Risky Business Live! How To Read People In Poker And Beyond

We're gonna be talking about reading people, the art of tells, deception, bluffing, and all, all of that fun stuff.

And after we kind of lay the groundwork, you guys better be paying really close attention because we'll be having people come up here to demonstrate how much you've learned about the art of reading people.

So the Cool It 4 Poker game, it's a $500 entry fee.

It's on the back of your ticket.

(laughs) So, Nate, um, you and I have just come back from Las Vegas where we were both playing in the North American Poker Tour.

Famous NAPT.

Famous, famous NAPT.

And, you know, poker and life are, are games where there's bluffing.

Um, Nate, how- how are you at bluffing? How are you at bluffing in poker and how are you at bluffing in life, which might otherwise be known as lying?

I think I'm a pretty good bluffer in poker, both kind of understanding, like, the game theory behind when to bluff and also, like, kind of have a few tricks to, like, pull things off, right? Ironically, in like real life, I kind of, uh, I kind of am very bad at lying (laughs) in real life.

I think my partner's here tonight, so he can confirm or deny that potentially.

(laughs)

Um, but no, I get very uncomfortable with, you know, who is it, like, a lie takes too much work, right? And I'm lazy.

Yeah.

No, it's like even things, like, like so when I was hiring people at FiveThirtyEight when we were with, at, at Disney, right? Um, like, "Well, what's the, kind of the long-term stability of this company at the ABC News, ESPN?" I'd be like, "I don't really know.

You know, I'm under contract for a couple of years and we'll see what happens." And so, like, but I'm very comfortable, like, in any type of negotiation or relationship.

Um, like, I don't think it serves people, serves anyone a purpose in the long run to kind of, like, form a relationship on false pretenses.

Yeah.

Because it gets discovered later on, right? Um, no, so I'm an honest person mostly out of, like, laziness in real life.

(laughs)

But in the context of poker, um, you know, poker would not exist without bluffing.

That's what makes poker, poker.

Yeah.

I don't consider bluffing in poker to be lying.

Also, when people, you know, people ask you, "Oh, what did you have?" Right? Some people are like, oh, if you actually ask a question, they won't, like, literally lie.