Poker Blog & Poker Forum

I have to admit, I usually find these poker player “lifestyle” type videos pretty cool and stumbled accross a new one today about David “The Maven” Chicotsky.  If it wasn’t for his video training site, or the fact that I for some odd reason keep in the loop with what is going on with online players I probably would have no idea who this guy is.  Regardless, David put together this video as most likely a marketing ploy to promote his training services or there is some connection with the new Victory Poker site which recently launched (as he is one of their pros shown on their homepage) on the Everleaf Network (yea, you’ve probably never heard of it because its one of the worst networks).

Firstly you can watch the video here (sorry, it doesn’t have an embed option), then read my review of it after.

Anyway, I digress… so here is my breakdown/coles notes of the video.  The video starts off with David playing several tournaments on various poker sites at his home in Las Vegas including Absolute Poker for some odd reason.  I guess he doesn’t mind trusting his money with sites known to cheat players.  After playing for what appears to be a short period of time (I guess he busted out early or let his masseuse continue playing for him) he hits the gym to pump some iron get his body beach ready for pools.  After this he heads over to Chop, the guy from the hit TV show King of Cars to get hustled into buying an over priced benz.  Since this is a day in the life of The Maven, does that mean he buys an $80k car everyday?  This is followed by him going to get an overpriced lunch at some Japanese restaurant.  Once he finishes up there he heads to a poker degen session (where broke people go to try and strike it rich by becoming good at gambling) to promote his training.  After he finishes up there where it looks like some guy who can’t afford to pay for his training is offering him sexual favours as he leaves to learn, he heads over to his life coach???  WTF is a life coach and who pays someone to tell them how to run their life?  The life coach himself looks kind of insane and probably could use his own life coach, though he seems to be doing pretty good at ripping off morons.  Next stop, he heads over to Antonio Esfandiari’s crib for what looks like a Victory Poker party.  I have to admit Antonio is a pimp and his condo is full of smoking girls.  Though aside from Antonio you really have to ask if these girls would even talk to most of these guys if they didn’t have bucket loads of money.  For example, Andrew Robl (good2cu online) has to be one of the most akward people I have seen being interviewed before.  The video ends off with “The Maven” heading to some party get together of like 7 people at the Palms.  He sees some asian escort that he hired after a party at the Playboy Mansion, and the video ends off with him hiring her for her services again.

Ok, now that I am done ripping on this video, let me explain why I am hating on it so much.  First off, sure, a lot of it is probably true of what he does on a daily basis, but the question is, how much of that stuff is complete BS to try and make him look cool.  The car thing is just in there to show off a lot of the things though they do probably happen regularily, I can’t see him doing this every single day.  Most of the big online poker tournaments are at night, so when is he sitting home for those 13 hour sessions to grind those games out.  To become an online player of the year you have to be putting in some serious sessions I would think on a daily basis.  Everybody knows the life of a poker player is far from glamourous.  You really have to put in long sessions at your computer or a poker table to make the money to pay for the flashy lifestyle.  I know many poker players that do quite well for themselves ($1 mil + per year) and even they spend a ton of time at their computers and rarely get out that much.  And these are people with large social circles and lots of friends, not just people who’s only friends are other poker players.  Finally, that last part with the asian girl looked sooooo staged.  I am not trying to say that he couldn’t pick her up (I am pretty sure he used to have some smoking blonde girlfriend – not sure what happened to that) but don’t do retarded things like that just to try and make yourself look “cool” for a video.  I really don’t see him as the type of guy that is out pulling girls home everyday.  Sure, you are probably doing this because it is what you think people want to be / it looks cool, but just be yourself, the dorky looking kid that is really good at poker, and stop trying to pretend you are something you are not.

On another note, here is a good remake of The Maven’s video…

Phil Ivey recently made the cover for the popular cigar industry magazine, Cigar Afficianado.  Though the magazine is more of a lifestyle magazine than just cigars, some readers had mixed feelings about him being on the cover.

On the CA Forums, one reader posted: “Who the hell is Phil Ivey and what good did he do for the world for being on the cover? What about George Lopez or Hugh Grant(non-smoker by the way) who got caught with a prostitute? Seems to me that some of the people featured on the covers are not the “role models” I got used to anymore.”

Others on the forum were happy to see Ivey on the cover.  Some of the positive comments included: “There’s everything we gentlemen care about… cigars, golf, spirits, clothing, watches, movies and yes… poker… which has seated itself nicely into the realm of everything else listed above.”  Another poster stated, “Yes Phil comes across as cool and a good guy unlike some in the poker world. I am glad to see him on the cover of CA.”

