Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to know whether life is driven more by skill or chance. She found some answers in poker — and she’s willing to tell us everything she learned.

SOURCES:
- Maria Konnikova, author of The Biggest Bluff.

RESOURCES:
- “Gender Differences in Performance Predictions: Evidence from the Cognitive Reflection Test,” by Patrick Ring, Levent Neyse, Tamas David-Barett, and Ulrich Schmidt (Frontiers in Psychology, 2016).
- “The headwinds/tailwinds Asymmetry: An Availability Bias in Assessments of Barriers and Blessings,” by Shai Davidai and Thomas Gilovich (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2016).
- “The Two Settings of Kind and Wicked Learning Environments,” by Robin M. Hogarth, Tomás Lejarraga, and Emre Soyer (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2015).
- "The Limits of Self-Control: Self-Control, Illusory Control, and Risky Financial Decision Making,” by Maria Konnikova (Columbia University, 2013).
- “Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement” by J.B. Rotter (Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 1966).

EXTRAS:
- The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win, by Maria Konnikova.
- Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by Maria Konnikova.
- The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova.
- Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern.
- "This Year’s World Series Of Poker Is Different," by Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova (2025).

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