Recent Bracelet Winner Maria Konnikova On Poker, Pens, And PodcastingBestselling Author Enjoying Career Year On Tournament Circuit |
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Best-selling author, podcast host, and now World Series of Poker bracelet winner – Maria Konnikova is on a roll.
The Russian-born, Massachusetts-raised Konnikova got her start as a TV producer for the Charlie Rose Show and as a writer for Scientific American while also regularly contributing to The New Yorker. The Harvard and Columbia educated Konnikova earned her Ph.D. in psychology and her books Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes and The Confidence Game frequented bestseller and award lists.
Konnikova’s introduction to game theory sparked an interest in poker that led to tutoring from Poker Hall of Famer and 10-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel. By 2017 she had jumped into the game headfirst, and year later made headlines by winning a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title.
A PokerStars ambassador role followed along with more nice finishes. That included a runner-up showing on the Asian Pacific Poker Tour and multiple deep runs in the WSOP and PCA main events. Her 2020 book The Biggest Bluff chronicled her development as a player from beginner to high-stakes tournaments.
Her 2024 campaign has been her most successful, however, starting with a WSOP Circuit ring in January online for $57,532. Then after cashing at EPT Paris, she finished second in an EPT Monte Carlo side event in May for another $56,160. In September, she took fifth in the EPT Barcelona mystery bounty event, banking $141,858.
A month later, Konnikova earned her first bracelet and $68,478, taking down the $888 buy-in Crazy Eights event online.
Most recently, she made a deep run in the NAPT Las Vegas main event at Resorts World, adding another $39,550 to put her over $1 million in career earnings. Card Player caught up with her at the November series to talk about her big year, dealing with criticism, cheating in the game, and balancing poker and podcasting.
Most wouldn’t think that the New York literary scene is exactly a hub of poker interest, so Konnikova certainly stood out when she began finding card-playing success in 2018. But having a bestselling author certainly brought some added media attention to the game. Konnikova first became interested in poker and the mental aspects of the game while researching her 2016 book.
Under the tutelage of Seidel, this writer turned poker player was entering events after never having played the game before and having no real interest in card playing or casinos at all. But like many, Konnikova soon found the game engrossing from a mental standpoint – strategically and emotionally – and loved the challenges involved with making decisions, reading opponents, and competing with some of the best.
That included her recent online bracelet win, which came at a final table that included 2013 WSOP main event winner Ryan Riess, Poker Hall of Famer Kathy Liebert, and poker podcaster Jeff Gross.
“It was pretty awesome,” said Konnikova. “It’s not something you can ever predict will happen. There are some incredible players who have never won a bracelet, so it was really very special to be able to achieve that.”
Konnikova was playing the event from her apartment in Nevada after having just flown in from New York. The experience was a bit surreal yet grueling after wrapping up the win at about 3:45 a.m.
“I was exhausted,” she recalled. “It’s one of those things where I was like, ‘Okay, just make it to the final table.’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, just make it to heads-up.’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, I really hope I can close it out because it would really suck to be heads-up and lose the bracelet.” Then I won.”
“Everyone I knew was asleep except for my parents, who were on vacation in Paris, so they were actually up. They were really, really happy. My parents are so ridiculously supportive. Then I texted Erik Seidel so that he’d know, but he was sleeping.”
Her parents support her play, but Konnikova says they don’t really understand the poker scene quite yet. However, they have embraced the competition aspect and regularly follow along with Konnikova – win or lose.
“They love following. In fact, they follow it even after I bust. They’re like, ‘Oh, we’re rooting for the other Maria.’ I’m Like, ‘No, after I bust the tournament is over. When I bust, you stop rooting,’” she says laughing. “But they’re allowed to root for the other Maria.”
Why, hello! Look what just came in the mail. pic.twitter.com/I1wP6Qm99u
— Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova) November 22, 2024
There was no glass of champagne or victory cocktail after the win. Her husband was sleeping and she woke him up briefly to share the good news – but then told him to go back to sleep.
The victory was soured a bit, however, after Konnikova was criticized by WSOP commentator Norman Chad for utilizing the tournament’s re-entry option. Chad would later admit that his anger about the proliferation of re-entry tournaments was misplaced and expressed regret that “she was collateral damage.”
