There's a new kid in town. In 2007, Stephen Chidwick has managed to become one of the fastest-rising players online, banking more than $500,000 in tournament cashes. Not bad for a soft-spoken 18-year-old who began playing poker in freerolls on his father's account. From there, he won a few dollars, played some micro-limit cash games, and worked his bankroll up to $100. But cash games were boring, and Chidwick set his sights on mastering multitable tournaments. The kid had a quest.
"I just read every poker article I could find on the Internet," said Chidwick. "I bought every Harrington book, read forums, and tried to learn from every possible source."
In 2008, the British phenom plans to tackle live poker on the
European Poker Tour circuit and possibly at the
Aussie Millions. At present, he plans to forego university for a shot at being one of poker's elite. Chidwick's primary goal is to be ranked the No. 1 online player in the world. He's a rare young gun, armed with discipline, an even temperament, and no overbearing ego to derail his progress. It could very well happen. The kid's a class act, and worthy of all of the attention that's come his way.
Craig Tapscott: Tell me about the situations you look for during tournaments to take advantage of?
Stephen Chidwick: The main situations I try to exploit are bubble situations. Both the cash bubble and the final-table bubbles are excellent places to chip up and take advantage of the players who are playing scared. Also, the common belief
is that when you have a big stack in a tournament, you should avoid going to war with the other big stacks. However, I actually like to put pressure on the other big stacks at or close to a final table. Most of the time they will be afraid to potentially losing their whole stack, especially when there are short stacks that could easily get knocked out first.
CT: Do you try to accumulate chips early by playing lots of pots or do you lie in wait for the antes to kick in?
SC: I play pretty tight early and don't play too many pots. If there are a couple of limpers, I will limp with suited connectors and pairs and try to hit a flop, but in general, I'm playing solid and mainly premium hands. The blinds aren't worth stealing in the beginning of tournaments. I do try to play more pots if the table is particularly bad, and take advantage of the dead money before it's donated to somebody else.
CT: If you had to teach a live-action player short-stack play, what would you tell him to do?
SC: One of the main things that I see people doing wrong is misvaluing certain hands. When you are short and need to push all in, it is much better to do so with a suited connector than a hand like A-3 offsuit. You will do a lot better versus most people's calling ranges. The problem with hands like A-X is that you are almost never ahead when you are called, and a lot of the time you are dominated.
CT: Please talk about different stack sizes and how to wield them.
SC: With regard to sizes of stacks, in general, if you have 10 big blinds or less, you should be looking for spots to open-shove with a wide range from late position, and a lot of decent hands from middle position. Anytime you open a pot with this size stack, you should be going all in. If you have a stack in the 15-20 big-blinds range, you should be looking for good spots to resteal. The things to look for when restealing are, firstly, that the initial raiser has a large gap between the hands that he raises with and the hands that he calls a reraise with. This is often the case if the person is raising from late position or is particularly aggressive. Secondly, you want to have a hand that will likely have live cards, at least, if you are called. A hand like 9-8 suited is a very good hand to resteal with, as opposed to a hand like A-4, because you will be dominated a lot of the time with A-4 if you're called.
CT: What does your family think of your choice of profession at this point?
SC: My family has been really supportive about everything, which is fantastic. It's helped me a lot to have them be so understanding, and it also helps to make sure that I have a healthy balance between poker and life. (Laughing) My grandparents even ask me now how my rankings are going. I couldn't have asked for them to be any better about it.
