Harvard Poker Pro Says Texas Hold ‘Em Can Teach Traders to Fold

• Brandon Adams started taking Adderall in college; now 31, he teaches economics at Harvard. 'A lot of attention has been given to undergraduates taking these drugs. But what about people like professors?' 'I think it's extremely common. It's extremely common in all of the professions from what I've seen,' Adams said.
• Brandon Adams taught undergrad economics courses at Harvard for nine years in game theory, behavioral finance, and international macroeconomics. He's a regular in the biggest poker cash games and tournaments, and has appeared on Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, and multiple televised final tables.

I am a poker player and have long thought that much about life and business can be learned at a poker table. Chip piles, bluffing, cutting and running, are all vital elements for poker, business, and life.

“With a clear and cold ey, BA helps chart a course through the sweetest and nastiest inflection points — for degenerates, Harvard MBAs, and not a few of the rest of us.” – Jim McManus, author of two of most influential and successful poker books of all time: Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker. Then, out of nowhere, bam, there’s high stakes poker player and Harvard economics instructor Brandon Adams. In an interview with Katie Couric, Adams, who started taking Adderall in college, discusses who the drug’s use is common in professors as welland that he recently took it to help him finish write a book. He also cops to using Provigil.

Harvard Poker Pro Says Texas Hold ‘Em Can Teach Traders to Fold
By Mason Levinson

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Brandon Adams, who teaches behavioral finance at Harvard University’s Department of Economics, says some of the best candidates for Wall Street trading jobs are the professional card players at FullTiltPoker.com and similar Web sites.

Brandon Adams Poker Harvard Il

“They’ve essentially been the survivors in the system, a very difficult system where 95 percent of people lose money,” the 30-year-old Adams, who plays at the site, said in a telephone interview. “Anyone smart enough and disciplined enough to survive that system is probably going to do very well in the trading world.”

Brandon Adams Poker Harvard

An increasing number of hedge funds and brokerages are scrutinizing professional poker to find talent and analytical tools, according to financial recruiters including Options Group, a New York-based executive-search company. Susquehanna International Group LLP, the Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based options and equity trading company, uses poker to teach strategic thinking.