I have recently read Professor Richard Wiseman’s book The Luck Factor in which he studies a sample of thousands of people who declared themselves either lucky or unlucky to see what they had in common. However, while we have no control over blind luck, it is hard to refute that we can put ourselves in better positions to receive good fortune. In poker we try to resist the luck aspect of the game because the skill element is within our control. Since looking at Dr Austin’s work I have been fascinated by the scientific literature on luck. The 4th type, the ‘luck that finds you’, comes when unique opportunities come our way because we have established ourselves as skilled in a particular area. 'Observed luck' is the ability to spot opportunities others cannot because of a knowledge edge we have. 'Persistence luck' is the good fortune that comes when we constantly take shots at lofty goals. One of them, 'blind luck', we have no control over, the three other types we do.

Earlier this year I wrote about the four types of luck identified by Dr James Austin.