Ep 607 - Chats: Alex O’Brien and a chip off the writer’s block

This week Jim Reid and the RecPoker RECing Crew interview poker author Alex O’Brien, who shares some stories about her career as a writer and player, the difference between science writing and poker writing, balancing time for projects she is passionate about, life lessons from poker and from writing, playing in the 2024 WSOP and the role of one’s rail, and a lot more!

We also play Stake/Study Stack with Dara O’Kearney, Jen Shahade and Maria Konnikova and we Close The Action with our speed round.

Plus of course we raffle away a free prize at the end for folks in the YouTube chat, to help support a local food bank. Join us LIVE on YouTube next Monday at 7:30 ET for free to ask our guests questions in real time, and you can win too!

Find Alex on socials here:

https://x.com/obrientweet

https://www.instagram.com/alexob2209/

We also go over this week's home game results and discuss these topics:

How to help us out - https://rec.poker/support/

Home Games - https://rec.poker/homegame/

Go Premium! - https://rec.poker/premium/

Timestamps:

05:20 Alex talks about her path in poker

13:57 Alex sees poker as a challenging activity

17:07 Working with the BBC: Alex provides details about the project

23:37 Poker as an explanation for life

30:33 Understanding emotions in poker

36:12 The greatest lesson in poker

39:43 Valuable insights on how to approach strategy

46:29 Techniques to not project microexpressions

50:08 Who gets more folds? Player wearing a Hoodie vs. Jacket

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RecPoker is a vibrant and encouraging poker learning community. We are committed to learning the game, but our priority is building healthy relationships where we can not only grow in the game, but grow in our enjoyment of life. The free membership website at rec.poker is awesome, but it's just a tool to help us build that community. You can join for FREE, giving you access to the groups, forums, and other member benefits. If you want to enjoy the premium content, or become part of the RECing Crew, those options are available and you can get $10 off your first payment using the code RECPOKER. Music by Peter Troolin, ptroolin@gmail.com