Contracts and Poker: Lawyers as Players

Trivia question: Name two lawyers who have won the World Series of Poker main event.
Is it a coincidence that so many people trained as lawyers have become poker players?

I don’t think they all got the idea from Mike McDermott, Matt Damon’s character in Rounders, who dropped out of law school to try his hand at the big game, but he did make the green felt jungle look like a more appealing alternative. On the other hand, it could be said that since a lot of people who went to law school are not practicing law, there are ex-lawyers in every field.

There are of course the writers who write about the law, like the ex-judge of the Michigan Supreme Court, Robert Traver, who wrote Anatomy of a Murder, Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason mysteries, and more recently Scott Turow (whose first book, One L, was about what it is like to be a first-year student at Harvard Law School) and John Grisham. But there are also those whose work has nothing to do with the law, such as the great American poet Wallace Stevens, who practiced law at the same time he wrote poetry, but, as far as I know, the twain never met.

Then there are those whose careers started in law but ended up in leadership positions, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, and Barack Obama. Others strayed far from the law like baseball greats Branch Rickey and Tony La Russa, artists Matisse and Kandinski, singer Julio Iglesias, bandleader Ozzie Nelson, dancer Gene Kelly, and actors Gerard Butler, John Cleese, and Jerry O’Connell.

I have only anecdotal evidence that the proportion of ex-lawyers in poker is greater than in these other fields, but if I were a betting man, I would put money on it. There just seem to be so many characteristics that lawyers and poker players have in common. There are the obvious similarities, like competitiveness, aggressiveness, desire for autonomy, and ability to keep one’s butt in a chair for hours on end that could lead a person into either field. Lawyers tend to be analytical and cerebral, rather than emotional. They have to be self-motivated, for others rarely praise them. They are lifetime learners, not only enjoying the quick feedback they get at the table, but reflecting on it to improve their talents.

There are more specific aspects of legal training that can be useful at the poker table. Lawyers are problem solvers. They learn to make the most of what they have got to find a winning strategy. Parenthetically, I once asked a dean why he put up with the deadwood he had on the faculty and he said, “You have to play the hand you’re dealt.” I was dumbfounded by the foolishness of that remark and quickly realized he was not a poker player.

Then there are those characteristics that cause lawyers to be placed near the bottom of “most trusted” rankings, where they compete with politicians and used car salesmen. If lawyers are such great liars, then they should be good bluffers with few tells. If they have no scruples, then they will happily take your money. They are always looking for an edge. As good talkers, they may prove persuasive, as lawyer Will Kassouf has unpleasantly demonstrated. If they make a deal, it will usually be to their advantage. But they do have a code of ethics, and are unlikely to cheat or break their word.

While we often think of lawyers as litigators, most do transactional work, which can be great training for poker. When drafting a contract, for example, a lawyer does not just take a form from the computer and fill in the blanks. Every contractual situation is different, just as every hand is different. The lawyer has to time-travel, thinking about what might go wrong in the future and then develop an initial strategy to cover those possibilities. But if in the course of the transaction, things don’t go as planned, the lawyer is quick to adapt, figuring out on the fly how to make the best of it.

Lawyers also see the big picture, seeing a trial or a transaction as game theory. While not always the most empathetic people, lawyers nevertheless learn that it is beneficial to see things from the other person’s point of view, constantly asking, what is the other side going to do and how can I take advantage of it? Lawyers are good at managing risk, charting a course between the Scylla of timidity and the Charybdis of recklessness.

Of course, every strength has its weakness. While they may be good risk managers, lawyers may not be such good risk-takers and that can be a handicap at the poker table. I recall a passage from one of my favorite poker books, Anthony Holden’s Big Deal. Holden was a writer, not a lawyer, and in 1998 he took advantage of a parting of the ways with Rupert Murdoch to try a new career as a professional poker player. The book chronicles his adventures that year, exploring every aspect of poker in those pre-Moneymaker pre-online days. Toward the end of the year he is in a big game and he finds himself asking something like, “Do I want to just call the rent or also raise the tuition payment?” At that moment, he realizes that he will never be a professional poker player.

Since I spent a career training lawyers, I like to think that the fact they do a lot of different things means that law teaches some valuable skills that can be used in many different settings. But on the down side it also tells me that there are a lot of unhappy lawyers out there who are eager to find something different to do. And if my analysis is correct, their personalities and their skills may lead them to the poker tables. One tip – if you find yourself sitting next to a lawyer at the table, don’t ask them for legal advice. That’s what they came to the tables to avoid.

Answer to trivia question: WSOP main event-winning lawyers include Dan Harrington and Greg Raymer. ♠

Scott J. Burnham is professor emeritus at Gonzaga Law School in Spokane, Washington. He can be contacted at [email protected]. This column is adapted from his article, A Transactional Lawyer Looks at the Rules of Tournament Poker, which was published in Gaming Law Review and Economics.