Annie Duke is using her 20-years in the poker industry to rebrand herself as a coach and speaker in the art of Decision Science, much to the chagrin of sections of the 2+2 forum.
Poker mirrors life in so many ways and Annie Duke is about to cash in on that fact by rebranding herself as a Decision Coach, and she has started by completely redesigning her annieduke.com website.
Gone is the idea that she is a professional poker player and instead the site offers her coaching and oration skills in the art of decision science.
So what is Decision Science?
Duke’s site explains:
“From the poker table, to the boardroom table, to the kitchen table, strategic decision making impacts every aspect of our lives. Drawing on her academic studies in cognitive psychology and her real-world application of decision science at the poker table, Annie Duke offers a series of educational and inspirational presentations.”
It seems Duke plans to use her 20-years of experience in poker, cognitive science and being a Mum to help businesses, and people in every day life, make better decisions at the crucial points in their lives.
“Bluff is a sexy concept but widely overused. If you use it too often it’s going to get you in trouble.” – Annie Duke.
Duke’s philosophy lies behind four key points.
1. Evaluation of Feedback
2. Sunk Cost
3. Tilt: Managing Your Emotions
4. Tactics: Managing Ultimatums
During her description of ‘Evaluation of Feedback’ she states that after ’20-years playing the game of poker, she noticed that players surprisingly really don’t get much better at the game despite abundance of evidence about how well they are playing,’ and also, ‘most poker players don’t incorporate the negative feedback they get in a productive way.’
When talking about ‘Sunk Cost’ she explains, ‘we have a strong bias to take into account resources already invested in our decisions about whether to move forward. Annie Duke examines this decision bias, reveals the underlying cause of this irrationality and provides insights into avoiding this costly decision making error.’
Her website states that you can book Annie Duke for speaking engagements, corporate coaching sessions and philanthropic fundraisers, but you can’t help but think that she won’t be getting too much business from the grinders in the poker community.
A 2+2 thread has already began on the topic of ‘Decision Science’ and with names like ‘Adolf Hitler’ and ‘African Dictator’ being thrown around it’s not a place that Duke will want her new clientele to be wandering around without a guide.
