Maria Konnikova is an author, speaker, podcast host, and world champion poker player. She is the author, most recently, of The Biggest Bluff, a New York Times bestseller, one of the Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2020, and a finalist for the Telegraph Best Sports Writing Awards for 2021. Maria is the co-host, along with Nate Silver, of Risky Business, a weekly podcast from Pushkin and iHeartRadio, and the author of The Leap, a weekly Substack. Her previous books are the bestsellers The Confidence Game, winner of the 2016 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, an Anthony and Agatha Award finalist. Maria is a regularly contributing writer for The New Yorker  whose writing has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. While researching The Biggest Bluff, Maria became an international poker champion and the winner of over half a million in tournament earnings—and inadvertently turned into a professional poker player. She is currently a member of PokerStars Team Pro.

Maria’s writing has been featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been translated into over twenty languages. Maria formerly hosted the podcast The Grift from Panoply Media, a show that explored con artists and the lives they ruin. Her podcasting work earned her a National Magazine Award nomination in 2019. She is currently at work on a book about cheating in games. She graduated from Harvard University and received her PhD in psychology from Columbia University.

SESSION DESCRIPTION
Cheating in Poker
Maria Konnikova is a high stakes poker player, psychologist and author of three best selling books. She is currently working on her fourth book about cheating in poker and other games. Willy chats with Maria about the world of poker, cheating, some of the things she has learned researching her new book and her recent comments on a PokerNews podcast calling for a ban on electronics and sunglasses on poker games.