From High Stakes Poker To

Dan Tsui, CEO at software engineering consultancy and product studio Kyokan, joins me today for this conversation. Before this, he did a lot of freelancing in software engineering. And before that, of course, he was a professional poker player. As he’ll explain today, playing online poker is actually what got him into software to begin with. When I ask Dan about the similarities between poker and business, he brings up a very insightful answer: the intuitive understanding of risk, having an edge, and what it means to exploit that edge. These points, he explains, are difficult for professionals from non-game-playing backgrounds to wrap their heads around in the same way. The biggest differences, on the other hand, involve working as a team player instead of solo. We’ll also dig into mindset, exploring various aspects of the topic of translating a poker mentality into the business world. Dan will share his thoughts on the problems with the mindset of people who play poker while waiting to come up with a busines