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

by Maria Konnikova

Erik had warned me that one of the most important things about being a good poker player was flexibility. The willingness to admit you’re wrong, to embrace the uncertainty inherent in any decision. “Less certainty, more inquiry”: his words couldn’t have been more direct. There’s never a single right way to play a hand—and there’s certainly no single right way to reach a goal. Why not defer for a year? Or change the target to something in six months, sticking to the timeline but changing the specific event? Why not exercise some creative thinking in what my journey is going to be? I am too married to what it is all “supposed” to look like, and not critical enough of the fact that I simply made some decisions earlier on with incomplete information—and now that I know more, I should change course. No one is telling me to quit poker, merely to reassess where I am.