The Biggest Bluff How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win

That episode was called How to Make Your Own Luck. The author was Maria Konnikova, a PhD psychologist who became a professional poker player in order to learn more about decision making and luck. Her book is called The Biggest Bluff.

The Biggest Bluff is Konnikova's third book. The others are called Mastermind, How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, and The Confidence Game, which is about con artists.

The deeper I went into poker, the better of a metaphor for life I realized it was, and the stronger of a tool I realized it was to address so many of the psychological questions that had been percolating in my head for years.

It's not the people who hold the best cards, it's the people who convince everyone else, who are the most confident.

This started out as something of a stunt. I was looking for a way to a stunt. I was looking for a way to look and this seemed like a good idea. And I was like, bam, this is going to sell.

It became a different book. It became a different project. It became a passion of mine.

This question arose when I was reading Maria Kanakova's new book, The Biggest Bluff.

And this book is about her quest to become a professional poker player starting from scratch.

This question arose when I was reading Maria Kanakova's new book, The Biggest Bluff.

So Maria, like you, has a PhD in psychology but she's not an academic. She's a writer and this book is about her quest to become a professional poker player starting from scratch.

And really what Maria is wrestling with throughout that book is the relationship between luck and skill.

This question arose when I was reading Maria Konnikova's new book, The Biggest Bluff. So Maria, like you, has a PhD in psychology, but she's not an academic. She's a writer. And this book is about her quest to become a professional poker player, starting from scratch.

And really what Maria is wrestling with throughout that book is the relationship between luck and skill.

So here's the passage that made me think of you: There's an idea in psychology, she writes, first introduced by Julian Roeder in 1966 called the locus of control.

I love this book, I love this conversation and I know you will too.

I recommend everybody grab it the links in the show notes I read the whole thing and I plowed through it and it was really a pleasure to read.

You're going to enjoy listening to or reading it and if you do go and grab this book please do use our website links it helps support the show but you'll enjoy this read even if you don't care about poker you don't care about gambling.

I've known you for several years so you know what I mean when I say that is kind of ridiculous right no I mean it's not kind of ridiculous I think that is ridiculous it's absolutely ridiculous like what in the world is.

It's like saying you know I want to learn a little bit about soccer for this book oh I'm just gonna go work with Cristiano Ronaldo and oh Manchester United wants me to play for them because I got good.

I love this book, I love this conversation and I know you will too.

I'd recommend everybody grab it the links in the show notes I read the whole thing and I plowed through it and it was really a pleasure to read.

You're going to enjoy listening to or reading it and if you do go and grab this book please do use our website links it helps support the show but you'll enjoy this read even if you don't care about poker you don't care about gambling.

According to one study that several economists ran of hundreds of thousands of hands that they analyzed in online poker the best hand won 12% of the time.

That means the best player won 88% of the time and over two thirds of the time the hand didn't even go to show down which means that someone won without ever having to show their cards.

I love this book, I love this conversation and I know you will too.

I read the whole thing and I plowed through it and it was really a pleasure to read so thank you so much for coming on the show today Maria.

I recommend everybody grab it the links in the show notes.

you're going to enjoy listening to or reading it and if you do go and grab this book please do use our website links it helps support the show but you'll enjoy this read even if you don't care about poker you don't care about gambling.

I loved this book also one of the things that we talked about offline after the show was that venting and complaining about luck or bad luck as we mentioned on the show it actually damages your social relationships.

But what if I told you that the key to handling these tough decisions may be a game of poker?

She says that life is like a game of poker because they are both full of unknowns, probabilities and incomplete information. And yet in both situations, we are still forced to make a move.

One of the things that you wrote in your book is the best way to understand uncertainty is to bet on it.