[cferejohn]

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ummm, i have taken stats classes. And i'll put my math background and ability up against you in a second..you are choosing the wrong guy here.

Yes, no doubt, varkonyi had almost impossible amount of luck.
I believe the biggest hand of the tourney for him was the misplay by Shipley who RR with AJ (which was fine) then called the allin knowing it was a terrible play.
That put varkonyi in complete command.

So keep hoping to get lucky in tourneys..i'm sure that'll do great for you.
Playing with skill is doing great for me.

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Umm, I think what SossMan is saying is that expecting luck to balance out over "several hundred hands" (i.e. 1 tournament) is not realistic. In fact, to truly "balance out" all the luck may not be acheivable in a tournament player's lifetime, thus the statment that "there is a lot of luck in NL tournaments" is really pretty true. He is definitely not a player who relies on luck, but he certainly is not surprised by it (neither, I suspect, are you, just annoyed by it).