The Analytical Approach that Gained a Top Female Poker Player Millions

You know how sometimes we can be irrational? Like being afraid of something you know won't hurt you? Or losing your temper when your TV breaks even though you know that they aren't supposed to last forever? When our emotions run us, there is chaos. One way to help us overcome this is to take an analytical approach. Today's guest is professional poker player, presenter and astro-geek Liv Boeree. She has won over $3.5 million in live poker tournaments, has a degree in Physics and Astrophysics, and is host of the web show, Amazing Science Adventures. Find out how she uses a scientific/analytical to build a successful life.


Liv's Website



Blog About White Noise

Book by Philip Tetlock: Superforcasting

Show Notes: 

[16:20] I think the main thing poker teaches you is how to deal with uncertainty and the fact that you can never be certain about anything. Our brains want the world to be black and white-- like it's either yes this or no that. But in actuality, most things are on a gray scale. Like in poker, if you are making a prediction whether a person bluffing or not.

It's about understanding that you're never going to be 100 percent certain that it's bluff or not. You can just narrow it down to maybe 90 percent or whatever. Everything is on a sliding scale. Poker teaches you to make predictions.

[21:50] A thing to look out for is --  try to figure out the unknown unknowns. We have things that we know and things that we know we don't know. But the really dangerous ones are the things that we don't know and we don't know and we don't know!

That's the thing that trips us up. We get bad surprises because basically, our predicted model wasn't working. That's another thing poker has taught me. If you get overconfident, it's going to kick you in the ass at some point. When you get the sense that you know something, and all of a sudden something comes along that you didn't even realize was even in the possibility of knowledge.

Keep an eye out for that and ask, "What do I think I know that I don't?"