Poker playing experience in buy-side interview

Im a college senior with final rounds for FT buy-side analyst roles coming up and am wondering if I should attempt to discuss my poker playing experience in the interviews. Some background: Im a college athlete, finance major, and have payed my way through school with my athletic scholsrship and by playing poker during winter/summer breaks. It is much more than a hobby and I estimate my experience is in the millions of hands. My sport went through the summer so i have no internships but have somehow managed to land some final rounds anyway. I know buy-side jobs tend to be a little more interested in uniquie experiences like this, and a lot of my analytical skills have been developed and honed through poker. There are easily drawn parallels between poker and investing so I think I would have an easy enough time making it sound good. I am also teaching a class through the math department at my school called "probabilistic thinking and analystics in Poker". Does anybody have an opinion on whether this is a good experience to bring up or if it is a red flag/topic to be avoided in a final round/superday setting? My main concern is that people may see it as gambling (which it isnt, its a pure skill game with variance), but I also know that its a topic I am an expert in with strong parallels to investing and it has taught me a great deal about managing risk and uncertainty. Any advice from people who have gone through the buy-side interview process is welcome.

10 Comments
 

If you say you’re big into poker, I heard they ask questions like “What’s the probability of 4 Kings in a five card draw”

 

Thank you for this. I can absolute explain the concepts in a coherent and thorough way. I just don't want to get in to that conversation with someone who has written off everything I say before I even start. I think I'm going to have to make a judgement call based on my assessment of the interviewer and have a backup topic in place. It's clear from your comment you have played a little bit. Here's to hoping online makes a return in America.

 
Most Helpful

If you really have poker experience, then I recommend you play at an online casino to get a nice bonus. https://aussiebestcasinos.com/casino-bonuses/</a">here is you can read a review of casinos with bonuses that offer the best conditions and have a good rating. Reviews will help you choose a reliable and proven casino in which you will be confident. I recommend it from my own experience because once I played in an unknown casino and I was very not lucky, I was deceived and it was unpleasant. Since then, I have been reading reviews constantly.

 

I completely agree with you, very often people perceive poker not as a game that is worth thinking about a lot, but as ordinary gambling. Although poker is a game worth thinking and analyzing a lot.

 

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