Spent most of the past three weeks writing and recording footage for my website. I have yet to include the hundreds of hand history examples my poker mentor Ari Engel and I are going to break down for the viewers.

It’s going to be nice to have a couple of days break from the project to go ahead and do a bit of grinding. Played tonight with no success, but planning on playing later in the afternoon online as well.

I had some students take down some big scores this week which is always nice. Nothing feels better than seeing them win.

I know this was a short blog, but I’ll try and drum up some more interesting stories over the next week and share them with you soon.

Everyone feel free to tune into the WSOP main event final table via bluffmagazine.com Nov. 7th and 9th. I’m going to be doing the commentating and we have a talent packed lineup of pros to come on and talk shop. Definitely looking forward to it.

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I’ve recently been finalizing the writing of my script for TheMavenVT. The plan is to offer a 32-hour training course (which will probably take hundreds of hours in the studio to create, yikes). One thing I’ve noticed is that I seem to write well in 25 minute increments, then my progress seems to diminish a bit…my script is currently the size of a book…pretty cool that I’ll be able to “virtualize” the material and explain my thought process with examples, nuggets of information, and everything the highest possible quality, HD baby! I’m trying to take breaks and relax in between writing sessions in the hopes of being able to get all of the poker ideas I have in my head onto paper. The LightspeedVT studios are about 30 minutes from Ari’s Training Center, so my days have also included about an hour in the car per day as well. All of that said, I’ve been super busy and the work-load going forward towards the end of the year is going to be frightening…this is going to be the biggest project I’ve under-taken so far and I’m just so happy to have such a strong team of professionals help me complete the task.

I’m also currently finishing up an article for Bluff Magazine about controlling tilt. I’m really looking forward to being the announcer for the WSOP November 9 Final Table brought to you by ESPN360/Bluffmagazine.com…going to be pretty cool. I’m bringing in a couple of other pros to help assist me with the announcing and overall, I feel like it’s an amazing opportunity that’s been presented to me which I’m more than grateful of…thank you BLUFF!!!!!

I’ll try and keep everyone updated in the near future. In the meantime, feel free to join me on Facebook: David Chicotsky or on Twitter: TheMavenVT

I think I’m going to take a break, fire up Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars…rail some of the top pros online (nothing beats a free lesson:)

D

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Just got back in town from the Borgata in Atlantic City…played in a WPT preliminary and the WPT Main Event. I ended up bubbling both tournaments and I’ll give you a brief breakdown of my thoughts and the action along the way.

In the $500 preliminary event I was getting semi-short-stacked late into the night, sitting between 20 and 35 blinds for a couple of hours. Six or seven hours into the tournament the player to my left got knocked out and Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin was moved to the seat. About an hour before Eric arriving at the table, another pro was moved 3 to my left. A fellow player I was traveling with came up to me immediately and told me the new player had won several big tournament at the Borgata recently. So…I was fully aware that the table was stacked with skilled players directly to my left and I made the necessary adjustments. Forced to “slow down” to my left, I made a couple of small re-raises and popped up a few limpers fighting to increase my stack.

Fast forward an hour or two and it’s nearing midnight, I’m down to 16 bb. I’m in middle position and the big blind accidentally mucks his hand, thinking he was UTG. Three people fold and the player to my right limped. I knew the limper was relatively inexperienced as a player, he had confided that he was a dealer at the casino after about five hours of play. I put him on a small pocket pair, marginal face card holdings, or a small percentage of the time a high quality hand. With the limp, I stood to gain 3.5 big blinds, an increase in my stack of over 20%. Keep in mind the big blind has already open-mucked his hand. I look down at AJ suited. I announce a raise to around 5 big blinds, mentally committing my stack. Basebaldy immediately puts in a stack of 1k chips worth around 20k. The initial limper folds and I commit the rest of my stack into the middle. Basebaldy shows QQ, which held to knock me out of the preliminary event.

