THE BIGGEST BLUFF
HOW I LEARNED TO PAY ATTENTION, MASTER MYSELF, AND WIN
MARIA KONNIKOVA
Maria Konnikova, 4th Estate, 354pp, £20
Writer Maria Konnikova has written a book about how learning to play poker taught her about life and luck. Dominic Maxwell in the Times set the scene: ‘Her mother and husband had lost their jobs. Her grandmother had died. Konnikova had developed “a bizarre autoimmune condition” that made her allergic to almost everything. What was going on? How could she seize control of her life?’ Praising a ‘fascinating’ book in the New York Times, Michael Paterniti wrote that it asked the question: ‘What if we could see through the ups and downs, the glories and tragedies – our own winning and losing streaks, really – to the underlying grid of chance and self-determination that guides all of life, including issues of love, health and money?’
In the Spectator, Hermione Eyre found it refreshingly free of swashbuckling: ‘This is not a rip-roaring, gonzo gambling adventure. By page 66 this cautious, thoughtful author has still never played a hand of poker in her life. She has read, re-read, dissected and annotated poker textbooks. This is a swot’s progress, a fish-out-of-water experiment.’ And Clement Knox in the Daily Telegraph loved it: ‘ 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.’