Believe it or not, poker players are very superstitious. Some players refuse to change their socks, underwear, or any other garment you can think of throughout the course of a tournament. After all, why disturb karma, even if it means smelling a little bit? It’s similar to baseball, where players will often hop over the first base line or pitchers will approach the mound in the same way every time. Let’s review some of the more commonly accepted rituals in America’s other pastime, poker.

When you’re all in, stand up. You’re closer to the poker gods if you’re on your feet. It doesn’t matter whether you’re seated in a major tournament or plopped down at your own home game. When you’re all in, you have to stand up. Whether it’s to channel adrenaline or assert a position of dominance, standing up if your tournament life is at risk is a given. I’ve even seen online poker players stand up when they’re all in on Party Poker, holding their laptops in front of them in the process.

When players are all in, it’s customary for them to put their hands behind their head, as if they just finished running a marathon. Whether a player takes their hat and sunglasses off is up to them, but looking worried even if they’re a 10:1 favorite is typical. I’ve seen players go all in with A-K and get called by A-Q, making them a dominant favorite. You would never have known that by the look on their faces. Poker players are never secure. After all, they’ve suffered enough bad beats to know when another one may be lurking.

If you want a card to come, yell “One time!” — This is the quintessential phrase that you’ll hear shouted throughout a poker room dozens of time during the course of one tournament. I remember seeing an edition of “The Nuts” on the World Series of Poker broadcast about its use. Maybe the poker gods respond to this, but if the only card in the deck that will win a hand for you is the case five, then yell “One time” as loud as you possibly can (while standing up of course) and it will probably come. I have no idea where the original use of “One time” came from, but it was pure genius.

Intricate chip stack designs mean you’re experienced. From being at so many poker events, I can tell you from walking around the room that the variety of chip stack designs is truly impressive. From towering stacks that reach three to four feet in the air to the more traditional “Victory” design, players do not hold back when it comes to creating the perfect structure. I’ve often wondered what the elaborate structures mean. Does it just mean that someone is bored? Or does it mean that they’ve been in so many tournaments and therefore understand how the perfect stack should look? This debate may rage on in the poker world for quite some time.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Don’t be afraid to bow to superstitions. If you’ve never lost a tournament when wearing two left shoes, then keep wearing two left shoes. If you’ve never suffered a bad beat with a pair of boxer-briefs on, then go out to Wal-Mart and buy out their inventory. A lot of poker players are ashamed of keeping to such ridiculous traditions. To me, it’s extremely healthy. Some common ones include wearing the same brand of sunglasses, a lucky hat, or even bringing along family pictures, a la Jerry Yang (who wore Full Tilt Poker gear) during his World Series of Poker Main Event run in 2007. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable at the table, keep doing it.