David Chicotsky Blog

Just getting done with a group training session here at ArisTrainingCenter.com

This was the first boot camp that BodogAri and I have run together. Needless to say, it was a much better deal for the students and much easier for me. Very appreciative to have someone so committed to poker like Ari in my life.

We were fortunate enough to have Orel Hershiser and his brother here training this week. What can I even say about Orel? He’s the coolest guy I’ve ever met and I’m basically adding him to my list of mentors/life coaches. To say that some of his comments to me are inspirational would be an understatement. Again, just glad to have such a great team of people surrounding me. Be on the lookout for my interview with Orel in next month’s Bluff Magazine.

The past month or so has been great for me poker-wise, I’ve played about half of the days and seemed to be able to put together a string of winning sessions. My game is feeling super sharp and I’m excited to be back in the saddle playing regularly.

Next week I have four days of private lessons lined up…so, will more than likely take the weekend off and relax in preparation.

Hope everyone reading this is doing well…thanks for reading my blog, I’ll try and get back on here in the very near future and keep you updated.

Make the most out of everyday.

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Looking forward to playing tomorrow’s charity event for the HPT/DAV Foundation Red Rock…it’s a rebuy for charity, so you know people are going to be “acting a fool” at the table. Should be the loosest first hour of live play I’ve ever been a part of.

Saturday, there is a $1K with a televised final table that should draw half of Vegas and others from around the country. Sure I’ll be meeting new people and enjoying playing poker, my brother’s also coming in town so I’m expecting to have a great weekend. I’ll have to say that I have yet to play poker at Red Rock and this will be my first tournament playing in the Heartland Tour…so, I’m looking to play hard and give it my all along the way.

Keeping this one short and sweet, thanks for reading my blog and I’ll be back on here updating you in the very near future.

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Ari’s getting his wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow and he started a thread about it on TheMavenVT.com’s forum. Ari has “history” (as we like to say at the poker tables) with the dentist and is a notoriously bad patient. Needless to say, he couldn’t have liked to read this from one of our students from the training center, enjoy:

oneday57
Posted: Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:23:41 PM
Rank: Official Student
Groups: Forum Member , Private Member

Joined: 11/7/2009
Posts: 13
Points: 45
Location: virginia

when i got mine cut , they gave laughing gas the whole time and a local . didn’t feel a thing . well the three shots in the roof of my mouth were a bitch . yeah , that hurt like hell. the needles about an inch and a half long. but after i got through that everything was ok. they let me bring headphones so i just keep it cranked the whole time. basicly they put a small car jack in your mouth and jack it till your chin touches your chest and they go in with a stainless steel screwdriver and push the gums down really hard to expose enough of the tooth to grab it with these wicked looking set of pliers. then they just yank the @#$! out of till it comes out . if you don’t like blood, i suggest you keep your eyes closed be cause it will be spewing like a slaughtered hog! it would fly out and hit my dentist all up in the face. then he’ll stitch you up with a needle that looks like something used to catch blue marlin with. he’ll rub your cheeks raw with the stitching string as if you’ve been hiking everest allday with no mask. but the nitros makes all this seem funny at the time.
and God help you if you get dry sockets. it’s the worst . yougot these gapping holes in your lower jaw , they have to pack them with awful, and i mean #$%^$&^%& awful awful tasting gauze about 1/4 ” wide and seems like 3 feet long. you have to go do it every week for like three weeks . all week long the guaze slowly works it way out and you have to keep cutting it with scissors cause you keep trying to swallow it. not to mention your cheeks swell up somuch from the infection it looks not like you’re chewing tobacco but more like your chewing boxing gloves in each cheek!! so try like hell not to get dry sockets!!
well i hoped this helped Ari, not trying to scare you, i know you said you weren’t a good patient, and I know las vegas is full of great orthadontist’s . one last thing i thought might be comforting for you to know was that the dentist that pulled mine was also the county veternarian!!!!!:)

just kidding! you’ll do fine!!! seriously though do not get the dry socket!!!
request the gas ! it’s awesome like being at a dead show

For the entire thread:

http://themavenvt.com/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&m=1724ڼ

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

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Went to Dead Man’s Hand for New Year’s Eve and had a great time. Scott Ian, Jerry Cantrell, and crew were partying it up in style and I was glad to be a part of it. Ran into Gavin Smith who is always fun to be around…

After midnight I made my way over to Panorama to attend Antonio Esfandiari’s party…another fun time. Did a bit of dancing as well as talking with some of the other pros in attendance such as, Mike Matusow, Andrew Robl, Keith Gipson, Dan Bilzerian, and of course Antonio. Was also able to hang out a bit with one of my most recent and promising students Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel…mark my words, this man will become the best online tournament poker player in the world in the next year or two.

I made my way back home early though, as my plan was to begin hitting the online poker scene very hard starting the new year…and that’s what I’ve done thus far. Today was the first day since the new year that I didn’t play a full schedule…nice to take a day off…but, super excited to be heading into a big Sunday coming up.

