David Chicotsky Blog

Maybe it’s just the optimist in me, but I feel like there’s a better chance than not that I’ll get my online money back. Just like with Neteller, the shock of not having access to money that you’ve worked hard grinding to accrue will wear off and hopefully over time the money will be returned.

Words like Black Friday and Blue Monday sound so terrible, it’s no wonder that every online pro I run into looks like they’ve been huddled up in their houses crying. Now isn’t the time to start feeling down, it’s time to focus on the factors you can control and pointing yourself in the direction that you think is best for both your poker game and your life.

Put down the beer, pick up a poker book or magazine. Put down the joint, get your butt down to the casino to play. For those Americans not fortunate enough to be close to a casino, it’s no secret that there are a ton of sites with training videos you can watch. Review Poker Tracker hand histories from previous online tournaments you’ve played. When many are wasting their time sitting on the sidelines, do what it takes to improve your game.

I have to think all that has transpired this week is like hitting the fast forward button towards having online poker taxed and regulated in the good ‘ol US of A. Land of the free, home of the brave! It’s only a matter of time in my opinion until online poker is completely and fully recognized as a legal skill game. Write your congressman, call the newspapers and media, we have to get our voices out that Americans should have open access to online poker.

Actions speak much louder than words, so make it happen, nobody’s going to do it for you. Many people like to make excuses and blame all of their surroundings on externalities. Don’t let anything other than your brain control your destiny.

Get Mainstream! As part of the online poker community, we have to let our voices be heard:

ABC News
Phone: 212.456.7777

CBS News
212.975.4321

CNBC
201.735.2622

CNN
404.827.1500

Fox News Channel
212.301.3000

MSNBC/NBC
212.664.4444

PBS
703.739.5000

National Public Radio
202.513.2000

The Rush Limbaugh Show
800.282.2882

Sean Hannity Show
212.613.3832

The Los Angeles Times
213.237.5000

The New York Times
212.556.1234

USA Today
703.854.3400

The Wall Street Journal
212.416.2000

The Washington Post
202.334.6000

Newsweek
212.445.4000

Time
212.522.1212

U.S. News & World Report
202.955.2000

Associated Press
212.621.1500

Source: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

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Been lounging around watching playoff baseball, can’t wait until tomorrow when my hometown team The Rangers go for the sweep against the Rays. Going to a new restaurant at Aria called Jean Georges Steakhouse later tonight after I do a back workout with my brother downstairs. Thanks to everyone that wished me a happy b-day. A buddy of mine said, congrats on 31, you’ll be 50 before you know it:)

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Played last night from 4 to 11pm, much of the time while training a student. Ended up saving the day with the $30 Victory Poker $4k guaranteed where I placed 2nd. Now that they are on the Cake Network I’m able to sit down pretty much 24/7 and get some kind of tournament going…huge fore me. I’ll be taking tomorrow off as it’s my birthday, wow 31, can’t even believe it. Wasn’t that long ago when I was 25 years old up and coming grinder learning his chops. It’s been a very long and windy road poker-wise since the first time I played online, though I feel that poker is a game I can and will play for the rest of my life,…so, relatively speaking I’m still in the early stages of my poker journey.

Thanks for reading my blog, have a powerful and productive day!!!

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Just got back from a “Poker Player Cruise” to the Mexican Riviera. We stopped in Cabo and PuertoVallarta and right from the get-go I got a bit too much sun. The cruise was cool b/c I was able to play poker basically 24/7 and on top of that fellow Victory Sponsored Pro Paul Wasicka and Mike “Mad Genius” Caro played a bunch of heads up matches which I was able to watch their hole cards. I learned a bunch and was able to utilize some of what I learned last night when I got heads up in the $30 rebuy on Victory. I did a couple of floats and delayed re-raises post flop and basically gauged my pre-flop hand selection exactly how I thought Paul would have. Thank you Paul and Mike, b/c I took the tournament down (the last day I played I won the $50 turbo on Victory as well,…so feeling a heater coming on). The more time I spend in the business of poker, the more I’m convinced there is to learn.

The cruise was great, but I’m glad to be back on dry land and getting back to my everyday life. Today I’m filming the “Real Day in the Life of The Maven”…for my media site TheMavenMedia.com…so I have a camera in my face as we speak:) I’ll be playing a full round of tournaments online tonight, I hope to see you on the rail.

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I’m about to start an 8 hour training session with a new student. More than likely I’ll spend 4 hours today going over theory and breaking down hand histories of tournaments I’ve already played…then have the student return tomorrow to watch me play my Sunday schedule of tournaments.

