This summer, Steven Garfinkle's e-mail inbox was flooded with congratulatory messages from students and colleagues, with many of the students asking if it would be all right if they stopped by his office to talk about the
World Series of Poker.
Garfinkle, an associate professor of history at Western Washington University in Washington State, just missed this year's
WSOP main event final table by one player, but his 10th-place finish was enough to get him on the front page of the local newspaper -- twice -- as well as in the school's newspaper.
This interest, along with the many posts he reads on poker forums across the Internet with titles like "Should I quit school to play poker?" prompted Garfinkle to submit a letter to
Card Player (published in its entirety below) about why even the most successful young poker players should remain college students, even if they're one of the few who are having incredible success and blowing up in the online poker world.
As a poker-playing educator, Garfinkle knows about the many life skills that can be sharpened at a poker table. From the math to the complex logic it takes to figure out someone's hand, Garfinkle, like many of the game's serious fans, appreciates how these lessons apply to the real world.
That said, he understands that poker can be an all-consuming sport, and if poker-playing students are not careful, they might miss the entire college experience because they spent all of their free time trying to qualify for the
WSOP.
"There are so many things going on for students, and they're at an age when they really think they can do everything at once, and what oftentimes gets the short shrift is their actual college experience," Garfinkle said. "One of the things that I really like to tell students is that this is a unique time. And I say this from the perspective of an educator, but also from the perspective of someone who has been where they are not that long ago. There are so many fun things that you can get out of college."
The message he wants to get across is to just be smart about it. Don't forget about the opportunities you may be missing away from the computer screen. Be aware of the happy-hour specials and intramural sports, and don't let poker -- as lucrative as it can be -- erase the college experience.
He expands on this theme in his letter, below (under "Steven Garfinkle's letter").
The Poker Way
Never before in the history of the United States' higher-education system has poker so much permeated college life. Even though poker has been used on college campuses longer than the Dewey Decimal System has existed, only now has its players emerged in such large numbers.
No organization is working harder to expand the status of poker as an academic tool more than the newly formed Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS). Started in August of this year by a handful of Harvard students and law professor Charles Nelson, it set the goal of making people understand how the skills needed to play poker at a high level can be used to live a successful life. GPSTS chapters have begun to spring up on campuses everywhere, and if all of the schools who have applied to their schools' administrations for charters are approved (the GPSTS insists that the clubs are formed through proper academic channels), it will have 19 charters by the end of the year.
It has already hosted a variety of events centered on poker, and not all of them are about poker strategy. Its members have tackled such topics as Internet poker and the World Trade Organization, the educational value of the game, the legality of the sport, and articles about the GPSTS and its events have been published in such mainstream media outlets as the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Andrew Woods, a Harvard law student and the executive director of its GPSTS, believes that poker is approaching the status of chess as far as how it's viewed on campus; it's the ultimate strategic simulator. It's the ultimate strategic simulator, and it can be used to teach people everything from business negotiations to judging when someone is lying.
Woods believes the message of staying in school is one that GPSTS members would find somewhat redundant. The modern poker player, or at least one who might model themselves in the GPSTS's strategic mold, is one who desires knowledge, who absorbs all the stimuli of life experience to better themselves, and would never center themselves solely on one thing, like poker. There's supposedly no gambling at GPSTS, and the clubs get together to "explore poker for the sake of poker," according to Wood. To put it metaphorically, if Plato taught at Harvard, he might have played poker with Nesson for the sake of knowledge.
The GPSTS preaches the gospel of Mike Caro in that poker is not about making money, it's about making the right decisions all of the time.
But one of the reasons poker is so compelling and competitive can be seen when watching how the stress of playing with real money affects players, and even Woods admits how fun poker can be, even as a job. But even though he says he was having a blast playing poker 40 to 60 hours a week, he quit to go to law school because he wanted to expand his knowledge base in order to get a clearer outlook on life.
Woods said he hopes anyone who is considering quitting college to play poker full-time should examine his situation clearly, without any emotional ties. That's the GPSTS way of thinking through many of life's problems. It's the poker way.
"In poker terms of thought, if you're thinking like a poker player, what we call the 'poker way of thinking,' you understand that staying in school, even if you're making a lot of money [at poker], is probably a good investment," he said.
Steven Garfinkle's letter (printed exactly as written, without further edits):
Stay in School!
As an educator, I am often asked questions about school; and as a poker player I am often asked questions about poker. These days, I am being asked a lot of questions about poker and school. Poker is a beautiful game, and most of us who play are learning something each time we sit down at the table. What we learn from poker can help us more broadly in life, but I am an advocate for a more traditional education than we can get at the felt. In what follows I am going to focus on the upside of education. We all know that many, if not most, of the young players who are thinking of becoming professional card players will not make it, so I am going to presume that you have heard this advice before. Therefore, what I have to tell you is that even those young players who ARE going to make it as pros will benefit from finishing school.
