the cards beat all the players
obsolete All who would try to win against chance or fate will inevitably lose. You know that doing that could get you killed! You've been lucky so far, but the cards beat all the players.
the cards beat all the players
You can't win 'em all. A fatalistic phrase which tells us that destiny—in the form of a randomly shuffled deck of playing cards—has ultimately the upper hand, no matter how skillful a player might be.