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

365 reviews for:

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

I really wanted to like this but I found it to be mostly boring and long winded ?? I commend her journalistic approach to this journey and appreciated some of the interesting insights into the world of poker. I just wish the story was more compact.

alipickle's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 48%

Didn't keep my interest

rebeccagerhardt's review against another edition

4.0

funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

bjmconsulting's review against another edition

4.0

Crazy story - coming from academia -> "not academia" I felt a connection to the author, but got a bit lost in the technicalities.

miguelf's review against another edition

3.0

You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to follllld ‘em… Short summary: a psychology post-doc enters the world of competitive poker and parses the "players" mind and has a mini-Rocky experience. The main weakness of this book is that it doesn’t really expand much beyond the world of competitive betting either from a psychological or social analysis. If you’re not a fan of gambling it’s a bit tough to relate (the world of professional gambling is about as interesting as reading a book on professional e-Sports players) and the book becomes a bit of a chore to get through. On top the characters introduced are uninteresting and/or toxic personalities with plenty of sexism thrown at the author. In the end it doesn’t get much deeper than a famous Kenny Rogers tune.

x_z's review against another edition

4.0

Second time hoopla (2022-2023):

If you can meet triumph and disaster the same… -Kipling. They’re both impostors; chance. But disaster is the best teacher!

“Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.” -
W. H. Auden

Where observation is concerned, chance favors the prepared mind.

If you’re not observing, no amount of preparation can prepare you. Must look up and pay attention.

Konnikova first time iPad 4*:

Fun one
Lots of comparisons b/t gambling and life
Fun psych studies too
first half 5 stars, then got more into her poker play (not great)
forced to update your beliefs = wiser
Betting on shit makes u consider if u really believe it
Easier to give advice to others than yourself UNLESS u gamble on it
U gotta tough thru sucking for a while to get really truly good at smtn
Only so much planning u can do. Eventually u gotta fuckin try it yourself. Mike Tyson: plan until u get punched in da mauf

kdaigh's review against another edition

3.0

I liked a lot of the insights in this book–emotional, logical, statistical–but something about it fell flat for me. This presented as a self-help book for improving focus but it ended up being more of a poker memoir with some decision-making tips. Overall, I'm glad I read it and I enjoyed the poker vocabulary I obtained from it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to others.