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

Glory Days The Bahamas, January 2018

nod in agreement. He’s right. We know that in most any environment, the best way to not screw up, so to speak, is to follow a specific protocol. Checklists, step-by-step modules: these lead to high proficiency in minimal time.

argued that the Big Five version of personality—that we can all be rated on five major traits, namely openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness—was fundamentally flawed.

Poker stands at the fulcrum that balances two oppositional forces in our lives—chance and control.

It’s like when I read Mikhail Bulgakov for the first time, in junior high—and vowed never to be a writer. I’d wanted to write my whole short life, but faced with the perfection of The Master and Margarita, I gave up. I could never achieve anything close to that. Why even bother? That’s how watching the high rollers at work makes me feel.

write a logic statement that I can use in the moment to inject some rationality into the issue.

never assumes that he’s learned all there is. He refuses to plateau. If I had to assign him a life motto, it would be this: life is too short for complacency.

The why behind the action. And as I come to understand, that’s often the truest tell you’ll ever pick up. I just have to be careful that it’s not used on me.

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