Fate can mean different things, the way I see it is that yes we control our own lives however there are elements of fate all around in a sense. For instance as rye lee mentioned with poker. Once the cards are shuffled, the cards you are dealt, and the cards that come down on the board (im talking about texas holdem here) are inevitable, people say "oh i got lucky to catch that card" etc but the card was always going to come from the moment the dealer has finished shuffling, there was no stopping it. However in the same sense with poker we have the side where you control your own life, why do so many people play poker for a living or are at least successful players? Are they simply the luckiest people on earth or something? Of course not, they are able to do this by controling what goes on around them, they've played allot of games and worked out the things that are going to give them the greastest chance of victory. Yes those inevitable cards will come from time to time, but if you play long enough and really focus you'll see that even with the inevitable "bad luck" that will come, you can still control your situation to be a profitable one if you make the effort and the right choices, you make the choice to raise or fold, no-one else.

Ahh poker ranting, good fun.

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"My toughest opponent is always myself"
Musterion's Journal