If you are a big fan of Ivey, and enjoy the occassional cigar definitely check out this month’s issue on newstands.  Here is the cover image:

Phil Hellmuth is looking to change his image and no longer be referred to as the “Poker Brat”.  According to Hellmuth in a recent interview with ESPN he feels that his image is causing him to lose more because more players are targetting him due to his evil reputation.  In the interview he discussed how he played much better in 2006 when he wasn’t referred to as the “poker brat” and even though the TV editors love the way he draws ratings with his rants, he is making an effort to turn that around.

He recently tried this at a tournament where after getting sucked out he decided to just go over and shake his opponents hand instead of errupting.  This was met with a round of applause by the audience.

Here is the interview with Hellmuth and ESPN where they discuss Phil’s new “kinder and gentler” image:

This news absolutely shocked me when I heard it, so I will just post the facts as released by various sources:

Pokerstars Press Release:

“Yesterday at approximately 2.15pm, an armed robbery took place at the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. Four armed men were involved in the robbery which targeted the tournament registration desk outside the tournament area.

No shots were fired and the suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened. The police investigation so far has shown that the suspects had a handgun and a machete. Contrary to tabloid reports, no Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades were used. The suspects did not enter the tournament area and the money taken was substantially less than what has been reported.

The tournament resumed after a few hours and a police investigation is now under way. The tournament is taking place on the first floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz and is being held by SPIELBANK Berlin Casino.

The police are working closely with the EPT and SPIELBANK Berlin. Police are asking anyone who has information, video footage or photographs that might aid the investigation to contact them.”

Here is video of the robbery as it happened:

Their is an extended video which features the heroic security guard which can be seen here:

Pictures of the fleeing robbers can be seen here.

Collection of several photos of the robbery can be seen on this German site.

Here is an interview with the heroic security guard (as translated by 2+2 member xor) seen in the videos above with a picture of him holding down one of the robbers:

Reporter: Where were you when the robbery began?

Guard: I was standing in the foyer when four men came up the stairs screaming
loud. Two of my four colleagues were out for a break. This indicates
planning on the part of the robbers.

R: Were they armed?

G: Yes, one had a machete, another one a black revolver.

R: You have a little wound above your eye. How come?

G: One of the villains attacked me with a machete, he hit me near the eye.

R: Why were you attacked?

G: Right in the beginning I hit one of the robbers as he ran by me, so
he lost his revolver. Then the one with the machete came and hit me.
Luckily I could turn my head sideways, so he didn’t hit me too badly.
After that two of the four villains fled, and my two colleagues chased
them. I remained behind with the two other villains. They were behind
the counter, filling money into their big leather bag. I then threw a
money cassette and a metal rack at them.

R: How did the villains react?

G: The one with the pistol jumped up and aimed at me. Obviously, I
jumped to the side at first. After that, they happily continued
collecting money. Then as they were trying to flee, I went after the
one with the weapon, and got a hold of him. Luckily a hotel guy came
to my assistance. Unfortunately, the guy with the machete came back,
and I wasn’t in the mood to handle him as well, so I let them go. I
was unarmed, after all. The bag with the money remained in the hotel.

R: How did you get the courage for your intervention?

G: You don’t think of anything in particular at that moment, you’re just
doing your job. And my job was to protect the money. So that’s what I
did. I’ll probably start shivering tonight, when I realize what has
happened. I used to work for the Berlin Police and I learned to
fight there. But nothing like this has ever happened to me.

R: How long did the robbery take?

G: You lose your sense of time in such a situation. It felt like
eternity. Even now in the evening, I’m still pumped up with adrenaline.

It is believed that around 800,000 euros were taken from the event, but these numbers have not been confirmed.  As more information comes out we will be sure to keep you updated.

Last night UB.com (aka the cheating poker site formerly known as Ultimate Bet) launched a new TV show called Poker2Nite.  The show is hosted by Joe Sebok and Scott Huff and is supposed to be some kind of poker talk show.  For the very first episode they brought on former real-world hot tub three-way specialist (according to her wikipedia page), Trishelle Cannatella.

The interview started off with the 3 chatting about Trishelle’s last name, then Sebok asks why she is dressed so modest.  Trishelle gets extremely “upset” and storms off the set.  While on her way out, Huff says to her, “Maybe you’d be more comfortable if we did this in a hot tub”.

After watching this video, it looks like this is purely a marketing ploy for the show considering all 3 of these characters have ties to Ultimate Bet.  As Trishelle is walking off the set the look in her face is more of a smirk then actual anger, and Sebok himself seems to have a smile on his fase as well.  Here is the video here:

Cannatanella also seems to be the latest AP/UB “hot chick” poker player as she was seen playing the WPT Celebrity Invatational sporting an AbsolutePoker.com patch seen here.  To her credit she did end up coming 3rd in the tournament winning $20,000.

Ah well, I guess everyone has their price.