• to chance one's arm, to take one's chance, to try one's luck
• to offer sy one's felicitations, to wish sy good speed
• to take time by the forelock
• catastrophic, fey, hapless, luckless, misadventurous, miserable, sad, star-crossed, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, woeful, wretched
• ill, miserably, woefully, wretchedly