David Chicotsky

by David “THE MAVEN” Chicotsky

There are many things we must strive for if we want to do well on a consistent basis at the poker table. Very high up on that list is the ability to stay unpredictable. One way we’re able to do this is by changing up the size of our raises and re-raises. When we’re dealing with small numbers like 2 or 3 blinds - an increase or decrease of a blind or two is a substantial difference. It’s always key to focus on the things we can control in a poker tournament, and one of those things is our sizing.

 In general, it’s very common to see players raise to 3x during a tournament. So when we open raise for a min raise (2x) or a large open of let’s say 3.5x - it will draw more attention than a standard raise. When we’re at the poker table we have to do our due diligence with all the other players. Knowing what their standard open-raise amount is one of the many things we must categorize and use against our opponents. The closer we pay attention to our opponents, the more information we gather, and the more precise we can be with our decision-making.

by David “THE MAVEN” Chicotsky

There are certain things we need to remind ourselves about when we play. There are other things we need to try not to think or worry too much about. It’s always smart to remind ourselves to take our time and not to rush decisions. Some players naturally draw more attention to themselves; we wouldn’t want to over-focus on a single player when there are many players to concentrate on. What’s going on in your head at the poker table needs to be pointed towards the relevant and away from the irrelevant.

 I like to try and do as much thinking about the players at the table as possible before the hand. Meaning, I don’t want to wait until I’m in the middle of a hand to determine things like how aggressive of a player my opponent is (or isn’t). I want to approach the hand with those facts thought through, already gauging the tendencies of the opponent. Otherwise, I’m forced to make complicated decisions on the fly. By taking care of several of the major factors that go into the decision, all future decisions become easier. By doing this we’re able to better concentrate on the actual aspects of the hand that are important. For all of us that are forced to wait while someone thinks forever during a hand – this kind of pre-hand analysis should speed up decisions to a tolerable level.

By David “THE MAVEN” Chicotsky

 It’s common to hear poker players complain about bad beats. So much so, that bad beat stories have become a staple of the poker culture. There are some things we can control and others we can’t. We definitely can’t control certain bad beats, but on a macro level we can manipulate the frequency and distribution of bad beats we encounter.

 What I mean by this is that every poker player has a different ratio of the amount of bad beats they take in comparison to the amount of bad beats they deliver. The least risk tolerant players will inevitably have the highest bad beats taken to bad beats delivered ratio.

by David “THE MAVEN” Chicotsky

Players raising from stealing position is such a common occurrence that we must use all options at our disposal in order to try and defend our blinds. Re-raising pre-flop is an effective way to deal with loose players that are keen on raising in position. Another way of going about it would be to call more often and try and win the pot post-flop. When I say “win the pot post-flop,” notice I didn’t say “try and hit our hand in order to win the pot.” Somewhere around 70% of the time we’re going to miss the flop with a typical hand we’re holding, so we need to be able to win the pot often enough when we do miss, to make calling pre-flop profitable. Simply put, we can’t justify passively calling out of position pre-flop if we’re not willing to turn off the passive switch post-flop.

 This doesn’t mean we have to try and win every hand that we play from the blinds, though we must figure out a certain mix of instances to go after or give up on the pot. Just like with any pot, whether or not we’re isolated against a single opponent will be a major factor in deciding the best path to take in the hand. Many times when there are more players in the hand, we’re able to play more passively preflop. We’ll be getting better pot-odds, and the fact that there are more players, in essence, will help our implied odds increase as well.

By David “the Maven” Chicotsky

When we’re deep in a tournament, the different chip stacks at the table will have the effect of causing us to make fewer or more plays. Instead of simply estimating if a certain play is chip positive expected value, we must also calculate if the play is expected to be positive relative to our tournament equity.

