Stephen Potter Quotes

Stephen Potter presents clever, playful advice on out-smarting others without cheating.

18 quotes

The theory and practice of gamesmanship; or, The art of winning games without actually cheating.

#1
There are those who believe that the sole duty of the poker gamesman is to build up his reputation for impenetrability and toughness by suggesting that he last played poker by the light of a moon made more brilliant by the snows of the Yukon, and that his opponents were two white slave traffickers, a ticket-of-leave man and a deserter from the Foreign Legion. To me this is ridiculously far-fetched, but I do believe that a trace of American accent - West Coast - casts a small shadow of apprehension over the minds of English players.

#2
In our small chess community in Marylebone it would be mock modesty on my part to deny that I have built up for myself a considerable name without ever actually having won a single game. Even the best players are sometimes beaten, and that is precisely what happens to me.

#3
How to be one up - how to make the other man feel that something has gone wrong, however slightly.

#4
'Yes, but not in the South', with slight adjustments, will do for any argument about any place, if not about any person.

#5
A good general rule is to state that the bouquet is better than the taste, and vice versa.

#6
Talk of the 'imperial decay' of your invalid port. 'Its gracious withdrawal from perfection, keeping a hint of former majesty withal, as it hovers between oblivion and the divine Untergang of infinite recession.'

#7
Just as there are O.K.-words in conversationship so there are O.K.-people to mention in Newstatesmanship.
Make friends with your caddie and the game will make friends with you.
Cogg would suddenly stand stock still. "Listen," he would say. Some feeble quack would be heard from the willow beyond the pond. "That's an easy one to tell. The frog-pippit." Then he would add, As a safety measure, "As I believe they call it in these parts."
Women are quite unlike men. Women have higher voices, longer hair, smaller waistlines, daintier feet and prettier hands. They also invariably have the upper hand.
Remember the basic rule. Make friends with your caddie and the game will make friends with you. How true this is. It is easy to arrange that your guest opponent shall be deceived in to undertipping his caddie at the end of the morning round, so that the news gets round among the club employees that your opponent is a no good, and the boys will gang up against him.
In lawn tennis mixed, the basic chivalry move is to pretend to serve less fiercely to the woman than to the man. This is particularly useful if your first service tends to be out in any case.
Your function as a critic is to show that it is really you yourself who should have written the book, if you had had the time, and since you hadn't you are glad that someone else had, although obviously it might have been done better.
Each of us can, by ploy or gambit, most naturally gain the advantage.
Never say the number because it suggest that you are unable to pronounce the name of the wine you are ordering.
If your friend says of some picture, Yes, but what does it mean? ask him, what his carpet means or the circular patterns on his shoes
In a general way, we try to anticipate some of your questions so that I can respond 'no comment' with some degree of knowledge