Looking back, Konnikova was still a bit baffled as to why Chad chose to use her as the target for his own beef about re-entry events. She also points out that his criticism focused on an event that didn’t actually allow for unlimited re-entries.
“Everyone re-enters,” she says. “And he’s like, ‘Well, I’m against unlimited reentry.’ I was like, ‘Dude, this was three re-entry max. This is not an unlimited re-entry event.’ The event that I final-tabled at EPT Barcelona, the mystery bounty where I got fifth, was unlimited re-entry but I only fired one bullet. I don’t make the rules. I think he singled me out, and whatever his motivation, the fact that he chose only the second female to win an open event in the last two years kind of says everything.”
Is winning a live bracelet next on her list?
“I’ll take another one online. I’ll take it live. I’ll take it with re-entries. I’ll take it in a freezeout. I’m not picky.”
Beyond poker, writing and media are still big parts of Konnikova’s life. She is currently writing a book about cheating and believes that poker faces some serious issues in this regard. The last couple years have seen poker pros accused of multi-accounting, use of real-time assistance (RTA), ghosting, and other forms of cheating online.
Other more high-tech cheating methods have also made news recently, including a major Siberian bot operation getting exposed and two men arrested in France for using tiny cameras hidden in their cell phones to track cards in live poker and blackjack games.
Konnikova is now committed to exposing cheaters and trying to root it out of the game as much as possible.
“There’s definitely cheating in poker, and I will not shy away from it because I think it’s so important for the integrity and the long-term future of the game to bring bad actors out,” she says. “To be perfectly honest, I think there needs to be a zero-tolerance policy. It sucks that people like Ali Imsirovic, who’s a known cheater, is still allowed to play at the WSOP. What the actual fuck?”
Another medium is also occupying more of her time. In May, she and fellow poker player, writer, and founder of the FiveThirtyEight polling analysis site Nate Silver launched the Risky Business podcast from Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia. The pair of poker enthusiasts have $1.6 million in live tournament winnings between them, and the show focuses on the decision-making process involved with poker, politics, and other parts of life.
The experience has been a labor of love for Konnikova, even if playing in a poker tournament during an election presented some time-constraint issues that really required some juggling. (She even found the time to jump into commentary with Jeff Gross for the final table of the GGPoker Super Million$.)
The 40-year-old credits her poker inner circle for helping to grasp the game at such a high level. Along with Seidel, some of her mentors and coaches include Phil Galfond, Nick Petrangelo, and Isaac Haxton. She is also a close friend of Farah Galfond.
“I’m very lucky that I have some incredible minds who are willing to share with me,” she says. “I think that’s so important. I don’t take it for granted.”
After a “soft launch” of the NAPT event in Las Vegas in 2023, PokerStars beefed up the schedule even more this year for the second trip to Resorts World. The PokerStars Big Game live cash game was also on the menu and allowed players to audition for the show’s “loose cannons,” who are staked in a game against top pros and other celebrities, which included four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski.
In the end, London’s Nick Marchington scored the win in the main event for $765,200 topping a field of 895 entries. Konnikova was one of them, finishing 14th for $39,550. Overall, she was pleased to not only be back on board as a PokerStars team pro, but also to generally see the brand bringing live events back to the U.S.
As a poker author and journalist, Konnikova is accustomed to asking questions and interviewing others. But now as a poker star in her own right, that dynamic has changed quite a bit. She now has to deal with regular interview requests, media appearances, social media videos, and other trappings that can come with being a brand representative.
As she continues her quest for more success in the game, what is it like seeing the tables turned and becoming the interview subject?
“You embrace it. Because I feel very strongly about being a good ambassador for poker, for women – but for the game much more broadly,” she says. “To me, it’s beyond gender. I think it’s just such an incredibly powerful force for good and I want people to see what poker actually is, as opposed to what people who don’t know much about it see it as being in the media. Even though I’m naturally introverted and would rather be kind of the one behind the scenes, I think it’s really important to speak out because I have a voice to do that.”
Photos courtesy of PokerStars – Manuel Kovsca, Rachel Kay Winter, and Danny Maxwell
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