 Deep in a tournament, I recommend taking inventory of the different chip stacks at the table - re-calculating the stacks after each hand. Look for similar stacks, and put them in different categories. For example, if there are 12 players left and we are an average stack - the first thing we’ll want to do is look for similar stacks as ourselves. Let’s say there are 6 similar stacks as ours, 2 stacks that are much larger than ours, and 3 much smaller stacks.

by David “The Maven” Chicotsky
 
Sometimes the hardest poker decisions you end up making are when you should (or should not) act aggressively. The looser we play, the more tough decisions we’ll end up encountering. I feel like this is one of the reasons some players stay tight for their entire playing career - they know they’ll be put in a bunch of tough spots if they get involved in more hands.

 The way a loose aggressive player approaches the game, they’re forced to view tough decisions as part of the process toward profitability. In essence, they feel they are getting paid more to make tougher decisions more often. It’s akin to playing a harder level on a video game: when you beat the harder level you get a better reward. When should we put pressure on our opponents; pre-flop, post-flop, or both - and to what degree? General logic follows that the less pressure we put on an opponent pre-flop, the more often we’ll be facing them post-flop. Meaning, when we make small re-raises, our opponents will fold less often pre-flop than when we make larger re-raises. If we just call our opponent or over-limp after they’ve limped, we’re deferring the opportunity to put pressure on them. In these hands, we’re only distributing our hand strength across the equation, as there is no fold equity we’re benefiting from.

by David “The Maven” Chicotsky

If you play any game or sport enough, you’ll develop patterns or traits that characterize you as a player. As humans, we’re creatures of habit that embrace the things that work for us and continually repeat that activity. If you really break us all down (as poker players), we tend to take on an identity of ourselves based around our most repetitive habits.

 A player that identifies himself as overly tight is embracing his habit of avoiding risk and folding too often, at the expensive of profits. The player that identifies himself as overly loose identifies that he’s making too many plays and accepting too much overall risk at the expense of profits. If you’re too tight, you’re basically paying money to not have to play hands. If you’re too loose it’s like effectively paying money to make unnecessary plays. Try and make a play or not make a play based on what you think is the correct decision, regardless of your comfort level. Too often, poker players stay within their comfort zone and play the same way day in and day out.

by David "The Maven" Chicotsky

Set plays are something that I feel most players don’t use enough. A set play is when you make a move against a target player before all information is made available.

 Take for example, the idea of calling out of the big blind with the intention of betting or check-raising the flop if we miss our hand. This adds value to a hand like QJ-suited, making it more playable, as we’re able to apply our hand strength - as well as a measure of fold equity. Calling out of the big blind and solely evaluating the flop based on hand strength is a bad habit to get into.

by David “The Maven” Chicotsky

  For the most part, we all have a preferred bet sizing given almost any situation we are faced with; call it our default bet sizing. For the purposes of simplicity, let’s assume that betting 50% of the pot on the flop is our standard bet sizing in a tournament. We need to come up with reasons to bet more or less than this amount, in order to squeeze the most profit out of every hand we play.

 We might bet larger or smaller to try and extract value out of opponents; betting larger against an opponent we know is a calling machine, or smaller if the opponent is someone that leans towards folding in marginal spots. Some players, for example will call pre-flop and purely base their calling or folding based on the quality of their hand on the flop. If they call pre-flop, you already know you are in a long-run positive situation going into the flop. This is why raising limpers or re-raising openers when we’re in position is so favorable.

by David “The Maven” Chicotsky

In regards to how to deal with a raiser in stealing position (when we’re in the blinds), there are many schools of thought. One method we see many players use is becoming a calling machine that habitually defends their blinds. Another less popular method involves trying not to call out of the blinds as often, and instead choosing to re-raise or fold. No matter what your preferred method of playing out of the blinds, other players at the table will be taking a notice in order to exploit you.

 My general view of players that habitually defend their big blind is they put themselves at a major disadvantage. If nothing else, they’re something that all no-limit tournament players strive to stay away from being: predictable. We’re able to raise into these players, knowing they will call, allowing us to use our positional advantage on an on-going basis. Another thing worth considering is that players that like to call typically don’t like to re-raise. Therefore, when a habitual caller does re-raise, we can be confident that they’re only doing so with premium hands, making their play very predictable and easy to counter.