and the mental toughness – to stay the course over time. Because in the long run, Lady Luck has no power over a truly skilled player. All she really is long term is just a lame excuse for “poor players, who strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then are heard no more” (Macbeth). Eventually, luck evaporates into thin air like a ghost in a bad dream.

Standing up to all this, and doing it over time, that is fighting the good fight, and we’re all in it together. And if you die at the table (as Hall of Famer Jack Straus did), doing what you love, and you have even one chip left, well then you have fought the good fight – and won.