[quote name='Four Aces' date='18 December 2005 - 19:47']
[quote name='Pussfeller' date='18 December 2005 - 13:12']...
Bond's life is more about bluff and bluster than luck.
[/quote]
Now that is totally wrong. He always has luck on his side or he would have died. Every time he is cornered at gunpoint it is luck that gets him out. It's luck that gets Bond out of trouble with Le chiffre too. Look check this out from the book and see Bond has never been a bluff player and only gambles on bets close to even chances where luck is a 50:50 chance. Poker is not a Bondian game.
"He has luck. His nerves seem good."
'Well, best of luck.' (M said)
'Thank you, sir,' said Bond and went to the door.
She smiled with the first hint of conspiracy she had shown. 'I would like
to very much,' she said, 'and then perhaps you would chaperon me to the
Casino where Monsieur Mathis tells me you are very much at home. Perhaps I
will bring you luck.'
'[censuré], but you were lucky,' he said when Bond had finished.
"Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had
to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it
had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a
faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to
mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved
and not feared. Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally
ravaged, never pandered to or pursued. But he was honest enough to admit
that he had never yet been made to suffer by cards or by women."
"to admit
One day,
and he accepted the fact he would be brought to his knees by love or by
luck."
"This piece of luck cheered him
further and, accepting the thirty as a finger-post to the last dozen, he
decided to back the first and last dozens until he had lost twice. Ten
throws later the middle dozen came up twice, costing him four hundred
thousand francs but he rose from the table one million francs to the good. "
" 'I only bet on even
chances, or as near them as I can get."
"The game continued uneventfully, but with a slight bias against the bank.
The third coup is the 'sound barrier' at chemin-de-fer and baccarat. Your
luck can defeat the first and second tests, but when the third deal comes
along it most often spells disaster. "
"Bond sat silent, frozen with defeat. He opened his wide black case and took
out a cigarette. He snapped open the tiny jaws of the Ronson and lit the
cigarette and put the lighter back on the table. He took a deep lungful of
smoke and expelled it between his teeth with a faint hiss.
What now? Back to the hotel and bed, avoiding the commiserating eyes of
Mathis and Leiter and Vesper. Back to the telephone call to London, and
then tomorrow the plane home, the taxi up to Regent's Park, the walk up the
stairs and along the corridor, and M's cold face across the table, his
forced sympathy, his 'better luck next time' and, of course, there couldn't
be one, not another chance like this. "
"Whether
he won or lost, it would be a kick in the teeth to the luck which had been
given him. "
'It is indeed very sad,' said Bond. 'You also have been unlucky,' he
gestured to the proprietor's empty sleeve. 'I myself was very fortunate.'
