Inside the Secret World of Professional Poker: Cheating, Millions & Reading People - Chris Dowling

<p><strong>A Professional Poker Player on Risk, Luck, Reading People and Why You Can Make the Perfect Decision and Still Lose.</strong></p><p>Chris Dowling has spent well over a decade making a living at the poker table, from local card rooms in Ireland to the high-stakes rooms of Las Vegas. But this conversation is about far more than cards. It is about how to think clearly under pressure, how to read people, how to manage risk and emotion, and how to keep making good decisions when the outcome is out of your hands.</p><p>Ryan sits down with Chris for a genuinely fascinating look inside the mind of a professional, and the mental habits that apply to anyone&#39;s life, whether you have ever played a hand or not.</p><p><strong>What we get into:</strong></p><ul><li>How Chris went from the electrical trade to professional poker after the recession</li><li>The three levels of poker, and where the real money and the real pros actually are</li><li>Why films get poker completely wrong, and how cheating really works</li><li>Why poker is not gambling, and the maths that makes the house always win</li><li>Reading people: what you can actually tell from how someone acts, dresses and bets</li><li>Game theory, exploiting mistakes, and the rock paper scissors trick that explains it all</li><li>Why the best players randomise their decisions using their watch</li><li>Going on tilt, and how the same emotional spiral shows up everywhere in life</li><li>Why most people badly misunderstand luck and probability</li><li>What separates a calculated risk from being reckless, and when to walk away</li><li>How experience, not talent, lets the best stay calm playing for millions</li><li>The single most useful thing poker can teach you about decisions in real life</li></ul><p>Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who&#39;ve turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.</p><p><strong>Follow:</strong> @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis</p><p>🖊️ Sponsored by <strong>The Ink Factory</strong>, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory</p>