The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made a course available called Poker Theory and Analytics that can be taken by anyone for free on its website.

MIT has a long history of attempting to solve complex card games through mathematics and analysis. The school is infamous for producing the notorious MIT Blackjack Team, which won millions of dollars from casinos after perfecting a system of card counting. The group was immortalized in the popular box office film “21”, released in 2008, and is one of the inspirations for the course.

Poker Theory and Analytics was originally taught in January by professional poker player-turned Morgan Stanley trader Kevin Desmond (pictured) before being made open to the public online.

Desmond believes the skills students acquire by learning poker concepts can prove useful in other aspects of their lives, not just at the tables. “For students entering the business world, I believe the key concepts of poker that transfer well to management positions are decision making with incomplete information, reading the actions of others, and being comfortable with self-assessment,” he said on the course website.

The class consists of two to three 1.5-hour lectures per week for four weeks that focus on basic strategy, analysis techniques and applications, pre-flop analysis, tournament play, poker economics, game theory, and decision-making.

One of the main goals for the course includes creating “an environment for the study of poker theory without the need for real money gambling.” To that end, MIT has partnered with PokerStars, which has created a special playmoney Home League for students. Pupils are required to cash in one real-money Daily Turbo, or play in at least 10, before passing the course.

Desmond believes that the class can be particularly helpful to students interested in trading stocks for a living. He says that his transition from poker player to trader was “seamless” due to his understanding of “taking calculated risks, participating in a competitive global market, and familiarity with making decisions under pressure.”

He hopes that by divorcing the real money gambling aspect of poker, students will better learn the concepts behind winning strategy. “One of the primary motivators of the course was that it is difficult for students to engage with poker conceptually without the connection to gambling… This course allows students to play poker competitively in a learning environment among those who have the same educational end goal,” he said.

Poker Theory and Analytics could help to further legitimize the game as a skill-based pursuit. While it’s clear to poker pros that better players will always triumph over less sophisticated ones over the long-term, many still believe the game to be nothing more than gambling. But the fact that a respected institution like MIT offers a class devoted to subject gives more clout to poker proponents and makes it easier to justify legalizing the game, live or online.

While there are plenty of free resources for poker players interested in improving their game, the MIT class could be a great starting point for learning basic concepts and progressing into advanced topics. The final facet of the course educates players about the “current poker environment” and how they might leverage their poker skills to one day making real money at the tables.

“I think there are a lot of ways for students to extract the benefits from poker without the need for risking money and one of the core pillars of the course is encouraging students to avoid gambling when possible,” he said.

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