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Charles Nesson's Second Life Poker School

HARVARD law professor Charles Nesson wants to loosen Massachusetts' limits on small-scale poker tournaments.

Neeson operates the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society which aims to "promote poker as a fun learning tool and to redefine it as a game of skill, rather than a game of chance". (The Poker Anorak is working on getting an interview with him.)

We learn that Nesson is angry that an annual student-run charity tournament was cancelled last spring because organizers did not know they needed a permit.

And now he's added his voice to the clamour for US Congress to overturn or amend a U.S. law that effectively bans online gambling.

All eyes on Nesson. And he says: "Obviously the distinction is that in games of chance, you're not using your brain. You may be entertaining yourself but you're not really engaging in a developmental activity, whereas (in) games of skill you develop skill. You learn to be smart, you learn to win."

We like Charlie Nesson. We like his message. And commend to your attention another class he fronted back in 2006. Pay attention to his daughter Rebecca who says her virtual classroom is just like a real classroom. She then turns into a butterfly.

• Poker