The author-turned-poker-player is coming back with a new take on the game
Ever since the coronavirus pandemic took over the world, poker has taken the spotlight, getting a lot more publicity lately. Maria Konnikova, a bestselling author and poker player, is about to release her new book in which poker plays a major role in her life. She became famous back in 2017 when she investigated how luck influences people's lives, and her research led her to wander around poker and even following guidance from one of the biggest names out there, Erik Seidel.
After her immersion in the world of poker, the New York-based author and poker player was able to score a tournament success. She won a $1,650 event playing at the Caribbean Adventure series, winning $84,600. After her success, she documented her life playing poker, as well as providing an exploration of the psychology and philosophy of the game. Her book is called "The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win." The book will be released this week by the publisher Penguin Press.
Konnikova spoke to USPoker about her new book and her experience playing online. When she started, she didn't even know the ranking of the hands, explaining "I didn’t know anything about poker. I wanted to write a book about luck. I wanted to explore the role that luck plays in our lives, and how we can learn to tell the difference between what luck is and what is [a] skill. After she kept studying game theory she kept coming back to poker over again. The more she studied, the more she was intrigued about it. "You realize that the game of poker was best suited to model human decision-making because it’s a game of incomplete information and everything about life is a game of incomplete information,” added Konnikova.