I can’t say enough about Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin as a player and as a person. He is very loose and aggressive and in marginal situations seems to weigh on the side of the aggressive option more often than not…just an all around fantastic player. Though I haven’t spent a ton of time talking and interacting with Eric, I will say that he has his head screwed on straight and is easily one of the nicest poker players I’ve ever met. One of the young masters of controlled aggression, I wish him nothing but the best and hope he takes down the player of the year race.

Fast forward again to the third day of the $3,200 WPT main event…about three hours into play I was involved in a 100 bb pot all in pre-flop on the bubble. I’m sitting with 285,000 chips, blinds are 3K/6k. A loose French-Canadian player also sitting with around 300,000 chips opens up in mid position to 14K. Everyone folds and I look down at AK from the small blind.

I had looked his name up online and knew he was a professional. Once I heard his accent, I knew it was only a matter of time until we would butt heads. Sure enough, the very first hand I opened at that table, I received a call on the button and this player had re-raised from the bb, I 4-bet him with AQ and he reluctantly folded. The player had also been involved in another situation where he 3-bet someone and called off correctly against another professional with AJ. So,…bottom line, I thought I had the nuts against him and either had him dominated or was racing an extremely high percentage of the time. I was literally thinking, “Induce the 4 bet, easy re-raise.”

I announce a raise of 32k more…my opponent grabs a stack of gray 5k chips worth around 100 to 120k and drops it in the middle. Pretty sure I have the player crushed at this point I basically beat him into the middle with the rest of my stack all in. He instantly called and showed 99. We raced it off for 3rd in chips in the tournament and unfortunately for my tournament life he won the race. Olivier Busquet, who ended up winning the tournament, was sitting three to my right. Next time I see him I’m going to try and hire him for heads up play. His skill level is off the charts and he’s definitely someone I’d spend my hard earned money learning from.

Bubbling is never fun, but it’s important to play to win and not let the fear of bubbling get in your way of long-term profits. Understanding the base fundamentals of poker and being confident in your all around poker game will allow you to play aggressively without creating an undue mental burden. All and all, I got away with murder on the tables and was very happy with my efforts along the way. Another experience I’ll be sure to draw from going forward. Thanks for reading my blog, I’ll try and keep you updated in the near future.

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Well the series was an interesting mix of very high and low points. Just like last year, I was so close to the big money several times, but the $ seemed to slip through my fingers. I’m going to spend this next year improving both my NL and other games before the 2010 WSOP…going to seek out the best in the business and learn from them (damn, hard to believe it will be 2010 next year). All of that said, I had several students bink scores for hundreds of thousands and it was a great learning experience for all involved. I met a ton of the online players I’ve played against for years which was great. It’s always good to make friends and contacts in the poker world…you just never know where the connections will lead.

I performed a mitzvah today and wouldn’t usually tell people about it, but I want to encourage others to help people in need. I was at the pound looking for my cat and while waiting in line to speak with the person behind the desk I overheard the woman in front of me explaining that she couldn’t afford the $70 to get her dog out of the pound…she had several small kids there with her and it was obvious she was distressed. She explained that her husband was starting a new job and that they just couldn’t afford the bill…she asked if they could bill her later or set up a payment plan etc. Very sad!!! I whispered to the guy behind the counter that I’d pay her bill and when the woman found out she broke down crying. It’s a shame that she couldn’t afford the bill and with her family wanting the dog back, it was more than I could take. The animal shelter is in a low income part of town and I noticed as I was driving out that there was a pack of young boys standing outside of a manual car wash holding towels (obviously there to make an extra buck or two by drying the cars off after they were washed)…again, very sad to see such young children having to stand in the 100 degree sun trying to make a few dollars. As of recently, I’ve tried to take a more active role in giving to various charities and I wanted to share my experience today as an encouragement to others to go out of their way to help others.

I’m starting three group training sessions at Ari’s Training Center in the near future and will be very busy with that…but, I’ll do my best to try and keep you updated with what’s going on in my world.

