Harvard Legal Scholars Launch Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society

Poker Strategic Thinking Societies Forming at Universities in Several Countries

WORKSHOPS AND COMPETITIONS WILL USE POKER TO TEACH LIFE SKILLS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Singapore (August 21, 2007) -- Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson announced the formation of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) at the State of Play Conference in Singapore today.

GPSTS will offer poker strategic thinking workshops to secondary schools and community centers; sponsor team poker matches between law, business and other graduate-level programs; and conduct seminars and conferences that explore poker as a means to teach strategic thinking.

Chapters of the GPSTS are being organized at prominent universities beginning with Harvard. Inquiries have already been fielded from Brown University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Oxford, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National University of Singapore, and the Icelandic Poker Association on behalf of Icelandic universities. These and other "poker strategic thinking societies" at
universities and secondary schools around the world will use poker as an educational tool to teach fundamental life skills such as numeracy, probability, resource management, risk assessment and ways to positively channel aggression.

Plans call for GPSTS chapters to be formed by January, pointing toward an intercollegiate team poker tournament in March of 2008. "The formation of GPSTS comes out of using poker as a highly effective educational tool at Harvard," said Professor Nesson. "We believe that poker can be a superior means of teaching critical life skills including negotiation, resource management, risk assessment and numeracy."

Charles Nesson is the William F. Weld Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Founder and Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is joined on the GPSTS board by Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is the author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and a previous Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

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