THE TOP WINNING HAND

THREE CLUBS AND TWO DIAMONDS CONSTITUTE A GAMBONI, THE TOP
WINNING HAND IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT.

Joe is really angry, but after all, rules are rules, so he continues to play with what is left of his

holdings. About an hour later, he draws three clubs and two diamonds ... a Gamboni! He bets
everything, and on the final round of betting with the same leather- faced farmer, he has to
throw in his solid gold Rolex to make the call. The farmer turns over his cards, a queen-high
spade flush. Joe turns over his Gamboni and starts to rake in the pot.
“Hold it there, fella,” says the farmer, his grin cutting deep lines in his cheeks.
“But I got a Gamboni!” cries an exasperated Joe.
“Sure ‘enough, but look at the sign over there,” and he points over Joe’s left shoulder.

Joe looks:

ONLY ONE GAMBONI WILL BE PERMITTED PER NIGHT IN THIS
ESTABLISHMENT.

Joe, broke but thankful for the invention of credit cards, leaves the barn with dung on his
shoes, and the leather-faced farmer drives his tractor home feeling the weight of a solid gold
Rolex on his wrist.

So the secret of the Gamboni is this: if you want to win, you’ve got to know the rules; and
also, you can’t win if you’re not at the table.”

Reprinted by permission of J. Wiley & Sons.
Excerpts from Trader Vic - Methods of a Wall Street Master. See enclosed reading list.

Any gambler will tell you that to make money you need to keep the odds in your favour, and
the same is true in trading, there are no certainties, only probabilities. To win, you need to
speculate when the odds are in your favour, so succeed you need to accurately predict and
play the odds. You need to know how to place your bets to maximise your profits and keep
your losses small. To do this you need a disciplined trading plan. The following rules, if
followed, will help you keep the odds in your favour, know and follow the rules and you will
succeed. If you break any of the rules you will end up losing money.

“Luck, continued the gambler reflectively, is a might queer thing. All you know about it is
it’s bound to change, and it’s finding out when it’s going to change that makes you.”
Berte Harte - The Outcasts Of Poker Flat
We stated earlier that when we trade we confront an unstructured environment and, to operate
effectively, we need to create a structure for ourselves. The reason we need rules is we need
to combat the destructive emotions referred to earlier and give us discipline. Assuming you
have educated yourself and developed a trading method, you will now need to execute it with
confidence, entering and exiting trades in a consistent manner. Without rules your emotions
will dictate your decisions and lead you to financial disaster.