Last Updated on June 27, 2025 by Johnny Peter
Entrepreneurs share many similarities with poker players. They also navigate uncertainty, making decisions based on incomplete information and calculating the risk-reward ratio of all their moves. In the world of startups, ambition and innovation meet, but sometimes, these two elements do not do enough to sell a project. That is where projecting confidence, misdirection, and false representations come in.
That is where mastering the art of bluffing goes a long way in getting a newly formed, smaller company to grow and succeed. It is a widespread belief that 90% of startups eventually fail, with CB Insights noting that around 70% disappear within the first five years. Whatever the actual stat, all data on this topic paint a dark picture of this landscape, putting fear in investors’ hearts regarding pouring money into business entities that have just gotten their feet wet despite showing promise.
Cashflow issues, lack of customer feedback, and competition are usually cited as the top three reasons entrepreneurs struggle to get a venture off the ground. Thus, some touches of untruth here and there are necessary for many to lay the groundwork for a business to thrive up to a point where a startup morphs into an early-stage entity. That is what we explore below, revealing the top three tactics used to accomplish this swiftly.
Statistical Deceptions
Equivalent to poker players crafting false narratives and perceptions, rising companies often exaggerate to gain traction when pitching to venture capitalists or marketing to customers. They do this to boost the potential of their targeted branch and have their project attain some level of pre-launch credibility. It is a fact that most startup pitch decks contain inflated metrics to secure funding. That is not necessarily false data, but carefully selected information that aligns with what they try to project.
For example, poker startups in the USA and parties behind them may cite a ResearchAndMarkets.com report that estimates this sector raked in $5.3 billion in 2024. But another study can be found on the same site that notes that the online poker global market was valued at $3.86 billion in 2024, claiming it should keep growing at a rate of 10%, compared to the previous research that mentions it will expand by 13.7% per year until 2030. Thus, a poker startup is likelier to include a report that goes more in their favor and makes their goal more realizable. Of course, one research study may be more valid than another due to its more accurate methodology. However, no study is 100% precise in any way.
When startups pitch, they must balance bold advertising with tangible potential progress. They do this to maintain trust. Nonetheless, many of them undoubtedly tell little white lies or not-so-little ones when doing this, and many investors are aware they are partaking in this and willingly accept their claims for dreams of high investment returns.
Overhyping Technology
Bold bluffs can convince opponents that someone holds an unbeatable hand when the reality is they have only mediocre cards. Startups employ a similar tactic when pumping up the tech they use, calling it something unique or different from what is currently utilized in the landscape. They will also present so-called breakthroughs, which are realistically incomplete or unproven, to attract investors, partners, or customers.
Sticking with online poker as our example industry, virtual reality failed to enter online gambling respectably in the mid-2010s despite tries from companies like Playtech and Microgaming. Today, many newly funded poker companies cite the success of the PokerStars VR app, now called Vegas Infinity, as an example of how poker fans are already familiar with VR card action. But this VR software uses virtual in-game currency and is not an apt representation of real money VR card gambling interest.
Overhyped technology can create good momentum. Just as AI startups like to claim they have proprietary algorithms while relying on open-source frameworks, poker ones hype platforms’ scalability in early pitches despite technical limitations.
Hiding Risks
Is online poker growing? Yes, it is. That said, will it maintain its expansion pace in the next few years? That is unclear. While more people are likely to begin testing their luck on poker’s many variations on the Web, startups from this domain, like all others, traditionally downplay risks, technical challenges, and market uncertainties.
While over ten thousand people attended the most recent WSOP Main Event, only eight US states have regulated online poker, and only six have licensed sites. Connecticut regulated this sphere in 2021, but no websites have launched there, and the same holds for West Virginia, which passed its online poker legislation in 2019. So, there are still many regulatory risks for growth that get glossed over, intentionally. That happens in all industries, as early-stage pitches minimize compliance challenges, looking to appear investor-ready when they are not.
Virtually everyone avoids discussing untested demand or entrenched competitors when searching for investors. Unless asked about these things, startup CEOs conceal them. They, too, like to downplay engineering challenges, execution risks, unproven scalability, and reliability issues. If everything is transparently revealed as it should, investor interest will likely crumble under truthful inspection. Accordingly, hiding some things improves the chances that a project will debut.