-David

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Everything’s been going well from my end,…this year’s WSOP has had it’s share of close-calls for me, gotten close to the big $ a couple of times…wish the series went all year long. Really great for me to be able to meet so many of the internet pros I’ve played against for years in real life. Even on my off-days, I’ve been able to stay busy working on business deals and continuing to push forward towards the launch of TheMavenVT.com January 1st.

Had a chance to play golf with some buddies of mine at Daniel Negreanu’s charity golf tournament,…was great to get out in the sun and joke around amongst friends. Taking Daniel and other generous people’s lead…I’d like to get more involved in giving back and doing more work for charity (obviously, I’d like to encourage others to do the same).

It seems like I do less outdoor activities since I’ve moved to Vegas the past couple of years and I’m going to make a point to diversify my time a bit more looking into the future. Due to the WSOP and how busy I’ve been, I haven’t been able to take Kung Fu class with my master in the past month, but once things settle down I’ll be back in the studio everyday.

I’m now planning a trip to Europe with Dyzalot late in the year, traveling and playing poker along the way. I’ll have an eight day break after the WSOP to go back to Texas and spend time with my family. Afterwards, I’ll be splitting basically everyday for the next several months between training students at Ari’s Training Center and working in the LightspeedVT studios finishing my online virtual training course.

All’s well from my end, myself and the people around me all seem to be in good spirits…I just hope that myself, one of my friends or students can pull through and take down a big prize going into the final stretch of the WSOP. Thanks for reading my blog and I’ll try to keep you updated in the near future. Feel free to follow me on twitter: TheMavenVT or on facebook: David Chicotsky

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I believe I’ve played around 12 tournaments so far and am expecting to play around 10 more before the series is over. There’s high hopes for my performance from a variety of sources, most importantly myself. Happy to say that I’ve been doing many things right along the way…eating healthy, getting massages, stretching, relaxing, drinking a bunch of water or green tea, breathing properly when I feel a bit of nervous tension, getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep per night,…I feel great and super-charged, confident, going into the remainder of the tournaments.

Had a couple of very deep runs, final two tables and final four tables. Today I bubbled the $1,500 NL a couple away from the $…easiest play of my life.

Feel free to check out my new twitter account, TheMavenVT, recently added to the list of pros on bluffmagazine.com. Ready to give them hell tomorrow, do everything I can to out-think and out-perform my competition. Until then, make the most out of this week, there won’t be another one like it…

D

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Just busted out of the $1,500 Limit Omaha H/L event just before dinner break. I had a relatively good table draw and felt very comfortable at the table, things just didn’t go my way in several critical hands and I’m now looking forward to the next event - playing the $1,000 NL on Sunday. Ran into my fellow PokerVT pro Pearljammer and said what’s up to him, I’d love to see him take down a big tournament at this year’s WSOP. I also listened in at break as Brandon Cantu was telling Etay and Jeff Madsen about how hard his $40K second day table was…mentioning Daniel Negreanu, Anne Duke,and a couple other players. After looking at the field, I’m glad I didn’t risk $40k only to grind against the best pros in the world (i.e. online and live).

I’m in the process of writing an article for Bluff describing the benefits of martial arts to those serious about playing poker (deadline fast approaching, yikes!). I’ve made it no secret that I feel martial arts has helped greatly improve my mental disposition and my poker game….I’m hoping I can spread the word and more poker players will follow suit and begin taking up martial arts/Shaolin Kung Fu as a practical way to improve their lives and their poker game.

