It’s been two months since the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, or GPSTS, was introduced to members of PocketFives.com. The organization, which focuses on poker as an educational medium, launched back in August and has already made waves within the poker world. In the past 60 days, the GPSTS has held a major conference on their home turf at Harvard University, started up local chapters at institutions around the country, and hosted several poker matches pitting rival schools against each other in America’s game.

If you’re not familiar with the GPSTS, here’s a summary, taken from GPSTS.org: “The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society views poker as an exceptional game of skill that can be used as a powerful teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education. We use poker to teach strategic thinking, geopolitical analysis, risk assessment and money management. We see poker as a metaphor for skills of life, business, politics and international relations. Our goal is to create an open online curriculum centered on poker that will draw the brightest minds together, both from within and outside of the conventional university setting, to promote open education and Internet democracy.”

The notion that poker can be used as an important teaching tool was the focus of a major conference on the issue held at the Harvard Law School last month. GPSTS Executive Director Andrew Woods paints a picture of the scene: “The first half of the day was dedicated towards making the case for poker. We spoke about why poker is useful. The second half of the day was spent on the various ways poker can be used as an educational tool.”

Speaking at the conference were World Poker Tour Host Mike Sexton, author of Positively Fifth Street Jim McManus, host of Psychology of Poker Al Schoonmaker, and co-author of Harrington on Hold’em Bill Robertie. Woods continues, “We talked about the psychological aspects of poker and the history of poker. The morning was very interesting and our audience was broad. We had high school teachers, Harvard Law School students and faculty, Harvard Business School students and faculty, and a wide variety of people from the academic and educational communities.”

The GPSTS is developing chapters at universities right now, trying to spread the word about poker’s didactic components. Established chapters can be found at Indiana University – South Bend, UCLA, Ohio State, Cornell, and Harvard. The process is already underway for additional chapters at Brown, George Washington University, Gonzaga, MIT, Oakland University, Rice, SMU, Stanford, UNC – Chapel Hill, NC State, Illinois, USC, UNLV, and Wharton. The organization just hired an additional staffer to follow up with interested chapters in order to make their status with the university a reality.

Woods also traveled to Google University’s headquarters in order to speak: “They have a history of bringing in speakers with unique viewpoints to enhance their educational program. We gave an hour long overview of poker as educational tool and why we think it’s worthwhile. They generally get about 30 people to show up to a seminar and we drew an audience of 100. It was also broadcasted to two other locations. I think the turnout was large because it’s an interesting subject to people. What we’re saying really resonates with people and they are starting to buy in. Plus, a lot of these people play poker.” Check out the video from the GPSTS’ visit by clicking here.

The organization aims to promote the teaching of poker in an attempt to legitimize it, a goal in line with the Poker Players Alliance and other industry organizations. Woods comments on where the GPSTS stands: “We’re an educational group. We’re not a legislative group and don’t have a legislative agenda. However, to some extent, the GPSTS is a ‘heart and minds’ campaign. If we can help legitimize poker, it could lead to decreased pressure on it from lawmakers.”

The organization is looking for eager individuals to help launch chapters at other universities in preparation for a national collegiate poker tournament coming up in the spring. If you’re interested, or just want to find out some more information, contact Andrew Woods at globalpoker@gmail.com.

Thanks to Woods for taking time out of his busy finals schedule to speak with PocketFives.com. Visit the GPSTS web site for more information.