As students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse learn to perfect their poker faces, they take away the knowledge of successful decision making as well thanks to an unconventional lesson plan.

Instructor Charles Swayne’s Strategic Thinking Using Game Theory course teaches students the secrets to winning big in both poker and the real world.

The idea for the course arose when Swayne realized business leaders, attorneys and politicians think and act in much the same way as professional poker players, he said.

“Most classes teach you what to think, but this class teaches you how to think,” Swayne said.

UW-La Crosse senior Tyler Nickel, an avid poker player since the age of 13, was first attracted to the idea of taking a poker class and soon realized how much knowledge he lacked about the insides of the game.

“There is so much psychology involved,” Nickel said. “Their body language, their movements, even the way their feet point is important in poker.”

Nickel said he learned from Swayne that the cards are the least important part of playing poker.

Each day, students in the course learned about out-of-the-box thinking, game theory, memory games, the psychology of body language and developing models with bits of playing poker sprinkled in between.

Swayne said he believes this knowledge is necessary for success not only in poker, but also in the real world.

“When you are faced with competition, which everyone experiences, you learn how to pull all the pieces together and come up with the correct decision,” Swayne said.

For their final exam, students had to create a strategic thinking model that would help achieve future success.

Nickel, who dreams of becoming a musician, used what he learned in the course to write about music practice and knowledge. He also wrote about the importance of confidence for a good guitarist.

Throughout the two-week course, students were also given the opportunity to interact with professional poker players, such as Paul Wasicka and Alex Outhred, as well as other professors through hour-long web chats.

Harvard law professor Charles Nesson, who uses similar teaching strategies and poker playing in his law classes, answered students’ questions and provided a new perspective on strategic thinking, Swayne said.

“Charles Nesson’s invaluable insight will help me for ages,” Nickel said.

Swayne said he has come to realize the world is not divided into departments the way a university is, making it essential for students to learn how to take pieces of information from their lives and use them to make good decisions.

Swayne said a variety of students enrolled in the course, from physics and math to business and accounting majors, all finding ways to relate the coursework to a greater understanding of the world.

“I enjoy seeing students walk out with a greater understanding of how to think in a strategic fashion than when they walked in,” Swayne said.