David Chicotsky was 2008 Bluff Magazine Online Player of the Year. He decided to capitalise on that fame by announcing the opening of a poker training school called TheMavenVT. The Maven, as David is known online, took advantage of Lightspeeds VT online streaming software to put into development an advanced poker training business that took advantage of people’s interest in him and also that of his business partner “Bodog Ari” Engel who is also a very successful online poker player. They put together a sophisticated poker training facility that allowed them to tutor players in their self styled poker strategies. They charge $1500 a day for eight hour poker training sessions, usually comprising of players watching them play the system and then answering questions on their strategy. Soon the Maven VT training will be available online costing around $1000 for the first phase of training (the second phase is the personal $1500 per day training), but whilst recommended is not essential.
Whatever you think of whether this is price is justified or not the mere fact that The Maven has managed to give lessons in how to learn poker the way he plays it to many poker players around Las Vegas is testament to obvious marketing ability on his part. The mere fact I am writing about it suggests that online poker players are intrigued rather than put off by this high price for the maven poker training. Even before he has opened his poker training school, he will have made big money from his training methods thanks to the group sessions that take place most days of the week.
I remember reading that a product can fail simply because it is too cheap. After all, would you have brain surgery done by a surgeon offering a $100 weekend special or a surgeon with a flat fee of $25,000? Even before trust is established there is a subliminal consumer link between high price and high quality, until proven otherwise. By then the money is often spent. The Maven understands this perfectly.
My reservation with poker training costing this much is that to a decent player there will be no magic pill that suddenly elevates their poker game. My knowledge of what The Maven offers in his poker coaching for Texas Holdem poker tournaments is an aggressive approach. He advocates a deeper version of the two ways to win approach and makes crazy plays with low cards to force opponents to fold in certain spots. Tilt control, knowledge of push-fold and building a stack are likely to be key parts of his poker training. Unfortunately I have a problem being told that there is a way to win but you will have to pay a large amount of money to find out what it is, I may already know it!
Here is another thing The Maven does very well. By saying that he does things differently and the high learning price suggests a new line of thinking that is seductive to online poker players. They wonder if indeed they have missed something. The Maven writes many blogs and forum postings but he gives nothing away, yet has many online poker players testifying that he is the real deal. He seems trusted and all of this lends itself to increased intrigue in just what does this young player have to offer?
My feelings towards this type of poker training are that you should avoid anything that is not open about what you will learn. Learning new ideas and strategies through poker blogs like the bwin poker blog or internet forums will teach you the dos and don’ts of poker tournament strategy. If your bankroll management allows you this type of investment then perhaps it will be worth it but I would suggest that unless you play over one hundred online poker tournaments per month where your wins would be worth over $5000 this type of investment will be a leak to your bankroll. Time and user reviews will tell whether this is the real deal, or savvy marketing hype.
By Malcolm Clarke
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