Just got back from San Diego (again!) and had an amazing vacation. The plan is to spend the next two weeks either grinding online here or flying to Europe and playing the WSOP Europe Main Event. I’d say it’s 50/50 right now which I decide. At the end of the month I’ll be going on a 7 day poker cruise with my brother where I will be doing a free poker seminar. If you’re interested in details feel free to check out the site:

http://www.willetttravel.com/poker.html

Also, here’s a recent video blog from my new site TheMavenMedia.com

http://themavenmedia.com/videos/91/sep-2nd-video-blog

Anyhoo, thanks for reading my blog and have a great day!

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Well, it’s that time of the month again, boot camp time! Ari and I are about to start a 3-day sold out boot camp where we are going to lay out our poker theory from A to Z. We have a very interesting group this time, including a live pro or two as well as family members of pros. We have set up a live feed at the training center on my new site:

http://www.themavenmedia.com/live.php

Had a great vacation this past week in San Diego with the girlfriend (incidentally, we just celebrated our 6 month anniversary, yay us!). I’m super duper rested and ready to give this boot camp my all.

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Ended up grinding 10 hours yesterday and taking 3rd in two tournaments, $5 rebuy no limit hi/lo omaha on pstars and the $3 rebuy on ftp. Always looking for a win, but two third place finishes feels almost as good. I’m playing a very strict schedule right now, comprising the same tournaments everyday (alongside cashgames on Victory). I’m now starting to see the same people over and over. My detailed notes and poker tracker is really allowing me to exploit these same grinders and I’ll have to say everything is getting easier by the day. That’s part of the fun of it, part of the process, building that huge database of notes and statistics, which becomes ammunition and momentum.

About to start here in a few minutes, as always you’ll be able to watch me grind live via my new website:

http://themavenmedia.com/live.php

Thanks for reading my blog, do a little bit extra today and make today count. Take it down!

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First off, wanted to congratulate Kathy Liebert and Jennifer Harman for being inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame. That’s very cool and I’m going to try and be there for the induction ceremony.

Secondly, the weather in Vegas is finally starting to cool off. Nights have even had a nice mild breeze which reminds me a bunch of Texas where I’m from. Yesterday I was noticing lightning in the background during one of my 5 minute breaks at the top of the hour. Sure enough, it rained here in Vegas yesterday (probably 5 to 10 times a year). The cat was meowing like crazy to go out on the balcony and check it out. My parents have been griping because I haven’t visited them in a while…which brings me to my last point.

I’m going on my 19th straight day of full-time playing online tournaments and I have no plans of letting up anytime soon. Things have been going very well, I had two wins in small tournaments and 13 total over that period. The schedule I’m running is great and because I’m eating right and working out (and have a low stress life)…I feel super fresh and ready to play everyday. Alongside and on top of playing tons of tournaments, I’ve been playing cashgames late into the night on Victory. It’s been a while since I played 70+ hours of poker per week, but now that I’m back into it I have to say I’m having a ton of fun.

Thanks for reading my blog, have a powerful and productive day!

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Well, almost took a day off yesterday, but decided to play afterall starting around 9pm. Ended up taking 3rd in ftp’s $24 hi/lo omaha tournament which was cool b/c it’s a tournament that I don’t usually play. Want to thank Ari “BodogAri” Engel and Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown for all the omaha lessons going back over the years.

I was interviewed by Marco from QuadJacks.com at the WSOP and it came out pretty funny, check it out:

http://quadjacks.com/videos/280/david-chicotsky-main-event-interview-quadjacks

I’ll be starting back up today grinding tournaments online and playing cashgames on Victory Poker late into the night. You can follow my every move by watching me at:

http://www.themavenmedia.com/live.php

Also, check out Victory Pro Antonio Esfandiari and his cool ass brother Pasha skydiving (I chickened out lol):

Lastly, wanted to wish Phil Laak a speedy recovery after a gruesome ATV accident as of late. If you aren’t following him on twitter (it’s a must as he’s super interesting) I’d recommend doing so he’s @RealPhilLaak on there. Get well soon big guy!

Thanks for reading my blog, have a positive and productive day!

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Well, ftops has started and as usual there are a ton of great tournaments worth playing. This should be good for all the sites as more players are logged on and playing (bigger prizepools!:) Played in the $200 one last night, got about half way through the field and ended up losing 1/2 my stack by calling a nit’s all in with 33, he had 77.

Just pre-regged for another 30 or 35 tournaments today, about to get to work. I’ll also be playing cashgames on Victory late into the night.

You can’t see my hole cards (lol), but you can watch me as I grind along day after day playing 15 or more at a time via:

http://www.themavenmedia.com/live.php

Also, starting to look forward to the “detox” series of tournaments that tournament director Matt Savage is bringing to the Hard Rock Casino…looking to take one of those down.

Thanks for reading my quick blog here at BluffMagazine.com, have a positive and productive day!

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