Speaking of exciting, congrats to my student Jeremy “daisyxoxo” Fitzpatrick for winning Bluff’s 2009 Online Player of the Year Award. I mean, the man made over 500 final tables in one year,…my hat’s off to him.

The amount of time, energy, focus, dedication, etc. for him to win this award was astounding and I couldn’t be happier for him. Also, wanted to give a big shout-out and thank you to his girlfriend Shera for supporting him so wholeheartedly along the way…he couldn’t have done it without you. Can’t wait to see him on the front cover of Bluff in March!!! Here’s a link to a recent article on daisyxoxo’s 2009 OPOY title run:

http://news.bluffmagazine.com/jeremy-daisyxoxo-fitzpatrick-wins-bluff-online-player-of-the-year-8688/

On the student front, another one of my students has been in the news as of late, Nicolas Mamy was recently featured on the Face The Ace television show and won his first round match against Patrik Antonius. It was pretty funny after the match to hear Antonius tell the commentator that Nicolas basically played like a pro (well…I wonder why…??? Because he is a pro!! As he’s the 3rd highest ranked online player in France right now and a legit phenom talent).

On my end, the past month playing poker has gone really well. I put together a fantastic December, highlighted by chopping the $1K buy-in Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker tournament 3-ways for $25K and change.

Like I said, I’m super excited to wake up and play a huge Sunday schedule tomorrow. My game feels unreal sharp right now, running on all cylinders, and looking to take it down!

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you all have a great 2010. Stay positive, stay motivated, and give them hell at the tables.

David Chicotsky
TheMavenVT.com

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Well, 2009 is almost over and wow did the year go by fast. I probably only played about 1/4 of the amount of poker in 2009 as I did in 2008, but I ended the year with a very strong month. In the past couple of weeks I got 2nd in the $100 2X Chance and made a final table in the $100 rebuy on Poker Stars. On Full Tilt Poker, I won the $100 1Rebuy 1Add-on…on AP/UB I chopped the $1K Wednesday tournament last week for around $25K. All and all, December was a great month, one of my best to date.

I have a bunch of irons in the fire right now on top of finishing coursework for TheMavenVT, I’m not exactly sure where 2010 will take me. One thing is for sure, I plan on playing at least as many WSOP events this year as I did in 2009 (20 events). Also, very glad to finally have my forum up and running and ArisTrainingCenter launched.

New Year’s Eve is fast approaching and I’m sure it is going to get pretty wild here in Vegas. Hopefully, I’ll have some cool stories to share with ya’ll in the near future. Also, be sure to check my article out in the back of this (and next) month’s Bluff Magazine. Until next time…

Tid!!!

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If you’re going to hang out in a bar and listen to live music, you might as well own the bar. Went and checked out Scott Ian’s new club “Dead Man’s Hand” (co-owned by Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains) tonight…and had a really good time…if you’re looking for a great rock n’ roll bar in Vegas, this place is a must. I’m going to go back and visit a couple more times and write a full review on it in the Las Vegas Lifestyle section of TheMavenVT.com’s forum. I’d be scared to know just how crazy a place like that could get for New Years!!!…who knows…I just might find out…which would make for a very interesting article for Bluff (literally).

This past month has been an unreal grind as I’ve been day and night working on content for my training site, alongside hosting a group training session one of the weeks. I’m semi-forced to punt the next month or two (or three! lol) poker-wise as I finish recording all of the videos…as I get the training end of things ready to launch…putting out high-quality and effective training material is what it’s all about. I’m so thankful that I have an entire team of people assisting me along the way. The cool thing about what’s going on here is that this year I essentially wrote a 100 page book on poker. My poker thoughts and philosophies, combined with that of my poker mentor Ari “The Godfather” Engel…filling page after page. Now, the best part is I am able to “virtualize” all of the material from the book and transform it into coursework that can be displayed over the internet. It’s so much better to be able to take an interactive course, than simply read a book. I have a feeling that all the “books” that everyone “must read” will soon become “courses” online that we “must watch/take”…imagine Harrington’s books…virtualized!!!…as in, he would be on the screen explaining exactly what he thinks about each subject and point for point working you through examples, reviews, etc…to be followed by testing material to make sure the material is properly understood. Virtual training, training online, is the wave of the future and I’m glad to be partnered up with one of the leaders in the marketplace LightspeedVT.com…My hope is to be able to bring the poker community the world’s best poker players, virtually, learning all of their tricks and tactics!!!

Work aside, I’m still finding time to go out with my friends and visit cool new places all over Vegas. I’ll try and update ya’ll here and on my forum as to what I’ve been up to…if you want to follow me on twitter: TheMavenVT or on Facebook: David Chicotsky. Thanks for reading my blog, until next time,…take it down!!!

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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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