POKER WRITER IS FLUSH
Wins big, so book waits
She’s all in! Journalist Maria Konnikova picked up the game of poker a year ago while researching a book — and she’s on such a hot winning streak that she’s put the writing on ice and is doubling down on professional cards.
“I should have had a first draft in long, long ago,” The New Yorker scribe laughed in a phone interview with The Post from Monte Carlo, where she’s competing in a PokerStars tournament.
“I could never have predicted that I would ever be where I am now. I started this project with absolutely zero background in it.”
Konnikova began learning the game in late 2016 while researching her planned book, “The Biggest Bluff,” but she hit some unexpected windfalls and decided to let it ride, eventually turning $5,000 from her book advance into a tidy, $200,000 bankroll in a year’s time.
She was gearing up to finish the writing project when she scooped up $84,600 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January, a win that meant a free pass into the PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em Championship next year. She delayed the book so she could keep “in shape” for the tourney.
Still, Konnikova insists she won’t be trading her writing career for one in poker.
“I’m not abandoning writing. I really want to give it my all, but this is for the book ultimately,” she said, adding:
“There’s definitely one version of the future where I still write and play poker professionally. Why in the world wouldn’t I do both?”
Konnikova’s meteoric rise didn’t come in a vacuum — she had mentorship from poker powerhouses Erik Seidel, Jason Koon and Isaac Haxton.
But Konnikova, who has a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia, also drew on her own experience writing books about mastering Sherlock Holmesstyle observation and the psychology of con artists.
“That’s one of my biggest edges,” she said of her observational prowess and confidence-engendering skills.
“The best poker players have to channel a little bit of con artist.”
Now that she’s making a name for herself in cards, though, the competition is catching on — one player recently told her “I’m not supposed to talk to you because you’re a psychologist.”
“The Biggest Bluff ” is set for a “summer/fall 2019” release, she said.