Poker is a fickle mistress. I think we can all agree on that. You can run hotter than the sun and quickly turn a $50 deposit into several thousand. Then, thinking you’ve got the game licked, you move up in limits, your luck turns bad and before you know it you’ve lost it all. That’s because poker is a game with a lot of mathematical variance, which means big swings in your results even if you’re a winning player.

There are, however, two ways to avoid this. First, you become a minor TV celebrity, where all you have to do is learn the basic rules of Hold’em and you’ll get bought into every big tournament going, risking none of your own money.