He reasoned that poker was a game that mirrored life because players are required to act based on incomplete information. Von Neumann thought that poker was the perfect way of understanding strategic decision-making. John von Neumann was a poker player, and game theory, this entire complex economic theory that defines the 20 th century, was born out of poker. I read John von Neumann’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, which is the foundational text of game theory. Someone recommended I study game theory, which is an interesting framework for looking at chance, and at incomplete information and uncertainty. I wanted to explore this in a deep way and write about it. I realized, “ I can be really hard working, I can do everything “right.” But I also have to be lucky.” There’s nothing quite like your health failing and all these negative things happening to prove to you how powerful chance is, and how often we just take it for granted when it’s on our side. And as all of this was going on, both my husband and my mom lost their jobs. I was dealing with fatigue, painful hives, and no answers, and then, suddenly, my grandmother died. I became very sick with an autoimmune condition that nobody could diagnose. In the span of a few months, several things happened. I’m so talented.” But I was acutely aware of how important chance is in determining outcomes because of my own background. Most people’s perception is, “ That was all me. Over and over, I found that humans will claim agency for things that happen by chance, especially when outcomes are good. While in graduate school pursuing my PhD in psychology, I studied control, the nature of control, and the illusion of control. So, from a very early age, chance played a major role. This was at the height of communism before the Iron Curtain fell, before the Berlin Wall fell, and no one knew what was going to happen. Just think about how different my life would have been if we had stayed in what was then the Soviet Union. When I was four, my parents left the Soviet Union and came to the United States, and that had nothing to do with my decision-making. For me, this was true from the earliest part of my life. Maria Konnikova (MK): Chance plays a huge role in everything that we do. Meghan Moore (MM): Your book is about the role of chance in our everyday lives, and how chance had a lot to do with your unconventional journey from writer/psychologist to international poker champion. Captured here are Maria’s teachings on understanding the role of chance vs. and author of “The Biggest Bluff” and Burgundy’s investment counsellors Meghan Moore, Kate Mostowyk and Sarah MacNicol. ![]() In June 2021, the Women of Burgundy Book Club hosted a conversation between Maria Konnikova, PhD.
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