Maria Konnikova Quotes

The World Series of Poker was becoming popular, and there were a lot of really bad poker players out there. The misperception was that I was really good, but I just ground it out. It was a good way to make money for Box.

Actors should be better poker players. But I think there's actual skill and crazy guts that you need to play poker - this ability to put all this money on the line inside of that game of cards. There's this whole different set of skills that doesn't apply to acting whatsoever.

At my first tournament, about four years ago, I got four twos. Now I have a poker problem. I do win every so often, so that's what keeps me going.

Being able to pit your wits against literally hundreds of other people is really exciting and ultimately the biggest single challenge for a poker player.

I basically have paid for a piano and a flat-screen television completely with my poker earnings. I'm pretty good at it.

No doubt about it, in order to win the WSOP Main Event, plenty of stamina is required.

In No Limit Hold'em, much like video games and karate lessons, you need to master one level before you can move on to the next.

Every poker player has ups and downs because luck is also involved. When a great poker player smashes, he's making the right moves and making the right reads and he's getting lucky.

Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time.

The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well. And having done it well, he loves to do it better.

When people say God blessed me with a beautiful jump shot, it really pisses me off. I tell those people, 'Don't undermine the work I've put in every day.' Not some days. Every day.

Confidence comes from creating something and knowing what I'm supposed to be doing and feeling like I'm good at what I'm supposed to be doing.

I think confidence comes from doing something well, working at it hard, and you build it up. It's not something you're born with. You have to build the confidence as you go along.

People create their own success by learning what they need to learn and then by practicing it until they become proficient at it.

Success is a learnable skill. You can learn to succeed at anything

I never was content unless I was trying my skill...or testing my endurance.

I owe everything to this football. But I'm proud of what I've made of the opportunity to become a trainer.

I came to America so that I could work with the best and be the best.

Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.

Excel and you will get a mentor.

Games give you a chance to excel.

My goal, everyone's goal is to get better at what we do.

I believe that we learn by practice... it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which come shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit.

What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement.

If you work at something, you get better at it.