Our method
SMART STAKES –
Play smart. Lead better.
With SMART STAKES – a poker-based workshop method – we rely on a scientifically grounded, field-tested and highly effective instrument that brings people together in a unique way. A method for decision-making capability, leadership & transformation.
SMART STAKES
From the poker table into daily work.
We use Texas Hold'em poker. For us, poker is a structured workshop and reflection instrument. At the table, what usually stays hidden becomes visible: how people deal with uncertainty, how they decide and react under pressure. As a result, our poker-based method, SMART STAKES, provides an ideal simulation environment for transformation. We consistently translate the experiences gained at the table into everyday work.
Experience
Participants make decisions at the table and experience the consequences directly – but within a safe frame. They show behavior that also appears in transformation processes.Reflect
Every decision at the table is analyzed: was it a good one, independent of its outcome? What was down to the situation, what to the player, what to chance? We transfer these questions directly into the project.Transfer
We deliberately link every insight to concrete situations in leadership, collaboration and change in daily work and we define measures for how to deal with them.Anchor
Our structured debriefings foster self-reflection and turn an experience into a habit.We deliberately train the capabilities that matter in every transformation: deciding under uncertainty, emotion regulation, co-creation, strategic thinking and communication. You cannot win everyone over for a new path, but you can invite everyone who is willing to think it through together.
Scientific foundation
Why poker?
Poker is the methodological core of our work: From workshops through team building to strategy and transformation. It is a scientifically recognized model for human behavior under real conditions. Our method rests on three strands of research.
01
Skill vs. luck
Economic and game-theoretic research shows a substantial, measurable skill component in poker. Research shows that better trained and experienced poker players achieve significantly higher gains than others (Potter van Loon et al. 2015 It also identifies three mechanisms that facilitate and shape future decisions based on past experiences: (1) memory, (2) reflection, and (3) tools and analytical approaches. Poker teaches all of these. (Levitt & Miles 2014; Duersch et al. 2020; Meyer et al. 2013).
02
Transfer to professional life
Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets" (2018) translates poker thinking into decision practice: evaluate process rather than outcome, think in probabilities, regulate emotions. Souza et al. (2023) demonstrate that the decision-making principles of profitable professional players can be directly applied to management. Strategic tools are a fundamental factor for success in the game, just as they are in transformation (Frey, S., Albino, D. K., & Williams, P. L. (2018)).
03
Cognition
For decades, poker has served as an experimental model for strategic behavior under incomplete information, a scientifically grounded didactic choice. In equal measure, playful, explicit and implicit learning is deeply anchored in human nature (Laakasuo, Palomäki & Salmela 2014; Caillois 1958).
Fit with practice
Why this method fits transformation
Transformation and leadership demand exactly those capabilities poker trains at its core: deciding under uncertainty, acting with incomplete information, regulating emotions, separating the quality of a decision from its outcome, and creating transparency and acceptance in the team.
Playful learning demonstrably works: gamified formats measurably increase knowledge retention and motivation compared to classic seminars (Sailer & Homner 2020; Bergner & Loos 2018). And transfer is not a promise but empirically proven – emotion regulation, decision quality and strategic thinking carry into daily work.
This is exactly where our method comes in: it combines the scientifically documented strengths of poker with our experience in leadership, strategy and organisational development – for results measurable in quality, efficiency and acceptance.
Further methods
Method follows task
Depending on the objective and the challenges in our client environments, we use the method that fits best. Alongside our own poker-based method, SMART STAKES, we also use LEGO® Serious Play®, Delegation Poker, Poker Planning and Design Thinking, among others. In addition, we utilize established frameworks in our work, such as John P. Kotter’s 8-step model or the phases of the Kübler-Ross curve adapted to change.
Team work makes the dream work
Together around one table
Impact emerges in the interplay. Together with Claudia Chinello and her PokerAcademy as well as Mike König and his HAPEK team, we bring our Game Plan to the table. Together we design not only our own Business Poker evenings, but also workshops, offsites, strategy offsites, and we use the method in our transformation engagements for our clients. This is how we shape your individual Game Plan.
Curious what we can achieve with SMART STAKES?
Discover our poker-based workshop and learning method. Experience the added value that experiential knowledge brings to your organisation, your team and your change initiative.