The first of what looks to be many academic events centered around poker takes place Monday when
Howard Lederer and long-time poker pro
Crandell Addington head to Harvard to speak in front of the newly formed Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS). They will talk about how poker skills translate into life skills. This will be the first in a planned series on that subject.
The next day (Oct. 16), Harvard's GPSTS will take a close look at the World Trade Organization dispute about online gambling that's pitting the United States against Antigua.
Harvard law professor Charles Nesson and his students are behind GPSTS. Nesson believes that poker is "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."
Students from universities everywhere are welcome to form a GPSTS chapter, and chapters are already being formed at Penn State, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Brown, Tufts, and Boston University. Chapters are also being formed at universities in Singapore, Finland, and the United Kingdom. Its goal is to have at least two dozen chapters by the end of the academic year.
The Harvard chapter was officially recognized by the university Oct. 1.
Nesson says his 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.
One of its major goals is to open an online curriculum centered around 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."
Two more events will take place next month. On Nov. 10, a panel exploring the educational utility of poker will feature
Card Player magazine author and educator
Jim McManus and poker ambassador
Mike Sexton.
Then, on Nov. 16, Harvard's GPSTS will host a poker tourney between Yale and Harvard. This is the night before the Harvard-Yale football rivalry game. A poker match will also take place between members of the GPSTS at USC and UCLA on Nov. 30.
And the Harvard chapter is planning two major events for next spring. The first is a poker educational workshop at the Smith Leadership Academy, a charter school in Dorchester, Massachusetts, that focuses on education for at-risk youths. The session will focus on ways educators can use poker to teach risk assessment, asset management, math, and negotiation skills.
The second will be called the
Intercollegiate Poker Face-off. It will feature team competition from several universities around the country where the first GPSTS collegiate team champion will be crowned. This will likely take place during the NCAA Division I basketball tournament.
And it all starts Monday.
