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Kimberly Willingham is the Executive Director of the Boston Debate League, a non-profit organization Andrew founded in 2005. She talks to Andrew and Carlos about how the organization has grown and changed, the value of debate in urban public schools, and
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Josh Nixon was a student in the Boston Debate League when Andrew was the director. In the years since then, he’s been a serious Magic: The Gathering player is now taking an interest in poker. In this interview, he talks about the … Read full post
Last week’s trip report from a BDL tournament culminated in a description of the Varsity Finals, in which a brother and sister team from Roxbury narrowly lost the championship debate. I’m pleased to report that they’ve since had an even greater victory at the district championships and will be … Read full post
This is the conclusion of a trip report, the first part of which can be found here, from a high school debate tournament at which I recently volunteered. I founded the Boston Debate League in 2005 to bring competitive extracurricular debate to students at some of the city’s more … Read full post
Sorry for the recent silence – I was in Boston over the weekend running a debate tournament for the Boston Debate League. I don’t have a WYP for this week, so instead please enjoy this Trip Report which hopefully will provide a behind-the-scenes insight into the world of high school … Read full post
Today is Sunday, but I won’t be playing the Sunday Million, because I’m currently in the United States.
For as long as I’ve had this blog, I’ve started every year with a series of posts about my poker-related goals and resolutions, and I’ve ended every year by assessing the progress … Read full post
No, I’m not talking about my mixed games dabbling. At least in the United States, December 31st is the deadline for making charitable donations that you can write off against your 2011 income. That means that the government is functionally matching some portion of your donation. What poker player doesn’t … Read full post
This is an interview that I did with Railbirds.com a few hours after my elimination on Day 7. No beautiful women in this one but it is much less rushed than the others so I’m able to answer questions in more depth:
Boston-based poker radio show House of Cards recently aired an interview with me that was recorded not long after my exit from the WSOP Main Event. The host of the show, Ashley Adams, is actually a union negotiator who works with Boston Public Schools teachers, so while we talked a … Read full post
It wasn’t the Boston Debate League, but a team from our sister league in Chicago recently won the National Forensics League Grand Tournament in Kansas City, making them the first Urban Debate League team ever to win a national championship (there are several- the NFL’s are the largest, though arguably … Read full post
Sorry it’s been quiet for the last few days, Emily and I have been camping in the White Mountains with very limited internet access and no poker playing. I’m about to start a session now though so hopefully I’ll have some good fodder for some more posts.
Just wanted to … Read full post
Today’s the last day of March and the last chance for you to help out the Boston Debate League in its March for Goodness competition. This is an organization that’s near and dear to my heart, and if you’ve enjoyed and/or profited from this blog, a $10 donation is … Read full post
Big thank you to everyone who’s contributed to the Boston Debate League so far to help us get more unique donors for our “March Goodness” competition (details here). If you enjoy reading this blog, and especially if you feel like it has helped to make you money, please … Read full post
A lot of commenters tell me that while the weird bluffs and thin value bets I post here are fun to read, they don’t feel they can apply them in the games they play. Well, today I’ve got a great investment that’s available to everyone! As little as $10 has … Read full post
The Boston M
arathon is the most prestigious and oldest continuously-run marathon in the entire world. Many people dream of running it, but participation is extremely limited and exclusive. The only way to get a spot is either to qualify with a world-class time in a different marathon or to … Read full post
Maryland-based freelance reporter Bill Ordine recently penned an article for the LA Times entitled “Poker Professionals Ante Up for Charity“. While it’s primarily about high-profile projects like Ante Up for Africa and Bad Beat on Cancer, he uses yours truly as an example of smaller scale philanthropy enabled … Read full post
The Boston Debate League’s Fifth Annual City Championships took place over the weekend, and it was a great event. Nearly sixty students competed, which is actually a little low compared to the numbers we’ve had recently, but their enthusiasm more than made up for it. In the Varsity division, the … Read full post
The Boston Herald ran an article this morning about the Boston Debate League and one of its member schools which was nearly closed by the school district:
… Read full postThe debate team at the Academy of Public Service sailed into the “elite eight” last year at the national championships in Chicago.
