The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win

The bestseller in the New York Times!

A New York Times Best-Selling Novel

"You will be enthralled with Konnikova's story as she shares her substantial winnings and the lessons she discovered about human nature and herself, as well as how she followed a story about poker players and ended up becoming a story herself."— The Post of Washington

It's true that when Maria Konnikova contacted Erik Seidel, the winner of tens of millions of dollars in winnings and induction into the Poker Hall of Fame, to be her mentor, she had never really played poker before and didn't even know the rules. He was fascinated by her pitch that she wasn't so much interested in making money as she was in learning about life, even though she was well-known for being a thoughtful and open-minded player. After experiencing a period of unfavourable circumstances, she contemplated the significance of chance and sought advice from a renowned expert in game theory. This expert recommended poker as the best way to discern between controllable and uncontrollable factors. Her impressive resume included a Ph.D. in psychology and a growing amount of critically recognised research on human behaviour and hacking techniques. Seidel entered and quickly followed him down the rabbit hole into the very competitive, intensely macho world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, which served as their first stop before the World Series of Poker the following year.

However, something remarkable happened after that. Konnikova did, under Seidel's tutelage, have many epiphanies about life as a result of her new endeavour. These included learning how to read herself and her opponents more effectively, as well as figuring out what emotional states interfered with her ability to make wise decisions and how to reach a point where she could accept luck for what it was and what it wasn't. Still, she started to prevail. and triumph. She started earning tournament money in little over a year, eventually amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars. After winning a significant tournament, she attracted sponsorship, became used to the spotlight, and read headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even developed a like for Las Vegas.

However, Maria Konnikova is a writer and an expert on human behaviour, therefore the main goal was to capture her amazing trip and turn it into a teaching tool for its priceless lessons. She discovered that believing that talent is sufficient is the greatest fake of all. We will deal with bad cards from time to time, but if we concentrate our attention on how we handle them rather than the result, we may persevere through many difficult times until good fortune strikes again.