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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 difficulty of being a smart kid in a not-particularly-challenging school, how debate and his debate coach rekindled his interest in school, the “game” of debate, similarities between Magic and poker, and the relationship between luck and skill in a variety of games.
In the strategy segment, Andrew address tangling with the chipleader and making thin value bets at the final table (or rather, about not doing those things).
Timestamps
0:30 – Hello & Welcome
6:12 – Strategy
25:34 – Josh Nixon
Strategy
Six players remain at a final table. Payouts are:
$4000
$2700
$2000
$1460
$1020
$900
Stacks:
LJ 360K
HJ 273
Hero (CO) 558K
BN 393K
SB 231K
Ian Simpson (BB) 749K
Blinds 4500/9000/1125
Hero opens 22,500 in the CO with Qs 5s.
Flop (56K in pot) Js 4c 5h
BB checks, Hero bets 22,500, BB calls.
Turn (101K in pot) 2c
Both check.
River (101K in pot) 7h
Villain checks. Hero?
I enjoyed the interview with Josh and the discussion of the impact of high school debate beyond high school. This podcast broadens the listener’s awareness of issues beyond poker.
FWIW, the strategy hand was also discussed on 2+2. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/183/mid-high-stakes-mtt/90-10-euros-final-table-value-bet-3rd-pair-river-q5s-1695061/
Perfect podcast – it covered my hand and also my main (university time) hobby of debating.
Interesting discussion about whether the urban debate league should cover seemingly more remote topics like oceans policy. My own view is that the ocean is equally remote from the boys debating clubs in private boarding schools, but because nobody tells them they should concentrate on things closer to home and it’s not then surprising that people of that background end up disproportionately represented in organizations that govern the oceans . I’d connect it to the paradox we have in the UK, that both our female prime ministers have been from the conservative party (my theory on that one is by not having any kind of a proper women’s rights agenda to sidetrack female conservatives into, they get more chance to do the “big” jobs that lead to the top.)
It also ties into the question of what education in poorer areas is for – whether to prepare people to improve their community or prepare people to leave. Obviously it’s a bit of both but where the balance should be is debatable. In my relatively poorer part of England we had a problem with the local council not wanting to fund a proper environment for A-Levels (courses and exams for age 16-18 which lead to university) because realistically they knew that not many of us were going to come back after university and they thought other kinds of training should take priority. Maybe that isn’t a “problem”, just a difference of perspective.
P.S. I did hear the Ian Simpson podcast at the time – I just didn’t connect the name till now. I’ve heard all the thinking poker podcasts obviously 🙂