Part of the beauty of poker is that almost anyone can sit down at the same table with professionals and world champions. I know how much fun this can be. This past July, on the evening of the sixth day of the main event of the World Series of Poker, I found myself sitting to the left of Scotty Nguyen. I was even lucky enough to take a pot off the former world champion. I probably could not get a hit off Roger Clemens or return Andy Roddick's serve. I certainly could not make an open field tackle of Randy Moss, and I know I can't guard Kobe Bryant, but I have played tournament poker with some of the world's most famous and accomplished players. Poker is the most democratic of major skill competitions. This, of course, is part of poker's seductiveness. Poker, as we have seen in recent years, is Everyman's chance at a televised world championship, and the riches and celebrity that go along with it. As with other forms of competition, poker is increasingly becoming the province of younger players. These younger players, often armed with the experience of having played tens of thousands of hands online, have revolutionized the way poker is being played. And here is the added seductiveness, successful poker professionals get paid very well. Poker is a fast track to sports cars, jet-setting, and god-like status on a bewildering array of online forums, news sites, and blogs.
Poker rooms are full of college students these days. This is especially true of the online rooms, where the age restrictions of the brick and mortar world cannot keep out those who are under twenty-one. In fact, online poker rooms are increasingly the domain of students in high school as well. The recent success of Annette Obrestad only makes the poker world even more attractive to the youth of America. At nineteen, Annette is the youngest winner of a WSOP bracelet, and she enjoys a cult following. The potential for this kind of success puts pressure on young players to drop out of school. Online forums are now a frequent venue for conversations about poker and school, poker or school, and even poker in class. I feel compelled to weigh in with the following advice. Stay in school!
As is the case with any professor, I keep regular office hours for my students. Usually, I do not have to exhort them to stay in school (though I may occasionally have to push the idea of going to class), but I have a few basic talks that I give to all of my advisees. Here I have tailored that advice for those of you who are in school and find that poker is getting in the way (and this is especially important for those of you winning enough to make you question having to give up time at the tables in order to attend class). You have a limited amount of time in college and the rest of your life for work, poker, etc. Make the most of your college experience, both in and out of the classroom. You have opportunities that will not come again, to expose yourself to new ideas and to meet new people. Take advantage of those opportunities and you will not regret it later. No matter how good your game, you will find yourself in a better position later in life if you take your education seriously. If you are already a winning player, then you have more to learn away from the tables. What you learn in college may not appear immediately useful, but it will prove to be so down the road. I regularly hear from former students about how much they value the time they had in college. Time accelerates after graduation. If you are promising yourself now that there will be time later on to read those great books, you are setting yourself up to be disappointed. College is not all about classes (hopefully my students are not reading this). The friends you make in college will likely be with you for the rest of your life. It is a good idea to have friends and interests away from the poker table. They will help you get outside sometimes and see the sun.
As a historian, I am often confronted with students who truly enjoy studying history, but who worry that a history major won't get them the job that they want. I usually respond by talking about skills and learning. We are teaching our students to think critically, and to think for themselves. We are also teaching them to communicate effectively and to write clearly. These are skills that transfer to any workplace, and to most grown-up settings. But the role of the modern university is not strictly vocational, we are also helping our students to become active citizens in a modern democratic society. We are all probably familiar with anecdotes about the grizzled poker player who has spent so little time looking up from his cards that he does not know who the current president is. This is an extreme example, but do any of us want to invest so much of our time at the table or in front of the screen that we lose sight of the world around us? And I will add, for the online community, that political awareness is a needed asset right now. Online gaming is on the legislative agenda of members of both parties.
For college players, let me go a step further and offer a few ideas for rules. Set limits for yourself in terms of time studying, time socializing, and time playing poker. If you find that you cannot keep to your limits you are probably playing too much. If you find you can't make it to class, you are definitely playing too much. Ideally, you should wait for breaks to play seriously, but since this is not always an ideal world, keep the MTTs to weekends, or at least days when you do not have class. Do not start a tournament (or even a cash game) knowing that you have to be somewhere soon as this leads to -EV play. NEVER play in class.
College is not for everyone, and no one knows that better than university professors; but if you are in college right now, then you and your family probably worked very hard to get you there. Poker is something that a player can enjoy for his or her whole life. In this sense, poker is a lot like a good education. Don't choose between poker and school, you have the time to choose both.
(Steven Garfinkle is a professor of ancient history at Western Washington University and a poker enthusiast. In the 2007 World Series of Poker he played in two events, finishing 58th in the $3000 No-Limit Hold'em and 10th in the Main Event. Most recently, he finished 23rd at the BC Poker Championships in Vancouver.)
