Chapter 10: The Poker Bubble Summary and Analysis

The "poker boom" started in 2003 when a novice poker player with the unlikely name of Chris Moneymaker turned his $39 ticket for entering the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas into $2.5 million by winning the tournament. The ESPN series about Moneymaker's win convinced a lot of people, Nate Silver included, that poker was the answer to their dreams of fame and fortune. Silver learned a lot about chance including the role it plays in our lives and how it can create delusion. The innovation of Internet poker also fueled the fad. Silver started out slow but began to make a profit on the Internet. After he had made $15,000 in profit, he quit his job as an economic consultant. His background in statistics and his understanding of probabilistic judgments and uncertainty helped him succeed.

The core...