AtD, as the wheel turns, turns, turns

[Michael Bailey]

oh, and yes, Webb referring to his family as the "whole damn
poker hand" segueing into Kit's dream where the paterfamilias
is actually working on such a hand, transmuted by dream-logic
into a mathematical array

indeed, the study of probability has been greatly encouraged
by the practice of gambling over the years

and in the Heechee Books (I think) weren't the Pearson's
Puppeteers engaging in a long breeding experiment with
the human race, selecting for "luck" which they had found
to be a heritable trait?