Harvard Law Charters First Student Poker Society

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- An initiative at Harvard Law School to promote poker strategy as a learning tool has prompted students at several top universities to form poker clubs in preparation for a national collegiate team tournament and conference next year, among other activities designed to promote the educational benefits of poker in a university setting.

The student poker clubs -- called Global Poker Strategic Thinking Societies (GPSTS) -- are the brainchild of students at Harvard led by law school professor Charles Nesson. Nesson organized the GPSTS in August at a major Internet conference in Singapore to tap into the enormous growth in the popularity of poker on campuses worldwide, and to harness it as an educational game in universities and secondary schools.

"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. "When to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, as the song says."

"The level of student response to our announcement of GPSTS is overwhelming," Nesson said. "Many people agree that poker itself, besides being fun, has an academic component that can bring great benefits to learning at all levels."

Nesson and Andrew Woods, the Harvard Law student who organized the Harvard chapter, announced the following details about the progress of GPSTS:

-- Harvard Law School formally approved the GPSTS as an official student organization on October 1. Sixty-two Harvard Law students have signed up.

-- GPSTS chapters are now being formed at Penn State, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Brown, Tufts, and Boston University. Chapters also are being organized internationally at universities in Singapore, Finland, and the United Kingdom. The goal is to have at least two dozen chapters by the end of the academic year.

-- Harvard's GPSTS is planning several academic panels to explore poker as a tool for learning. The first, scheduled for October 15, and focused on life skills, will feature poker champions Howard Lederer and Crandall Addington.

-- On October 16, Harvard's GPSTS will explore a major dispute in the World Trade Organization over the legality of online poker and other forms of gaming. The WTO matter pits the tiny island of Antigua against the Bush Administration, with billions of dollars of trade concessions at stake.

-- On November 10, Harvard's GPSTS will host a panel exploring the educational utility of poker that will feature Jim McManus, a poker historian, and Mike Sexton, considered one of the most skilled poker stars ever.

-- On November 16, Harvard will host the first poker team competition with Yale the night before the Harvard-Yale football game. A separate team match will take place in Los Angeles on November 30, between poker players from USC and UCLA the night before the football game between the rivals.

The GPSTS is also planning two major events for next Spring. The first is a poker educational workshop at the Smith Leadership Academy, a charter school in Dorchester, MA that focuses on education for at-risk youth. An introductory session will focus on ways educators can use poker to teach risk assessment, asset management, math, and negotiation skills.

The second major event, the Intercollegiate Poker Face-off, will feature team competition from several universities around the country. The competition will crown a collegiate team champion, and likely will take place during the NCAA Division I basketball tournament.

About GPSTS

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society views poker as an exceptional game of skill that can be used as a powerful teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education. The GPSTS recognizes that poker can be a metaphor for skills of life, business, politics and international relations. A major goal of GPSTS 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.

Founded by Harvard Law Professor and Berkman Center founder Charles Nesson, GPSTS has three programmatic goals: offering poker strategic thinking workshops to schools and community centers, particularly in underprivileged neighborhoods; sponsoring team poker matches between law, business and other professional schools; and conducting seminars, panel discussions and conferences that explore poker as a means to teach strategic thinking and related public policy issues.

"Teaching truth leads to and through teaching poker as a skill in seeing and understanding another's point of view. It's for anyone who is eager to learn how the rhetorical world works and connect it to the physical." -Charles Nesson

Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society

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