BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:e7a51b465baac4ada555142bdeef10fc316 CATEGORIES:Clubs SUMMARY:Virtual West Los Angeles Book Club DESCRIPTION:
LACPA’s Summer Book Club Selection:
< p class="paragraph" align="center">The Biggest Bluff:How I Learned to Pay Attention, Mas ter Myself and Win
by Maria Kon nikova, Ph.D.
Book S ummary:
The Biggest Bluff address es the struggle for balance between luck and control, and how people make i mportant decisions in consideration of these factors. Dr. Maria Konnikova is a psychologist who earned her doctorate from Columbia University. Incor porating sources from philosophy, psychology and business, she creates an i ntellectual and practical quest to master high-stakes, tournament level, No Limit Texas Hold’em poker. She finds a master poker tutor to teach her th e game and how big money success is achieved at the highest level of play, a major international tournament, in this mostly male world of iconoclastic risk-takers.
Her writing style is entertaining, clear and engaging as she explains the strategies a nd psychological principles of high stakes poker. The ups and downs of her journey through the poker world provides a fascinating template for unders tanding the process of making important life decisions.
Recognized as a New York Times
Notable Book
“The Biggest Bluff feels particularly timely in the current pandemic. As governments design po licies based on limited data, and individuals are forced to grapple with th e probabilities of contagion – we could all do with the greater understandi ng of uncertainty, and how to think about it under pressure, that comes wit h the game.” —BBC
“Fascinat ing. . . . Konnikova is like your smart friend who instantly contextualizes everything by sharing the latest data and sharpest insight, whom you come to quote too often. . . . Konnikova keeps the lines so clean and even, so s teady and unshowy that she might be the Charlie Watts of prose: While the b ackbeat never ceases and the narrative propels along, it’s her curiosity th at proliferates. In fact, one of the biggest bluffs of The Biggest Bluf f may be that Konnikova hasn’t written a book about her success with c ards and chips exactly, but bet the house on the power of her mind to synth esize big philosophical ideas and psychological insights at a time when we, too, find ourselves questioning our fortunes, hoping to master our fates a nd playing much bigger odds than ever before.” —New York Times Book Review
The Biggest Bl uff 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 i mmersed herself into . . . 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.” —The Daily Telegra ph
“I love it. Not on ly did The Biggest Bluff lead me into a complex and charismatic new world, it made me think about my own life and my own self-deceptions about control —and taught me to pay more attention to my own opponents, mine being of the tennis sort. The narrative is deftly crafted, and the journey—the self-exa mination, the oddball characters, the awful misogyny, the Aggros, the notio n of tilt—accumulates in a seamless and satisfying way. I read this in what for me was record time.” —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile (and many other books)
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“There are a lot of great books about psychology. And there
are even some great books about poker. There isn’t any book like <
em>The Biggest Bluff. Maria’s journey from a novice into a world-class
poker player is a page-turning adventure that you’ll enjoy whether you’re
a seasoned pro or someone who doesn’t know a busted draw from a full house.
But what makes The Biggest Bluff so unique is its honesty
and humility. It understands the importance of luck and uncertainty in our
lives—and how different they can look when we’re suddenly facing high-stake
s, life-altering decisions. I can’t think of a better guide for navigating
these subjects than Maria and I highly recommend this book.” —Nate
Silver, founder and editor-in-chief, FiveThirtyEight
em>
All Summer Book Club Meetin gs will be held via Zoom.
Please contact the Book C lub facilitators to RSVP so a Zoo m Invitation can be sent to you
CONTACT:Dr. Lauren Wecker laurenwecker@gmail.com (310) 383-1505 DTSTAMP:20240328T233238 DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210815T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210815T160000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR