WPT Boot Camp to Offer Game Theory Clinic & WSOP Main Event Prep Camp

On July 4th—a day infamous for ground breaking turns from convention—the World Poker Tour Boot Camp will unveil something wholly apart from anything ever before offered in terms of poker instruction. The WPT Boot Camp has teamed up with female poker professional and Duke University game theory scholar Vanessa Rousso to offer a one-day clinic, “Game Theory and Poker: Where Science Meets Art.”

This clinic will offer attendees a three-part curriculum designed to tantalize the brain, tease the imagination, and excite the game enthusiast within us all. The clinic experience will even be taught as a ‘game’ unto itself—where attendees become “players” from the moment they enter the doors at the MGM Conference Center, and complete with prizes for those who are able to develop the best strategies to outwit their opponents. Every detail has been scrutinized to provide an experiential learning occasion that incorporates learn-by-doing simulations to make this clinic enjoyable, informative, and most of all out-of-the-box.

So, what is a game? As clinic headliner Vanessa Rousso has said, “a better question would be, what isn’t a game?” The clinic is centered on the idea that we are all players of games of some sort—and that uniform strategic underpinnings underlie the most successful tactics regardless of the actual game being played. The unifying characteristic between games is that they are all played for something—and the chances of getting that something are greater with well thought out strategies. Enter game theory: a logic-based way of thinking that re-envisions the way we process information to offer a more efficient and markedly new way of thinking altogether.

The clinic will offer the poker player general game theoretic insights, a macroscopic take on tournament survival, tools for more accurate hand analysis, and situation specific ways to outmaneuver your opponents. And the timing couldn’t be any more appropriate—the clinic will run just two days before the main event of the WSOP.

A twenty-four year old professional poker player and law student, Vanessa Rousso is the 2006 World Poker Tour World Championships 7th place finisher and the 2006 $5k Buy-in WPT Borgata Open Champion. In 2001, graduating as Valedictorian of her high school in Florida, Vanessa accepted a full scholarship to attend Duke University. In a mere two and a half years, she graduated with honors—earning a bachelor’s degree with a major in economics. While at Duke, her studies in economics focused heavily on game theory, to which she attributes much of her poker playing success. And she is not alone, many poker players believe this is what separates the top 1% from the rest of the professional players. In her rookie year of play at the professional level, Vanessa rose through the ranks to become the top female money earner (with over $745,000) on the WPT and WSOP circuits in 2006. Her success transcends her gender as she was ranked top-twenty overall on the prestigious Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Rankings in 2006 as well.

So, while others will prepare for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event by brushing up with a poker book or two, you might want to come hear what this young lady has to say.

And if you are interested in a total emersion experience, WPT Boot Camp is also offering a Main Event Prep Camp on July 2nd and 3rd. This prep camp will feature 2005 WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, WPT Ladies Night Champion Clonie Gowen, WSOP Champion Tom McEvoy, and Vanessa Rousso as instructors. The prep camp will offer private mini tournaments with one in ten participants winning a $1000 tournament voucher as well as the opportunity for one overall winner to take home a $10,000 event voucher!

The clinic will cost $649, and the main event primer will cost $1995. Enroll in both and save $150 for a total cost of $2495. Visit www.wptbootcamp.com for more information about either or both.