The past week has been pretty wild, Ari and I hosted daisyxoxo at our training center. We had ten or so students in and out of the center throughout the week and I can personally say that the tips I picked up by watching him all week will go a long way in helping me continue to improve my poker game. If nothing else, daisyxoxo coming and training students at Ari’s Training Center was a great excuse for me to relax the week before the WSOP. Now I’m in full-swing WSOP mode and eagerly look forward to playing more events. I really wish the World Series would include a bunch of rebuy tournaments next year…

Wishing all of you well and hope to see you at the WSOP in the coming weeks,

David Chicotsky
TheMavenVT.com

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Well, it’s been a long past couple of weeks as I’ve been busy teaching private lessons. Many of the men that are coming to me never would have heard of me without the exposure of Bluff Magazine (I’ve had to turn down a ton of requests for training, as the WSOP is quickly arriving). I’m gearing up for next week; Ari and I are hosting daisyxoxo at our training center here in Las Vegas . We have the place sold out and are excited to have such a talented player here to instruct the rest of our past students. Speaking of students, one of the guys coming here to train with daisy…is Subiime, Joe Cheong. I originally taught Subiime around four months ago. Immediately I knew he was going to be one of the most successful students I’d ever come across. This week, he proved me right again, taking first in the $30 rebuy mini-FTOPS for $55,000. Not only does he have great fundamentals and a very smart aggressive game, he’s also very even-tempered mentally. Big congrats to Subiime for the nice lick and I look for many more big things from him.

I’m still dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s getting ready for the WSOP. Still haven’t decided whether or not to play in the $40,000 NL event starting at the end of the month. Given the fact that it will be one of only a handful of tournaments with television coverage (so my sources have said), I’m very likely to give it a shot in the hopes of getting my message (TheMavenVT.com) in front of audiences around the world.

My plan is to meet up with Andrew Brown a couple of days before I start playing WSOP events to brush up on games other than NL (Andrew won a WSOP Bracelet last year in Limit PLO H/L ((beating Ted Forrest HU) as well as winning a PLO SCOOP event for six-figures a month or so ago. I’ve trained with him several times before, always with great results. He’s a Stu Ungar type genius when it comes to playing cards….I’m also expecting big things out of him again this WSOP.

For all of you on the fence as to playing events this summer, I want to say that playing live in these events is not only profitable in many ways due to the huge fields etc…it’s also a great learning experience. I’m so much more confident going into my second WSOP than I was last year. I only hope my game will improve as much next year as it has in this past year. WSOP…bring it on!!!

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Well it’s been a busy past couple of weeks. I spent a week in Texas with my family. We had a huge dinner party for Passover and it was great to be able to spend time with my entire family, brother and sister included. From there I headed off to Brooklyn, New York,
to spend time with one of my original poker mentors, Nachman Berlin, better known as “The Landlord.” I got to watch him play short-handed cash-games on Lock Poker, which as always was a great learning experience. It’s so important to be
good at all the different games and forms of poker. It’s like they say in golf…”I have that in my bag.” I want to be able to beat just about any cash-game, SNG, MTT…as well as being able to beat the different forms of poker. From NYC, I headed down to Costa Rica to spend time with my girlfriend and her family. I played a bit of cash-games, playing short-handed with a very loose and aggressive style. It was a fair showing on my part; the
swings were a reminder of why I moved over to mtt’s in the first place (up or down 2 or 3 buy-ins per hour). All of that said, it’s nice to know that I can beat low/mid stakes cash-games and it will be a tool at my disposal for the rest of my life (both live and online).

It’s my first night back at Ari’s Training Center in Las Vegas and I have to say that it’s comforting to be back. I took a taxi back from the airport only to find one of my most talented students alone in the house. “Where is Ari?” “Ari’s down to the final two in the $1k Heads-up WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar’s Palace. Ari ended up taking down the tournament and bringing home his second WSOP ring. I can’t commend Ari enough on
this; the main reason being that when I first met Ari several years ago…heads up was admittedly his weakest area. Countless times I’d walk into his room only to find him watching HU SNG’s, playing HU matches, and watching instructional videos online to improve his game. Ari and I both had a bit of an advantage when it comes to heads-up play…we had the opportunity to watch SnoOowman play seven $1,500 HU games at a time on his laptop a couple of years ago when we were in Florida. Big congrats to Ari, he’s been improving his game over the past couple of years and the success he’s realizing now is a reflection of the hardwork he’s put in.

