Posts Tagged ‘media hit’

My first day in Vegas was a blast. I’ll get into more detail tomorrow, but basically I got to pretend I was a big shot for a day. I had an interview with a reporter doing a story on poker and philanthropy, then a taping for Cardplayer with the Poker Savvy folks, then out for drinks with them (just one beer for me because I’m getting over a cold and wanted to play later), then 10/25 NL at the Rio with $7500 on the table. I’ll get into more detail on the other stuff tomorrow, but here are two quick hands from the cash game. It was a pretty tight/boring but not very tough table.

The first one, I opened for $100 with AJo in the CO, and both blinds called. The flop came Jd 7d 4d, and unfortunately, I did not have the Ad. They checked to me, I bet $200, and the SB called. I hadn’t been in the table long, but I’d already seen him make one very loose call for a pretty big bet on the turn. He checked a 4c on the turn, I bet $500, and moved all in for $1600 total. I hadn’t realized he was that short, and while I didn’t feel great about my hand, I felt priced in. It was definitely borderline, though- I would have folded KJ. He flipped 77 and I was drawing to 2 outs, which I didn’t hit. Kind of a cooler, though I don’t think stacking off was mandatory. Maybe a smaller turn bet and folding to a raise would have been better.  Read the complete 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 the pleasure of judging a young man from Kansas City named Sean Easterwood (pictured at left with his coach, Jane Rinehart, and administrators from the Kansas City Urban Debate League).

Sean was one of the best speakers I’ve seen, and I’ve seen thousands. When Sean won top speaker at the tournament, I was not surprised. When a reporter from the Kansas City Star called me about an article he was writing on Sean, I was not surprised. (Well, I wasn’t surprised that a reporter would do want to write an article about Sean. I was surprised that he had bothered to track down Sean’s judges from the national championship).

I had trouble putting into words what exactly it was that I liked about Sean, which is rare for me, but the reporter did a nice job of turning my rambling into a coherent thought:

Thirty-four teams from 19 debate leagues across the nation battled it out in Chicago last weekend at the Chase Urban Debate National Championship. [Sean] earned a $2,500 scholarship for snaring the top individual award.  Read the complete 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 came out, which surprised me, because I’ve generally never liked the way my voice sounds on tape.

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 article they did on us. I’ve included here another picture from the event, this one of me with one of my favorite debaters from the League. He’s the only one left from our first season and the only debater we’ve had who’s participated during all four years of his high school career.

A local radio station, WJMN 94.5, is also going to air an interview with a few of our debaters and me between 7 and 8 PM tonight.

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 pretty well and not like a degenerate:

“The message resonated with some of the dozens of students and poker players who came to hear Addington speak. Andrew Brokos, 25, who makes money playing poker online 25 to 30 hours each week and teaches debate to Boston public school students, said that while he never hands out cards and chips to his students, the skills he teaches are similar to “no limit hold ‘em.”

Debaters must watch their opponents closely, play each argument strategically, and use “crystallized aggression” to win a debate – the same way they would try to win a high-stakes hand, he said.”

I got a mention on the Baltimore Sun sports page today from a blogger named Bill Ordine. He didn’t know much about me at the time, but here’s what he had to say:

“The only other Maryland player who appeared to cash-in at the main event who was listed as from Baltimore but actually went to high school in Catonsville and is currently living in Boston. Brokos was a late round three bust-out at 384th and had a $34,664 payday. This is his second cash in a row at the main event. Last year, he finished 279th and collected almost $39,000.”

I actually placed 361st, but other than that he’s got it all right. I’ve since spoken with Bill on the phone (he seemed like a cool guy, and rather knowledgeable about poker), so hopefully he’ll have a little more to say about me in his next 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 “related articles, multimedia, and images.” From there you can select three different audio clips of students debating.

I’ve got another article in this month’s 2+2 internet magazine, entitled The Last Bet. Please take a look at it and let me know what you think either by leaving a comment here or by posting in my thread in the 2+2 Magazine Forum.

In case you missed it, here’s my March article: Attacking and Defending Dead Money in Tournament Poker.

The editor has indicated that he would like me to keep contributing regularly, so I’m starting to think about my next article. Ideas I’m currently considering:

-Tournament Selection. This would be a discussion of the factors that go into choosing which tournaments you will play regularly: structure, field size, skill level, the strengths and weaknesses of your game, your bankroll, taking shots, satellites, etc.

-Reverse Implied Odds. I don’t see these discussed much in the MTT forum, but they are very important. Their influence on late game play seems particularly under-theorized.

-Stack sizes and moves available. How to evaluate a situation or a particular bet based on the size of your stack and those around you. Some of the material I had in mind for this already appears in “The Last Bet.”

Feedback on these ideas and any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.