3 lessons on decision-making from a poker champion | Liv Boeree

Is it better to be lucky or good? Should we trust our gut feelings or rely on probabilities and careful analysis when making important decisions? In this quick talk, professional poker player Liv Boeree shares three strategies she's learned from the game and how we can apply them to real life.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more.

[kleadfusha]

Our egos love to downplay the luck factor when we're winning. Beautiful!

[aaronh]

1) Mindful of luck despite ego
2) Use numerical probability
3) Use intuition mostly only for things you've done a LOT

[RaquelFoster]

I’ve played over half a million hands of online poker, and I played full time in casinos for a few years. And she’s right. The thing I learned that kinda haunts me is how tragic it is for some people to get lucky. If they won the first night they played and had maybe studied it just a tiny bit, they would spend years going broke over and over. When people win they think they’re a genius, and when they lose they think it’s just bad luck and the world is unfair. Everybody does it. And a LOT of non-technical people are so cocky that they think being able to shuffle their chips or identify which seat is called Under the Gun +1 makes them a highly skilled player who can beat just about anyone. But I suppose we all delude ourselves into thinking we have life figured out on some level, and most of the time it takes us way too long to realize we were pretty ignorant all along.

[JJ-kleq]

There is a 97% chance someone will claim to be the first commenter on a TED Talks video. There is a 68% chance two or more will.

[smile_bro]

Lol I literally use words like probably and sometimes BECAUSE I don't want to convey any real information🤣🤣

[daviddamion]

What an absolute beast. Coming from a live poker player, she's extremely intelligent and knowledgeable. She's been around the biggest games for awhile and married a great poker player Igor..do wish her nothing but the best...amazing to see her on T.T. :)

[trinitroglycerin]

bro you just crammed in the most useful info i've ever heard for a site anchor in five minutes and some change. huge W for making it short, clear and concise👁️👅👁️

[stevenundisclosed]

I've been a big fan of Liv for years. Great TED talk!

[vinayaksinha]

The whole title wasn't displayed in the notification. I thought it was 3 decisions from a pokemon... was really intrigued.

[LivinBilly]

1) Don't overestimate your abilities because of easy success
2) Speak more specifically (i.e. say "%chance" instead of "probably")
3) Poker tourney winners wear glasses. Nerds wear glasses. Nerds don't use intuition. Therefore intuition must be bad... (except for easy stuff).

[ALifeOfWine]

It's lessons like these that we all know, but often need to be reminded of.

[thralldoomhammer]

4th lesson:
Everything you do conveys information. You can't be all loosy goosy, eating a sandwich, or checking your phone.

[pokerbruh]

Yes, yes and yes! TED, poker, and Liv :)

[welovelibraries]

Too be honest the best poker players don’t have souls. Great short talk. I’ve been a profitable poker player for over a decade & using my gut is a huge part of my success.

[JakeBroe]

Yep, all of this applies to investors as well. Pretty easy to feel like a genius when the market is on an upswing.

[wongtsh]

I am not a pro, but I used to play a lot and studied a lot about the game. Poker definitely have taught me a bunch of life lessons beside what's mentioned in the video
1. stay focused on the goal - having fun vs making money.

2. adjust strategy according to situation - ppl nowadays always try to come up with formula to success and lot of ppl screwed up because situation can never be the same like poker. every time your opponents are different and their hands are different. tat's y I hate those poker videos saying you should do this when u have AK and you should do that when u have suited connector


3. analyzing - that's what I like the most about this game. analyzing your opponents and exploit their games.

4. you can never escape from tipping, have to tip the dealer when you are trying to make money at the table. hey why don we tip the floor manager. He is making sure we have a fair game

[Mathijs]

I remember that 2010 tournament win; that was a monumentally good ted talk.

[gigglysamentz]

I use percentage probabilities when planning and explaining.
My friends understand them better XD

[huycuongnguyen]

Many thanks for your advice, Liv Boeree. Love you so much. We don't have any data to be based off.

[TheGoodfella]

5:11 Malcom Gladwell's book Blink actually addresses this - for the bigger decisions in life, go with your gut.