A Harvard law professor is planning an online, open source university that he claims will teach today’s kids logic and reasoning better than algebra. The coursework? Poker.

Harvard law student Andrew Woods first met law professor Charles Nesson at a poker table.
“I had no idea he was a professor,” Woods said. “I thought he was just some crazy old guy sitting across from me. He had gone all in, and I had a better hand. I asked him what he did, and he said he was a professor who taught evidence. Since I had to take that course the following year, I asked him if he’d give me an A if I beat him in this tournament. He said yes, so I beat him, but then he gave me a B+.”
It was a battle of wits in the beginning. But Woods and Nesson soon joined forces, and today, they are spending long hours together outside of the classroom exploring the potential of poker as a teaching tool. They are both convinced that playing poker develops valuable life skills like strategic thinking, risk assessment, game theory and money management.
“Poker is the quintessential strategy game,” Nesson said in his office at the Harvard Law School. “Winning depends upon evaluating an opponent’s play and anticipating it. That’s the key, but not just to poker. The skills you learn from the game can be applied to law practices, and to life. I’ve made it my mission to make poker legitimate. It is the most wonderful way to engage young minds and expand people’s thought.”
Nesson and Woods call their mission Poker University. The University will be unlike any other: It won’t have diplomas or enrollment, and it will be open to anyone with Internet access in any corner of the world.
The University website will use flash software to run online poker games that students will play, betting with chips (but not with money). Instructors will provide feedback, helping students to understand strategic thinking and to become better game players. The difference between Poker University and other online poker games is that the University is not about making money; it is about learning through playing.
Nesson and Woods are organizing activities through their Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society to develop chapters worldwide. So far, they have clubs in the U.S., the U.K., Iceland and Singapore. They want to use lectures and conferences in these and other locations to call academic attention to the game and, they hope, legitimize poker as a teaching tool.
Currently, the software and website are still being developed by student volunteers at Harvard. Poker University is scheduled to go live on the web this summer.
Nesson and Woods aren’t the first to see poker’s potential for honing strategic thinking skills.
Greg Dinkin, poker enthusiast and author of Poker MBA, said he learned more from playing poker than he did from business school. “The value of your hand really doesn’t mean much,” Dinkin said. “It’s all in relation to your opponent’s hand. The number one thing is walking in another person’s shoes to figure out what they have and what they’re thinking. That’s a valuable skill you can learn from poker that you’re not going to get from an academic environment.”
David Apostolico, who wrote Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business, agreed. “Poker teaches self-analysis. You learn what role your actions have through playing and you have to be objective and improve your decision making to succeed.”
Nesson said he has loved playing poker since his father first introduced him to it. His relationship to the game has had a significant influence on his career. After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard Law School, he became a member of Harvard’s faculty in 1966. He ordered his first IBM computer in 1980, long before most of his colleagues were computer literate. Nesson spent a sabbatical successfully programming Five Card Draw, “jacks or better.”
In 1998, Nesson founded Harvard’s Berkman Center, which studies the legal issues of the Internet and promotes Internet neutrality. Now, Nesson is pushing for Poker University.
But there are obstacles even beyond the skepticism of those who think poker is too fun to be serious. A bill being considered in Massachusetts—though not yet passed—would make online poker play illegal. More problematic according to Nesson, is that most Americans mistakenly think of poker as a game of chance (such as the slots) that wastes time, takes money from the ignorant and contributes to social problems.
“Poker is chastised for the neighborhood it grew up in,” Woods said. “It’s history—Las Vegas, the Wild West, card sharks—gives it a bad reputation. But the more you unpack the game, the more you see it’s no more politically objectionable than chess. It’s much more like chess than craps. School districts, teachers and parents need to get comfortable with it.”

Betting on Learning
Each hand played teaches valuable game skills, some of which remain after cashing out.
Deal the cards in our interactive graphic to find out the valuable game skills that poker teachers you, and how they help with equally valuable life skills.