The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
Our experiences trump everything else, but mostly, those experiences are incredibly skewed: they teach us, but they don’t teach us well.
Maria Konnikova • The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
I know all the places to go that will give us a more genuine Vegas experience. Here’s a cheat sheet. For sushi, Yui and Kabuto. For dinner close to the Rio, the Fat Greek, Peru Chicken, and Sazón. For when I’m feeling nostalgic for the jerk chicken of my local Crown Heights spots, Big Jerk. Lola’s for Cajun. Milos, but only for lunch. El Dorado for
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The best games are the ones that challenge our misperceptions, rather than pandering to them in order to hook players.
Maria Konnikova • The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
There’s never a default with anything. It’s always a matter of deliberation. Even seven-deuce—the worst hand, statistically speaking, that you can be dealt—can be playable in the right circumstances. The thing is, the circumstances are usually not right—and the hyper-aggressive player may run over everyone for a while and forget that at some point,
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Mastery is always a struggle for balance. How much time do you devote to the craft, and how much to yourself? And can you really do one without the other? I have a dual goal here. My poker journey—but also the larger journey that the poker is meant to lead to. They can’t be separated. And as I’m learning, the craft of poker certainly cannot be mast
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Poker stands at the fulcrum that balances two oppositional forces in our lives—chance and control.
Maria Konnikova • The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
The status quo bias: continue with the action you’ve already decided on, regardless of new information.
Maria Konnikova • The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
“If we consider games of chance immoral, then every pursuit of human industry is immoral; for there is not a single one that is not subject to chance, not one wherein you do not risk a loss for the chance of some gain.” THOMAS JEFFERSON, “THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES,” 1826
Maria Konnikova • The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
“Fortune always will confer an aura of worth, unworthily, and in this world the lucky person passes for a genius.” EURIPIDES, THE HERCLEIDAE, C. 429 BCE