Together, Konnikova and Seidel put together a plan. They will commit a year of their lives with the goal of getting Konnikova from the greenest of novices to a seat at the table at the mecca of pro poker: the Main Event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

The journey Seidel has planned out for her has no shortcuts. Shell have to work her way up from playing online poker in New Jersey coffee shops, through to charity tournaments, and off-Strip Las Vegas casinos, before she is allowed to play in the big leagues. Seidel teaches her the lingo (I was left baffled and amused by terms such as Naked Ace High, A Blocker to the Nut Flush, Capped Range, VPIP and degenning) and also offers an entre into the world of pro poker, a world populated by men with names such as LuckyChewy, Jungleman, and Chino, who have pink hair and fervent beliefs in the benefits of microdosing, and who bet on push-up competitions in between rounds at $100,000 tournaments in Monte Carlo.

The Biggest Bluff is a brilliant book mostly because Konnikova is a brilliant writer, but also because she is a brilliant observer of the weird world she has immersed herself into. Her pithy descriptions of casinos in Las Vegas, Macau, and elsewhere (she refers to Vegas perfectly as an adult playground on a lifelike scale) captures the seedy charm of these airless, dream-filled tombs.

She is also an excellent chronicler of the gender dynamics around a poker table. Pro poker is 97 per cent male. Men tend to view women as easy marks. (Konnikova cites a study showing that men bluff women 6 per cent more than they do other men) Then there is the mixture of condescension, bullying and lechery she encounters from her fellow players. Konnikova tries to flip these prejudices to her advantage, with limited success.

Not that chauvinism hinders her startling ascent through the poker ranks. From the outset, Konnikova is disarmingly modest about her successes. She mentions offhand that she made $2,000 on online poker while still a rookie. She wins her first tournament within six months of starting the project. Within 12 months she is flying to Europe to participate in tournaments. She clearly becomes very good at poker, very fast.

The most enthralling parts of the book are when she takes the reader inside the cockpit and talks through some of the high-stakes plays she finds herself involved in. Less interesting are her attempts to extract life lessons from the tables, (All too often, we stay in a hand long after we should have gotten out. Channel your outer warrior and your inner one may not be long in coming out. Do I go for the min cash in my life decisions?) but, in fairness, most good advice tends to be clich.

Perhaps the most penetrating insight is not that life is like poker, but rather that poker is better than life. For all its flaws, the world of pro poker is meritocratic and democratic to a tee. Everyone is allowed, she writes. No one will turn you away if you didnt come from the right school of have the right connections or diplomas. If you can afford the buy-in, you can play, simple as that.

I wont spoil the ending, but I looked up Konnikovas earnings on the Hendon Mob. By their count, she has earned $300,000 (240,000) at the tables. Id wager that missed deadline was worth it.

Clement Knox is the author of Strange Antics: A History of Seduction (William Collins)

Original post:

How a psychologist cracked the secret of winning at professional poker in just a year - Telegraph.co.uk