Harvard Law school holds conference on educational value of poker

[The Buzz]

Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, who came up with the Global Poker Thinking Society, hosted a conference on the educational value of poker recently, bringing James McManus (author of Positively Fifth Street and an upcoming book on the history of poker) and Mike Sexton to the Cambridge campus.

http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/...-3108046.shtml

[The Buzz]

Best quote I've seen about Nesson's efforts in this story ...

Arnold I. Barnett, who teaches mathematical modeling at the M.I.T. Sloan Management School, attended a November symposium sponsored by the society. He is not much of a poker player, Professor Barnett said, but he walked away intrigued.

“I’m not saying poker should replace algebra,” he said. “But you have problems to solve in poker, and for students to see how mathematics can help them in real-life situations seems a whole lot smarter than having them determine the volume of some strangely shaped object.”

He added that he could see the educational value on the graduate level, too, because the game involves not only figuring out your own hand but also deducing your opponents’ cards — skills, he said, of use in law, business or real estate.

Full story includes a lot more info on the society and how it came into being. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/ny...on&oref=slogin