A self-confessed nerd with a first-class degree in astrophysics, Liv Boeree combined her science background and passion for games to become one of the most recognizable faces in professional poker. She was the #1 ranked female player from 2014-2016, and holds both European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker championship titles after winning more than $4 million on the international circuit.

Liv Boeree’s Speech Topics:

Applying Poker Strategies to Business & Life

Like poker, life is a game of high-stakes decisions under uncertainty. Liv explores the thinking techniques of top poker players, including cognitive bias reduction, emotional control and the role of intuition in decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence & Games

Artificial Intelligence is poised to be the most impactful technological breakthrough of the 21st century, and games are a great way of measuring its progress. In just a few decades, algorithms have advanced from rudimentary tic-tac-toe solvers of the 1950s to powerful AI defeating world champions in notoriously complex games. Liv explores what sets these technologies apart from the human mind, and what their implications are for our future.

Counter-Intuitive Phenomena

How far does the Earth stretch if you cut it into one metre cubes and lay them out in one long line? When is a positive medical test result still more likely to be false than it is to be true? And which likelihoods are closer together: 50% and 1%, or 1% and 0%? Prepare to have your mind blown as Liv explores fascinating counterintuitive concepts that defy our deepest instincts.

Effective Philanthropy

Philanthropy is undergoing a scientific revolution. Previously, charity and the act of “doing good” was a fuzzy, unmeasurable concept that most people felt couldn’t — or maybe even shouldn’t — be evaluated or compared. But nowadays, improved data and evidence allows us to better measure the impact of our philanthropic actions. In this illuminating talk, Liv discusses how, and why, we should prioritize between cause areas, and how we can maximize the positive impact we want to achieve on the world.

A Woman in a Man’s World

As a female professional poker player, heavy metal enthusiast and physics graduate, Liv is very accustomed to being the only girl in the room. Liv discusses the pros and cons of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. 

Video:

Liv Boeree’s Bio:

A self-confessed nerd with a first class degree in astrophysics, Liv combined her science background and passion for games to become one of the most recognizable faces in professional poker. She was the #1 ranked female player from 2014-2016, and holds both European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker championship titles after winning more than $4 million on the international circuit.

Liv is also a keen philanthropist, and in 2014 co-founded Raising for Effective Giving (REG), a research and advisory non-profit that uses the philosophies and strategies of Effective Altruism to identify and raise money for the most globally impactful charities.

Since retiring from professional poker in 2018, Liv is now focused on education, keen to inspire others with the rational thinking techniques she has learned through both poker and Effective Altruism.

Growing up in rural Kent, England, Liv was a highly competitive straight-A student who held a deep love for space and astronomy from an early age. This lead to her studying physics and astrophysics at the University of Manchester, graduating in 2005 with first class honours (4.0 GPA equivalent). 

She was also a passionate guitar player, spending much of her time between lectures playing lead for various metal bands, a passion that lead her to London after graduation to pursue music further.  It was there she noticed a cryptic TV gameshow advert looking for contestants “willing to use their powers of skill and deception to win money”, to which she promptly applied with the hope it could pay off her student debt. After being selected as one of the five contestants, it was revealed that they were to be taught to play poker.

Despite not winning that particular show, Liv immediately fell in love with the game and decided to pursue the game as both a player and TV host. Her first major win was the televised European Ladies Championship in 2007, but her breakthrough moment came a few years later when she bested 1240 opponents to take down the European Poker Tour in Italy. 

Her poker career continued for another nine years as a member of Team Pokerstars Pro, hosting various TV shows and winning further live and online tournaments including the 2017 World Series of Poker Tag-Team championship alongside her partner Igor Kurganov.

Liv retired from professional poker soon after her breakout TED talk to pursue speaking and TV more actively, and today splits her time between the speaking circuit and creating TV and video content on her favourite counter-intuitive and scientific topics.