Poker Is Good for You, Professor Says

From National Public Radio.

Harvard law professor Charles R. Nesson, famed for defending Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case, has a new cause: making online poker legal.

Nesson contends that poker is not the same as other types of gambling, because it's as much of a game of skill as it is one of luck. Lobbyists for the game are now trying to persuade Congress to legalize online poker.

The professor uses poker in his classes to teach students about decision making and risk. He describes poker as a game of two skills. The first is making good bets, or good investments. The second is being able to discern your opponent's strategy and story without revealing your own. "You put those two together and you have a dynamite poker player, or a dynamite lawyer, or a dynamite businessman," Nesson says. "You have dynamite."