🎧 Poker Face, Investment Ace: Nick Drakon's Advice
Round Table Recap: November 28th, 2022
Russian DeFi
April 03, 2023
Fold or bet?
Nick Drakon has the winning hand when it comes to strategies for crypto as well as poker.
In this Round Table discussion he shares how he developed skills like risk management and self-awareness through high-stakes games and how you can apply those same principles to your investment strategy.
You can listen to the full audio here
Panel
• Guest - Nick Drakon ( Twitter : @NickDrakon )
• Host - Garlam Won ( Twitter : @GarlamWON )
Introducing Nick Drakon
Founder of Revelo Intel & host of the DeFi Sparks podcast
He started his business career in nightclubs during high school.
He went to law school during his time in the nightclub business, and he was introduced to Live Poker in underground rooms in Sydney (2001)
He fell in love with it and learned to play it at a high level while making a lot of money for a 21/22-year-old
Naturally, he moved to play online Poker as he could make much more, and online poker blew up massively.
Dropped out of law school to play poker full time for 7-8 years
He enjoyed poker for so long because he treated it like a job. Most people will over-glamorize it and get too arrogant, and the likely end is misery.
You have to be good at making decisions under pressure and have the discipline to have prolonged success in Poker.
🎧️ Gambling for a living - the discipline of Poker & Crypto markets 👇️
Revelo Intel - a database of information for users to acquire new and relevant news in summary format from project AMAs, events, and more
This service is essential during bull and bear markets to keep updated with narratives and capitalize on them.
Comprehensive reports succinctly summarize projects but still give an in-depth understanding of the project.
Skills Nick Picked Up in Poker That Helped Him in Crypto/investing
Bankroll Management - Never go broke - if you do, you can’t play and lose your edge immediately. This is the issue with many poker players and traders. Nick researched bankroll management plans and formed his own to keep himself safe from going broke.
Understanding Variance involves a component of luck. You can have an edge, but this edge is not static - you can play all day, and you can lose every game or win some and lose some, so always be prepared and account for this variance.
🎧️ Managing bankrolls, understanding variance 👇️
Could you ask yourself these questions beforehand?
What is the volatility associated with the asset?
How much of your bankroll will you lose on the bet/asset?
Nick controls his risk enough to the point where he hasn’t been liquidated in 15 years, and he’s always cash ready for a crash/black swan event to deploy capital and make a massive gain.
When he wins, he wins massively; when he loses, it’s a minor loss - risk management.
Revenge trading and flying in blind can be grievous mistakes.
Have Self-Awareness - you can feel your emotions and how when you’re having feelings and make sure you can regulate your decisions.
Knowing when situations are serious risk - make the assessment yourself of the situation - what is the level of risk? Does the expected reward cover this risk? If you conclude the risk is worth it - play.
This applies to crypto heavily due to the risk of rugs, price crashes, protocol failure, etc.
🎧️ Risk mitigation strategies in crypto 👇️
Understand the ‘game’ is player vs. player - someone has to lose for you to win; this is natural as long as you understand this.
Never forget - these industries can push people into deep holes leading to very dark things/actions - this is human nature, for example, rugs, ghosting founders, and scammers in crypto.
For example - FTX filed for bankruptcy on a Friday and was hacked on a Sunday - was this a hack or an attempt to cut bait and run with whatever the ‘hacker’ could take?
Game Theory - How Do You Use It in the Markets/poker?
There is a game theory of optimal play for every situation that yields the highest expected value.
Previously players would run the possibilities in their heads, but now there is AI that does it.
🎧️ PvP Nature of crypto 👇️
What Kind of Narratives Are You Seeing Now?
No one knows what broke - the markets are sliding and unsafe, and no one understands what went wrong, was it all FTX or more?
Nick feels DeFi is un-investable and will be for a while.
Nick has emptied all his CEX accounts and all DeFi protocol he was in and sent them to cold storage to avoid human interference.
Nick is adamant about finding out ‘what broke’ before making his next investment decision.
Many institutions are under pressure, and to think it's all okay is stupid.
🎧️ What we can learn from the FTX contagion 👇️