‘Konnikova. Maria Konnikova.”
But once on the ground in this world-famous gambling mecca, the real-life version reasserts itself — jet-lagged, disheveled, insecure and terrified. This self-doubting Konnikova has serious reservations about even being here, for the European Poker Tour, and for good reason. Just eight months before, she was basically poker illiterate. She had never played a single game of poker in her life; indeed, she didn’t know the rules. Yet here she was, about to match wits with some of the cleverest and cagiest card players in the world.
Monte Carlo is not even the big prize. This delightful scene comes halfway through Konnikova’s quest to conquer the tournament of all poker tournaments, the World Series of Poker, in Las Vegas, still months away. What would motivate someone with zero experience in card playing or gambling to drop everything else in her life to take on such a quixotic pursuit? “The Biggest Bluff” is Konnikova’s attempt to answer that question and to describe her journey. And what a fascinating journey and narrative it is, as the fretful neophyte not only masters the intricacies of Texas hold ’em but also gains some profound insights about herself. What starts as a whim is transformed in the process into a provocative and moving spiritual journey, one that will inspire readers as much as it entertains them.
Konnikova’s poker adventure was not as unlikely as it might initially seem, having intellectual roots in her scientific training and research. As a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, she studied decision-making, and specifically the interplay of skill and luck in making important life choices under pressure. She was also inspired by the work of mathematician John von Neumann, the father of game theory, whose foundational ideas were themselves inspired by poker. Real life, von Neumann believed, is all about bluffing, “little tactics of deception” that keep others from knowing one’s true intentions. Poker is about the interplay of chance and control, skill and luck, and in that sense it mirrors real life.
Real life is always front and center in Konnikova’s story, and indeed she was nudged in part by her family’s streak of bad luck in 2015. Her mother, and role model, unexpectedly lost her job and with it her career. Her husband’s start-up failed. Her vivacious grandmother took a fall in the night and died two days later. And she herself came down with a bizarre and mysterious autoimmune disorder. This run of misfortune seemed unfair, and improbable, and reinforced her interest in chance and control — and poker. She set an improbable goal, to compete in the prestigious World Series of Poker just one year later, and mustered her passion and her considerable intellectual ability for that quest.
No quester succeeds without help along the way, of course. She sought out teachers whenever possible, both psychologists and poker pros. But only one of these guides is central to Konnikova’s search from start to finish and beyond. Against all odds, she persuades Erik Seidel, a legend on the tour, to take her on as a project, and along the way he shares his wisdom not only about poker hands and wagering, but also about the culture of professional gambling and the psychology of folding and calling and bluffing and more. From this spirit guide she learns how to truly pay attention, under high pressure and surrounded by distractions, and — perhaps most crucial of all — to keep her emotions out of her judgments and card playing choices.
Attention and coolheaded judgments — these are topics that psychological scientists have studied for years, including Konnikova herself in her previous academic life. She draws on her background in psychology to better understand and to illuminate for the reader the many cognitive biases that hinder sound judgment, making otherwise savvy players persist with lousy cards and fold winning hands. Konnikova needed to learn the psychology of poker in real life, while sitting at the green velvet table, with all the stresses of competition, while struggling with her self-doubts.
I was all in for Konnikova from the day she first approached Seidel at a New York coffee shop, charmed by her honesty and self-deprecating humor. I found myself cheering even her small victories and feeling the disappointment of her losses. In the end, readers share in her big win, though her winnings are not what we — or she — originally had in mind. The biggest bluff, she comes to understand, is the belief that skill can ever be enough when luck is stacked against us. Yet this hope is what keeps us going, both in the casino and in life. In the end, Konnikova’s winning hand is dealt out not in aces and jacks, straights and flushes, but in self-knowledge, acceptance and serenity.
The Biggest Bluff
How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
By Maria Konnikova
Penguin Press. 354 pp. $28
