Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society is Growing

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS), the brainchild of students at Harvard led by law school professor Charles Nesson, is catching on fast around the world, putting forward poker as an educational tool that especially applies to law and business, and also supporting an open education in an open internet, and raising awareness for the legality of poker.

"Poker teaches many lessons that are transferable to the challenges of life, including strategic understanding of risk, resource management and self control," said Nesson, a tenured professor on the Harvard faculty for close to forty years, and founder of Harvard's Berkman Center on Internet Law. "Know when to hold'em, and when to fold'em, as the song says."

The organization also aims to promote the teaching of poker in an attempt to legitimize it, a goal in line with the Poker Players Alliance and other industry organizations.

GPSTS Executive Director Andrew Woods noted, "We're an educational group. We're not a legislative group and don't have a legislative agenda. However, to some extent, the GPSTS is a 'heart and minds' campaign. If we can help legitimize poker, it could lead to decreased pressure on it from lawmakers."

Woods, who helped found the society while a law student at Harvard, relayed the 4 main activities of the GPSTS during a recent conference at Google University's headquarters:

#1- Start and develop clubs: The GPSTS is developing chapters at 18-20 American universities right now, trying to spread the word about poker's aid as a teaching tool.

Chapters have been established at Cornell, Harvard, Indiana University-South Bend, Ohio State and UCLA. The process is already underway for additional chapters at Brown, George Washington University, Gonzaga, Illinois, MIT, NC State, Oakland University, Rice, SMU, Stanford, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNLV, USC and Wharton.

They also have 4 to 5 global efforts underway in Singapore, as well as Iceland and the UK.

#2- Conduct Seminars and Conferences: The GPSTS conducts seminars and conferences to secondary schools and community centers that explore poker as a means to teach strategic thinking and related public policy issues.

"Our goal is to create an open online curriculum centered on poker that will draw the brightest minds together, both from within and outside of the conventional university setting, to promote open education and Internet democracy," Nesson said.

#3- Offer a Speaker Series: The GPSTS arranges speakers to educate how poker can be used as a teaching tool and translates into many life situations.

Howard Lederer and Annie Duke have already had several speaking engagements. Mike Sexton and Jim McManus are also lined up as speakers, in addition to Nesson and Woods.

#4- Have Fun Playing Poker: The GPSTS wants learning to be fun, and to expose students to the type of thinking poker stimulates, so they organize NCAA-style championships in the novel game of team poker between law, business and other graduate-level programs.

The first match held was Harvard vs Yale. At the second recent match, the poker club of UCLA edged out USC for a 3-2 win (click here for related article).

The Google University talk illustrated the popularity of the society's message and its broad appeal. A room for 30 was booked and over 100 attended. It was also broadcasted to two other locations.

"I think the turnout was large because it's an interesting subject to people. What we're saying really resonates with people and they are starting to buy in. Plus, a lot of these people play poker," Woods noted.

Click here to watch the entertaining and informative video from the GPSTS Google University visit.

Click here to read more about the society on their website.

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