Now,
Had a decent morning at the tables but the real brag is for the Boston Debate League, which was awarded today a $50,000 grant from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation. The grant will support the BDL’s work with debate programs in the Boston Public Schools over the next … Read full post
Didn’t get many NLHE cash games in this month. The month started with FTOPS, so I was playing more tournaments than usual. It wasn’t a good series for me, but I was doing alright on the side. Then I spent the second half of the month running a summer camp … Read full post
I’ll lead off with the big one. My girlfriend pointed out to me that although a few people posted it as a comment, I hadn’t actually made a post that included my finish at the World Series of Poker. Out of 6,844 players, I finished 35th and won $193,000. How … Read full post
Hey, a winning month! Maybe I am not so bad at this game after all. There are still a few days to go, but I probably won’t be playing much if at all. As you may have noticed, I haven’t been playing the last few days either. I leave for … Read full post
As some of you know, my poker playing for the last few years has supported not only myself but a debate league in the Boston Public Schools. It started as just a volunteer thing that I did with a few teachers, but we soon realized that it had potential … Read full post
Last weekend, I accompanied several of my debaters to an urban debate league national championship in Chicago. As the director of the Boston Debate League, I rarely have the time (or inclination) to judge debates myself. However, I did judge a few rounds while in Chicago. In particular, I had … Read full post
I like to walk, and I liked it even more when I was in high school, so I didn’t think much of it when George (not his real name) told me he was late because he chose to walk. George was one of the students coming on a Boston Debate … Read full post
It’s got nothing to do with poker. But WJMN, a Boston hip hop station, recently interviewed me and a few students from the Boston Debate League. I’m only going to post my portion of it here, which is about 10 minutes long. I was very happy with how it … Read full post
The Boston Herald ran an article today that was (half) about the Boston Debate League and an event we had yesterday in honor of MLK Day. This time they ran a nice photo of one our debaters; the lack of a picture was one of my disappointments from the last … Read full post
Yesterday’s Boston Herald, prompted by today’s opening of The Great Debaters, included a short feature about the Boston Debate League. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by the article’s length. The reporter spoke with myself and several of the coaches in the BDL, but the article mentioned only … Read full post
Today’s Boston Globe ran an article about the Harvard Law School seminar that I attended recently. I remembered meeting this reporter but thought she was from Harvard’s paper, the Crimson. I probably would have put more thought into how I portrayed myself, but I think I come off … Read full post
The first round of the first tournament of the Boston Debate League’s fourth season has just gotten underway. With about forty students competing, it is one of our largest events ever. Unfortunately, 90% of the debaters are from 50% of the schools in the League. While these schools are doing … Read full post
I’ve finally got some pictures from the BDL Summer Institute last month up on the BDL website. Click here to see them.… Read full post
Today was the last day of the BDL’s week-long summer institute, and it really went better than I could have hoped. There were some snags, particularly when the post office lost three weeks worth of my mail including all of the applications, but we rallied and managed to bring together … Read full post
I’ll start by telling you that the BDL camp got off to a good start. We had twelve students on our first day, which was about as many as I’d expected when we first thought about having an institute, but not as many as I’d hoped after the flood of … Read full post
As some of you may already know, my girlfriend Emily has accepted a job doing public relations and marketing work for an adventure tours company based out of Las Vegas. Believe it or not, Vegas was in no way my idea, and in fact I was not thrilled to hear … Read full post
Sunday’s Boston Herald contained a very nice article about the Boston Debate League, a non-profit organization that I founded and now direct. Please click here to read it!
There are actually some audio clips also, though they’re hard to find. After the second paragraph, there’s a drop-down box that says … Read full post
This weekend I’m taking a two debaters from Boston to the J. B. Fuqua Urban Debate League Celebration in Atlanta. The two debaters, Charles and Peter, are a great team. Charles is a hefty black man, smart but reserved, very friendly and with a charming sense of humor once he … Read full post
Sorry for the recent silence, but I’ve had a busy few days. On Tuesday, my non-profit organization, the Boston Debate League (BDL), co-hosted a luncheon with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL). To be brutally honest, the BDL’s organizational and institutional capacity is severely underdeveloped right now. That … Read full post
Saturday was the fourth Boston Debate League tournament of the 2006-07 season, the last before our two-day City Championships event. It got off to a rocky start. I had to bring coffee, donuts, awards, a computer, and a printer with me, which meant that I had to borrow my girlfriend’s … Read full post
I wake early on Saturday morning in order to get to Faneuil Hall by 8:45. The event doesn’t start until 11, but I’ve arranged for the debaters to come in early in order to work with some volunteers who will help them “put finishing touches” on their presentations. This is … Read full post
Some quick background for those who don’t know this already: I was a nationally competitive debater in high school and college. In a lot of ways, I credit debate for making me the person I am now: confident, smart, socially conscious, well-read, and ethical. Debate helped me in school and … Read full post