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A review by jaraddavis02
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
5.0
I am fascinated by chess. I taught myself how to play the game and enjoy playing. The primary reason I enjoy chess is because it has always served as a metaphor for life. You always hear people say how decision making is “Chess. Not checkers.” One is always advised to think steps ahead of the competition. This is what chess symbolizes. Chess was inspired by military strategy, which is often how we view life anyway. I still enjoy chess and certainly see the life applications that can be compared to it. However, I was introduced to how another game may be even more applicable to our psychology and decision making prowess.
The Biggest Bluff, by Maria Konnikova, examines how poker can allow us to examine ourselves, our decisions, and our outcomes. A psychologist and a writer, Konnikova embarks on a year long quest to become a poker professional. She learns the game from scratch, and through many trials and errors, reaches pinnacle of professional poker. I learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker in college, but haven’t delved much into it since then. This book, however, look at how life, like poker, is about understanding the hand you’re dealt, anticipating the hands others are dealt, deciding whether to hold or fold, and living with the outcomes. It is quite a fascinating study of the power of observation, the importance of information gathering, understanding your position, seeing multiple angles, thinking clearly and critically, and being able to articulate your thinking regardless of the outcome.
Konnikova explains how poker really isn’t as much gambling as it is merely making decisions based on probability and variance. It gave me a new perspective on a game that is often chided within my religious denominational circles. Be that as it may, I actually saw some parallels between poker and my faith. Both ask us to make decisions without having all the information. Both ask us to rely on a level of faith in the outcome. Both realize that the work without the faith (a poker player might call it luck) is dead. My forever curiosity now has me playing more poker, although not for money (I can’t pull myself to it), and taking those lessons into the different areas of my life. This was a fun read that also taught me a lot about self-knowledge, self-care, and self-reflection.
The Biggest Bluff, by Maria Konnikova, examines how poker can allow us to examine ourselves, our decisions, and our outcomes. A psychologist and a writer, Konnikova embarks on a year long quest to become a poker professional. She learns the game from scratch, and through many trials and errors, reaches pinnacle of professional poker. I learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker in college, but haven’t delved much into it since then. This book, however, look at how life, like poker, is about understanding the hand you’re dealt, anticipating the hands others are dealt, deciding whether to hold or fold, and living with the outcomes. It is quite a fascinating study of the power of observation, the importance of information gathering, understanding your position, seeing multiple angles, thinking clearly and critically, and being able to articulate your thinking regardless of the outcome.
Konnikova explains how poker really isn’t as much gambling as it is merely making decisions based on probability and variance. It gave me a new perspective on a game that is often chided within my religious denominational circles. Be that as it may, I actually saw some parallels between poker and my faith. Both ask us to make decisions without having all the information. Both ask us to rely on a level of faith in the outcome. Both realize that the work without the faith (a poker player might call it luck) is dead. My forever curiosity now has me playing more poker, although not for money (I can’t pull myself to it), and taking those lessons into the different areas of my life. This was a fun read that also taught me a lot about self-knowledge, self-care, and self-reflection.