The Game of Risk: Poker with Annie Duke

No Turning Back

Poker is a game of risk. The chances you take, the bets you make, determine the loss, or the reward. It’s a heated calculus of quick decision-making, gut instinct, and strategy. This week, on the second episode of the Risk mini-series on No Turning Back, Stan and Chris speak to Annie Duke, a former professional poker player whose titles include the NBC National Poker Heads-Up Championship, as the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. In today’s discussion, Stan and Chris speak to Annie about why most people don’t think probabilistically when making decisions, why uncertain decisions are often most impactful, and why no good decisions ever come from consensus. She speaks to the power of a pre-mortem to think through ways a plan can fail before it does, and discusses how poker players not only think about winning, but winning the most they absolutely can (even if it means taking on more risk). She brings an academic focus, and intense inquisitiveness, to the game, and her lessons and tactics about risk transcend poker.