How gambling and espionage use the same high-stakes strategies

The surprising connection between CIA spies and professional gamblers

There’s a reason why seasoned gamblers and seasoned spies walk into a room the same way — like they already know something you don’t. They’ve both learned to live on instinct, calculation, and the thrill of risk. And the deeper you look, the more you realize: the world of espionage and the world of high-stakes gambling are playing the same game — just with different stakes.

Let’s put this into focus. Take Phil Ivey, often called the greatest poker player of all time. Calm under pressure, unreadable, a master of deception. He doesn’t just play the cards — he plays people. Now match him up with Tony Mendez, the real-life CIA officer behind the daring “Canadian Caper” rescue during the Iran hostage crisis. He was the guy who bluffed the Iranian regime using a fake Hollywood film. Ivey and Mendez? Two sides of the same coin.

In 1980, Mendez orchestrated the rescue of six American diplomats hiding in Tehran. His plan? Get them out by posing as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a sci-fi movie called Argo. It was complete fiction. But Mendez went all in — fake scripts, posters, business cards, even a real Hollywood office to back it up. He didn’t just bluff a table of gamblers. He bluffed the entire Iranian regime.