Have you ever wondered what a game night with some of Silicon Valley's brightest minds looks like?
Well, wonder no more.
Liv Boeree, host of the Win-Win Podcast and legendary poker pro, spoke with PokerOrg's own Sarah Herring to give us the lowdown on one of the most epic game nights in history.
The game in question was Mafia – a classic social deduction party game – and if you're unfamiliar with the rules, fear not. Boeree has you covered with a quick explanation in the video embedded above.
Founders Fund, an American venture capital firm whose founders include Peter Thiel, played host to the proceedings – and the list of players invited was a who's who of the tech industry.
Amongst them was Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI; Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries; Mike Solana, founder of Pirate Wires and Chief Marketing Officer at Founders Fund; and Bryan Johnson, the futuristic health guru and founder of Don't Die.
And then there was Boeree – perhaps the only true gamer at the table.
'They just didn't play very well'
With a heck of a lot of brain power gathered in one place, you'd think the level of gamesmanship would be at an all-time high. According to Boeree, not so.
"There were some players who I expected to be really good who were awful," she told Herring. "They just didn't play very well."
While Boeree didn't name names, anyone looking to don their detective's cap can take a look at the footage below to try to parse it out.
"I was just surprised that some people's deduction skills and their bluffing skills were not as good as I expected them to be," Boeree continued.
"Doesn't mean they're stupid – there was no one at that table who was not brilliant – but it's interesting how those skills do not always translate to these formats of games."
At the end of the day, though, maybe it's for the best that the tech overlords aren't adept at bluffing and deception.
