How to think under pressure
Do we make our own luck? And is it possible to tame chance? The question has troubled philosophers for centuries, and in January 2018, the psychologist and writer Maria Konnikova appeared to have come to an answer.
A little more than a year before, she had already taken a large gamble – the decision to take a sabbatical from her staff job at the New Yorker to train (from scratch) as a professional poker player. The aim was to write a book about the role that chance plays in our lives, using her experiences in the game as the vehicle to explore the subject. And she did have one significant advantage: the legendary player, Erik Seidel, had offered to coach her throughout her quest.
Now, she was competing in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure National Championship – one of the oldest and most prestigious live poker tournaments. And her gamble was finally paying off. Over three days, Konnikova beat 290 competitors to win the trophy, along with $84,600 in prize money and a $30,000 package to enter a future tournament. A blitz of international media coverage ensued.
Her account of the experience – The Biggest Bluff – is being published in the US and UK this week. As you might hope, it is full of real-life characters – the zen-like “Chewy”, “the silent assassin”, “the Russian ruffian” – that sound like they came straight from an Ian Fleming or John le Carré novel. But Konnikova hopes that the lessons learned will be of value far beyond the casino. “This book isn’t about how to play poker,” she writes in one of the early chapters. “It’s about how to play the world.”
No one could fault Konnikova for her ambition. Keen to find out more, I called Konnikova in her New York home to discuss the lessons learned from her experience, and the ways we may all be able to make the most of the hand we’re dealt in life.
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