I'd never played poker in my life and really had zero interest in the game at all.

In any games, I'm not a games player.

Maria Kanakova didn't even own a deck of cards while growing up, but now she's a professional

poker player.

She's won over $300,000 in tournament money.

But that wasn't her goal going in.

What she was trying to do was study human behavior.

I became fascinated by the role that chants plays in our lives and the limits of our own

personal control and how we can learn to tell the difference between the things that we

control and the things we don't.

Maria has a PhD in psychology and she started playing poker to better understand how humans

make decisions, how to choose what risks to take and which ones to avoid and how we can

all improve that process.

I got to tell you, I was very excited to sit down and talk to her for the podcast because

I think the very things that she is studying are more important than ever.

Risk.

As we get vaccinated and COVID-19 restrictions are relaxing, we are faced with constant

risk assessments.

Do we eat inside a restaurant?

Do we send our kids to summer camp?

Do we go to a friend's wedding?

Do we plan that international vacation?

...