Net als Charles Nelson, de Harvard professor die het pokerspel opgenomen wil zien in de lesprogramma’s, vindt professor Stephen Garfinkle dat pokerlessen van waarde kunnen zijn in het dagelijkse leven.
Stephen Garfinkle doceert geschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Washington. Op de WSOP van 2007 werd hij 10de.
Hij waarschuwt studenten dat zij tegenwoordig zoveel leuke nevenactiviteiten hebben, dat hun studie hierbij kan inschieten. Poker is daar een van. Heel veel studenten vragen hem om advies, of zij niet beter pokerprofessional kunnen worden. Poker is bijzonder populair onder studenten.
Garfinkle wijst op het belang van een goede scholing. De jaren op de universiteit kun je nooit meer inhalen. Pokeren kun je altijd nog. Veel studenten zien tijdens hun studie de waarde nog niet goed in van hun opleiding. Maar vrijwel iedereen op latere leeftijd beseft het belang van zijn studie.
Bovendien moet je oppassen dat de tijd die je in poker stopt niet ten koste gaat van andere leuke zaken als, omgaan met je vrienden, sporten, etc.
Poker is een prachtig spel. Het opgeven van een studie is niet verstandig. In pokertermen is het stoppen met je school of studie zeer -EV.
Hieronder de brief die Garfinkle schreef aan Cardplayer.com
Stay in School!
As an educator, I am often asked questions about school; and as a poker player I am often asked
questions about poker. These days, I am being asked a lot of questions about poker and school. Poker is a beautiful game, and most of us who play are learning something each time we sit down at the table. What we learn from poker can help us more broadly in life, but I am an advocate for a more traditional education than we can get at the felt. In what follows I am going to focus on the upside of education. We all know that many, if not most, of the young players who are thinking of becoming professional card players will not make it, so I am going to presume that you have heard this advice before. Therefore, what I have to tell you is that even those young players who ARE
going to make it as pros will benefit from finishing school.
Part of the beauty of poker is that almost anyone can sit down at the same table with professionals and world champions. I know how much fun this can be. This past July, on the evening of the sixth day of the main event of the World Series of Poker, I found myself sitting to the left of Scotty Nguyen. I was even lucky enough to take a pot off the former world champion. I probably could not get a hit off Roger Clemens or return Andy Roddick’s serve. I certainly could not make an open field tackle of Randy Moss, and I know I can’t guard Kobe Bryant, but I have played tournament poker with some of the world’s most famous and accomplished players. Poker is the most democratic of
major skill competitions. This, of course, is part of poker’s seductiveness. Poker, as we have seen in recent years, is Everyman’s chance at a televised world championship, and the riches and celebrity that go along with it. As with other forms of competition, poker is increasingly becoming the province of younger players. These younger players, often armed with the experience of having played tens of thousands of hands online, have revolutionized the way poker is being played. And here is the added seductiveness, successful poker professionals get paid very well. Poker is a fast track to sports cars, jet-setting, and god-like status on a bewildering array of online forums, news sites, and blogs.
Poker rooms are full of college students these days. This is especially true of the online rooms, where the age restrictions of the brick and mortar world cannot keep out those who are under twenty-one. In fact, online poker rooms are increasingly the domain of students in high school as well. The recent success of Annette Obrestad only makes the poker world even more attractive to the youth of America. At nineteen, Annette is the youngest winner of a WSOP bracelet, and she enjoys a cult following. The potential for this kind of success puts pressure on young players to drop out of school. Online forums are now a frequent venue for conversations about poker and school, poker or
school, and even poker in class. I feel compelled to weigh in with the following advice. Stay in school!
As is the case with any professor, I keep regular office hours for my students. Usually, I do not have to exhort them to stay in school (though I may occasionally have to push the idea of going to class), but I have a few basic talks that I give to all of my advisees. Here I have tailored that advice for those of you who are in school and find that poker is getting in the way (and this is especially important
for those of you winning enough to make you question having to give up time at the tables in order to attend class). You have a limited amount of time in college and the rest of your life for work, poker, etc. Make the most of your college experience, both in and out of the classroom. You have opportunities that will not come again, to expose yourself to new ideas and to meet new people. Take advantage of those opportunities and you will not regret it later. No matter how good your game, you will find yourself in a better position later in life if you take your education seriously. If you are already a winning player, then you have more to learn away from the tables. What you learn in college may not appear immediately useful, but it will prove to be so down the road. I regularly hear from former students about how much they value the time they had in college. Time accelerates after graduation. If you are promising yourself now that there will be time later on to read those great books, you are setting yourself up to be disappointed. College is not all about classes (hopefully my students are not reading this). The friends you make in college will likely be with you
for the rest of your life. It is a good idea to have friends and interests away from the poker table. They will help you get outside sometimes and see the sun.
As a historian, I am often confronted with students who truly enjoy studying history, but who worry that a history major won’t get them the job that they want. I usually respond by talking about skills and learning. We are teaching our students to think critically, and to think for themselves. We are also teaching them to communicate effectively and to write clearly. These are skills that transfer to any workplace, and to most grown-up settings. But the role of the modern university is not strictly vocational, we are also helping our students to become active citizens in a modern democratic society. We are all probably familiar with anecdotes about the grizzled poker player who has spent so little time looking up from his cards that he does not know who the current president is. This is an extreme example, but do any of us want to invest so much of our time at the table or in front of the screen that we lose sight of the world around us? And I will add, for the online community, that political awareness is a needed asset right now. Online gaming is on the legislative agenda of members of both parties.
For college players, let me go a step further and offer a few ideas for rules. Set limits for yourself in terms of time studying, time socializing, and time playing poker. If you find that you cannot keep to
your limits you are probably playing too much. If you find you can’t make it to class, you are definitely playing too much. Ideally, you should wait for breaks to play seriously, but since this is not always an ideal world, keep the MTTs to weekends, or at least days when you do not have class. Do not start a tournament (or even a cash game) knowing that you have to be somewhere soon as this leads to -EV play. NEVER play in class.
College is not for everyone, and no one knows that better than university professors; but if you are in
college right now, then you and your family probably worked very hard to get you there. Poker is something that a player can enjoy for his or her whole life. In this sense, poker is a lot like a good education. Don’t choose between poker and school, you have the time to choose both.