The WSOP is fastly approaching and I’m very excited to getting back into the live trenches. I’m going to give it my all, planning on playing ten to fifteen events this year. I am also planning on having a booth to promote TheMavenVT next to Daniel Negreanu’s PokerVT booth. After the WSOP, my plan is to jump in head-first and finish my website and hit the road spreading the gospel of poker.

The response I’ve had from the Bluff Magazine front cover has been overwhelming. I’m on track to completely book the first three weeks of May for private training (Ari and I are featuring my best student, daisyxoxo at our training center May 20-27th). My website, TheMavenVT.com has been over-loaded with requests for information regarding my private mtt training services and I couldn’t be more thrilled. My hat’s off to Bluff Magazine for putting me on the front cover and it’s an opportunity that I haven’t taken lightly. Accordingly, I’ve decided to begin writing blogs exclusively for bluffmagazine.com. Before too long, it’s possible that every other month will have another online pro featured. There are so many talented players in the online poker world and I’m humbled to have been chosen as the 2008 Online Player of the Year.

I appreciate you reading my blog. I’ll try and keep you updated with what’s going on in my neck of the woods in the very near future. Take care.

David Chicotsky
The Maven
TheMavenVT.com

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Well, so far the Bluff Challenge via Lock Poker has been successful from my end. I’ve turned the original $200 into just over $350 and I have no plans of stopping anytime soon. I’ve actually been pacing myself…I slept 15 hours last night am very optimistic as to my chances of success. This contest is right up my alley as I am known for hardcore grinding and putting in the very highest amount of time/volume in the poker world. Most of you out there don’t know this, but my mom is a marathon runner (who ran/walked with me until her 9th month of pregnancy) and my dad is a world class handball player (in his age bracket). I’d watch my mom come home after running 15 or 20 miles a day and I saw the dedication she put into her craft from an early age. I can assure all of you out there that I will be giving my all to run hard through the line and do my best to win this contest. I worked 50 plus hours in the first 3 days and know this is just the beginning. My family has had to overcome incredible obstacles for me to even have the opportunity to be here competing in this contest…which I’d like to share with you:

On my father’s side of the family, around the turn of the 20th century…as tensions between Jews and the Polish people were rising, he set out to secure his family’s freedom by taking a ship to the U.S.A. Upon entering through Galveston, TX, he made his way to Fort Worth (better known as Cowtown). He proceeded to work for six years in the slaughter-houses, performing the hardest/most entry level work without complaint. After six years of non-stop work, he put his entire life savings in the back of a picture frame and mailed his family back in Poland the package. This was enough money to send one other member of my family back to America.

On my mother’s side of the family, again, around the beginning of the 20th century…and again, mostly because of the ridiculous amount of persecution/discrimination/lack of freedom towards Jews in Russian…my great great grandfather walked (!) from East Russia to France (mostly relying on his craft as a tailor, working along the way, as well as benefiting from the kindness/hand-outs from others). From France he took a ferry across the channel to England. He walked up the coast of England and ended up boarding a ship for America. Entering through Ellis Island, again, he set out walking (!) his way down to Atlanta, Georgia where he finally settled down and started a family. Very shortly after arriving in Georgia and starting his family he died (in his late 30’s or early 40’s)…we believe from exhaustion and such a hard life.

So, no matter how many hours I put in, however hard the competition is…this is nothing compared to what members of my own family have had to endure (not to mention the 15 members of my family that were worked to death in the concentration camps of Europe during WWII). I can say with all seriousness that I’m treating this contest as a life or death scenario and will be paying my dues in as many ways as possible to win. I appreciate you reading my blog and I’ll continue to keep you updated along the way.

David Chicotsky
The Maven

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