Media Coverage

The question of whether poker is a game of skill or chance, and what that has to do with its legality, is being debated anew in courtrooms in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes about the controversy in "Legal status of poker: Is it a game of skill or chance?"

Gaining the upper hand
CharLaw translates poker tactics to the courtroom

Published in The Charlotte Weekly by Jonathan Reed

Students crowd around three tables outside the mock courtroom at Charlotte School of Law for a recent Saturday friendly poker game against Elon University. Onlookers can’t tell from the T-shirts and jeans worn by the nearly 30 students and teachers gathered at the school, but poker isn’t the only high-stakes game being taught within these walls.

The gathering was sparked by CharLaw professor John Kunich, an avid poker player (he’s made his way deep into the World Series of Poker twice in the last three years) who came to the affair dressed to the nines. Kunich’s “Stan Laurel” getup is a trademark of his poker circuit matches– he uses the “nutty professor”act as a feint.

In the past year, Kunich has found a way to blend his love of the law with his passion for the gentleman’s game. His inspiration came from one of Kunich’s former professors– Harvard Law School’s Charles Nesson, one of the founders of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.

Nesson’s idea is to extrapolate lessons from poker into the real world. The legal field was fertile ground, though Kunich admitted it wasn’t until he attended an alumni event that he realized the parallels. Now Kunich infuses his lessons with
tips from the pro circuit.

"It’s a great way to get a lot of people involved and teach some lessons in negotiation tactics,” Kunich said. “We're approaching the law in a way that’s innovative and means something on a gut level.”

Playing your hand
One of the key tenets of the ideology is using what you know to get the upper hand Kunich said most lawyers are aware of their own facts and witnesses, but that isn’t enough. You also must understand what “cards” your opponent holds. "A good poker player, like a good lawyer, thinks about what the other side might have and why they are still in (the game). You figure out if you have the advantage or not,” he explained. “That’s taking it to the next level, and a lot of people never get beyond that in law or in poker. So they lose.

The strategy also involves carefully planning your next move. The blunders,Kunich said, come from losing emotional control ("going tilt" in poker parlance) or relying too much on bluffing. Both can tarnish one’s reputation in the courtroom or at the table, so focus and maturity are important attributes for the students to master.

CharLaw student Scott Hart said his peers all are competitive and tasked with finding ways of applying poker tactics to their future legal practices. “You always want to know how strong your case is and how much you can throw your weight around, be it with chips or facts and evidence.”

In the broader spectrum, Hart continued, lawyers have to learn to choose cases based on what they wager will come before a judge. “It’s a lot like when you play (cards); you watch how many are folding and who’s still in the hand,” he said.

Nick Harrison, leader of CharLaw’s poker tactics chapter, said the parallels aren’t necessarily direct. “I really think it’s learning how to deal with people, and learning to read people. You get into a situation and get the result you want. For instance, I might not have the best cards or hand, but I need to know how to play it.”

Upping the ante
The match between Elon and CharLaw was hampered by pending law exams but Kunich said that soon he hopes to involve other in-state law schools in the poker rivalry. The CharLaw chapter already has a trophy – a Travelocity gnome with a plaque to recognize the winners. For a school that started with a roll of the dice – CharLaw just opened its own campus for the start of its third year – Kunich said the poker matches offer a chance for CharLaw to put its name on
the law-school map.

“It’d be one thing if (students) just had a poker club playing cash games every week, but with this we have a chance to play some Ivy League schools,” Kunich said. “We can’t compete with the prestige level of our faculty or how long we’ve been in existence, but we can compete on this level.

“(Those schools) can come and see what we have here. It’s a chance to spread the word about what we’re doing here, in this early stage in our history.”

From The Harvard Crimson:

HLS To Go "All In" Versus Yale

Published On Thursday, October 11, 2007 2:19 AM
By CHELSEA L. SHOVER
Contributing Writer

On the eve of Nov. 17, while much of the Harvard community is gearing up for "The Game" against Yale, a handful of law school students will be prepping to play a very different sort of game against the same rival.

From PocketFives.com.

On Tuesday, April 1st, CardRunners.com owner and PocketFives.com member Taylor Caby appeared at the New York University chapter of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, or GPSTS. It wasn't an April fool's joke; Caby spoke on turning his successful poker playing career into a business. A standing room only crowd filed in to listen to Caby speak for a little over an hour about growing CardRunners into one of the most successful poker training sites on the planet. It marked the latest in a string of educational events for the GPSTS.

From the Boston Herald.

Prof, pupils: Online play's OK

A card-playing Harvard Law professor and his poker-crazy students will stage a protest today outside the State House rallying against Gov. Deval Patrick's casino plan.

But while most opponents, ranging from church leaders to social activists, will be warning of the perils of expanded gambling, the Harvard group will be arguing there is not nearly enough.

From the Harvard Crimson.

Harvard Law School's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) met on Beacon Hill yesterday morning to protest a provision of a gaming bill—sponsored by Law School graduate Deval L. Patrick '78—that would criminalize online poker in Massachusetts.

From the Boston Herald.

By Charles Nesson

Gov. Deval Patrick's casino bill, being given a hearing today on Beacon Hill, would make it illegal for state residents to play poker online - with penalties ranging from hefty fines to jail time of up to two years.

From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

From The Economist.

Poker is getting younger, cleverer, duller and much, much richer

From PokerPages.com.

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS), the brainchild of students at Harvard led by law school professor Charles Nesson, is catching on fast around the world, putting forward poker as an educational tool that especially applies to law and business, and also supporting an open education in an open internet, and raising awareness for the legality of poker.