The Poker Room - It's Business
The Poker Room is taking the world of business by storm, transferring valuable business principles through what is becoming an increasingly popular card game. “Every hand is a mini negotiation process,” says Mark Bernberg – the founder of The Poker Room. It is something he should know – as an avid poker player and a serial entrepreneur, Bernberg combined his two passions to create a workshop presentation that’s made business sit up and take notice.
The Poker Room’s objective is not to teach people how to play the game of poker, but rather to use the lessons learned through the economic principles of “game theory” to read people, negotiate deals and come to strategic decisions that while have an impact on the bottom line – and the bottom line is to make money!
Mark graduated from UCT with double Honours in Economics and Finance. In 2004, after a successful career in investment banking in London, he returned to South Africa to start up a wholesale trading business in precious stones. Following the sale of this business to a multi-national conglomerate, he turned his attention to the strategy of business interaction. Since then he has spoken and lectured to management of some of the biggest corporates in South Africa about the role of economic game theory and its application in the modern business environment.
Business at its heart is all about relationships. However whenever two people interact there is a certain amount of imperfect information that exists (the stuff we don’t know about the other person – like what they are thinking and feeling). The theory of games is the theory of decision making, and Game Theory, which has widespread use in business, comes into play when knowing how your opponent is going to react or what they are thinking will impact on your decision.
What The Poker Room teaches is how to get the most out of a negotiation or interaction with someone, using tools that improve things like personal branding and the ability to read people. These tools are communicated through The Poker Room’s six components of the presentation, namely:
1. Reading People – Your poker face
2. The art of negotiation – the game of tells
3. Branding – your table image
4. Decision making – Game Theory
5. Selling your hand – the business of the game
6. Dealing – the management module
The presentation is summed up by a quote from Bobby Baldwin – a professional poker player and now CEO of the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas – who says, “the only difference between a board room table and a poker table is the shape.”
Mark is a seasoned public speaker who entertains, thrills and educates through a unique and stimulating presentation that truly challenges people’s perceptions of human interaction in business, and creates new realities through the strategic art of the game of poker!