Special 2 in 1 Diamond Interview Series: The Poker Brothers

Diamond interviews are special by themselves, but this time we upped the stakes and brought you not one, but two Diamond members. Also they're brothers.

This week I prepared something even more special than before (I like to pretend that everything I do is special. I decided to get twice as many Diamonds in my interview (two), especially because I had my eyes on these guys for quite a while.

Two guys from Brazil (Blanka, anyone?), living in the same apartment and playing poker together. Ah yes, and they are related. That's right: please welcome caltabiano and dandycal, the Poker Brothers!

If you would like to help me pick next week's interviewee, read the
previous interview of if you simply want to add suggestions, then check
the thread specially created for these interviews:

Go to the Diamond Interview Series feedback thread

This interview was conducted by vhallee

PokerStrategy.com:
Hello guys and welcome to this special episode of the Diamond Interview
Series. It might be boring, but we have to do this: short intro,
please. Go!

dandycal: I'm Daniel, I'm 24, living in Brazil,
at the moment sharing a nice flat with my brother and partner in poker.

caltabiano: Felipe Caltabiano, Neves, Frauzino,
21, male, born in Brasilia, Brazil, in the São Brás hospital.

PokerStrategy.com:
Brazil? You mean that place with anacondas, carnivals and capoeira? Not
bad. How did you even get into poker over there? Weren't you supposed
to take carnival classes or learn how to fight while dancing?

caltabiano: Well, yeah, it all started when the
first computer arrived here in 1999. Seriously now, we have some degenerate
friends who used to play live poker and once we ended up sitting at a
table with them and playing. We really liked the game and found out
that we could play it on the internet. Even better, we found out that
there were some websites that would give you $50 for free!! So we
started going to all of these sites, getting the $50 and blowing it all
on the roulette =)

dandycal: Yeah, whenever we are not hunting
Anacondas in the jungle, we are blowing starting capitals in the
roulette. It was actually my brother who found PokerStrategy.com and
started playing some online poker and studying the articles… I followed
him shortly afterwards. That was about one year ago. I was a musician
back then, we both were, and I was living with my girlfriend (thank God
that was last year)... But music doesn't pay off well enough here, so
we totally needed new source of income and voila, poker came up in our
lives.

caltabiano: Yeah, although if you do look at my
registration date, it's from 2007, but back then I didn't REALLY play
poker. The 1st time I played online, I made $75 and my mind instantly
went: $75 x 30 = $2250 a month!! I'm rich!! I obviously lost everything
the next day. So I decided to not play poker =) 1 year later (October
2008), I decided to give it another shot and actually study it. And
that's when it really began.

Inspired by Yoghi

Poker Brothers, assemble! Not pictured: their latex suits.

PokerStrategy.com: What made you stop clicking on "Play roulette" and finally move onto serious pokering?

dandycal: well, when I came across PokerStrategy.com I realized there was actual theory behind poker and it really got my attention. Also it was totally my dream-job type of thing, no boss, my own schedule, the possibility of making serious money etc. That was enough for me to start trying it out seriously.

caltabiano: Yeah, for me the realization that poker could actually be taken seriously was when I came across the forums in PokerStrategy.com and I saw that some people were actually making good money from it. So I thought: "Well this is nice. Maybe this could be interesting." Back then, I had $150 in my PartyPoker account (due to TAF system only), so I gave SSS a serious shot.

dandycal: I particularly remember following Yoghi's blog, and saying "WTF! This guy is actually making a SH**LOAD of money!" That was an inspiration for sure.

PokerStrategy.com: yoghi is more like frustrating rather than inspiring. Did you see that guy's graphs? Just makes you want to hurt people around you out of frustration. But enough about him. What type of poker do you play and why? What does your brother thing about your choice?

caltabiano: I play NL SH. I started out with SSS, like I said. I managed to build my BR up to $300 and then I started giving BSS FR a shot. But my main goal had always been to play SH, because I had read in an article that in SH we play more hands and the tables are fishier and a BSS win rate is bigger. So I saw all the arrows pointing me towards SH. Now that I am playing it, I see that it is a great game and requires a lot out of the player, as the games are always very dynamic. I do want to play HU in the near future and also PLO in the mid-term future. I won't really say much about my brother's choice, as I believe he's already embarrassed enough.

dandycal: I'm not at all embarrassed, SSS rules! I currently play SSS up to NL200. I don't really like leaving jobs undone, so once I started out with SSS I wanted to go all the way. Now I feel I'm pretty much near the end, since the possibilities for SSS get much more limited on the higher stakes. So I've started to study BSS and my brother is coaching me, which is great.

Clowns are difficult to live with...

In the tilt room

PokerStrategy.com: I like this love-hate relationship that I see between the two of you. Since you're playing in the same apartment, how do you handle your poker sessions? Do you start at the same time as your brother, do you take turns in sleeping / playing, or do you do other things that I might not want to know about?

dandycal: Surely we can't tell you everything that goes on here... but it's actually pretty fun to play in the same room. We each have one computer, so we can have sessions together and keep independent schedules. I wonder what our neighbours think that goes on in here, since they must often hear us shouting insults (at fish when we get sucked out), making fun of bad players out loud and celebrating when we win big pots, haha.

caltabiano: Yeah, it's always pretty fun to play 2 meters away from each other. Our flat is about 25 sq meters so, even if we didn't want to play together, we'd have to. It's been especially fun in the past few days sine I constantly hear my brother saying: "KK x AA, AJxAQ, AQxAK, WHAT?!! MY SKLANSKY GOT BUSTED AGAIN?! Oh no, I'm restealing against AA again..." The good thing is, we can always encourage each other when dealing with rough times.
PokerStrategy.com: If you play that close one to another, how do you handle it when your brother goes on tilt? Do you a) slap him silly and tell him to get a hold of himself; b) tell him to watch Titanic if he really wants to see disasters; c) laugh at his misery; d)what else?

caltabiano: d) what else

dandycal:  I asked for a brother and got a clown!  I'd go for c) first, then b) and if he keeps tilting definitely an a).

caltabiano: Yeah, I prefer to do something else. We have an expression in Brazil. We say: "Vou te jogar a real" which means something like: "I'm gonna throw you the real deal". So I got this little rubber ball and I named it "Real", so when ever my brother starts complaining I throw the "Real" at him and then he realizes he's being a wuss.

PokerStrategy.com: Daniel, clowns are difficult to live with - I know from that time I rented a circus tent to some clowns. As for you, Felipe, I suppose you were the one driving when your brother was going to the hospital due to multiple eye injuries from rubber balls. Do you have a poker player that you idolize and if so, why? Also, what about the player you hate the most?

dandycal: I would maybe say Tom Dwan in the past, but he's been losing so much lately that now I know he was just being lucky… haha but really, I don't have any big idol, I respect all the serious pros, and tend to dislike the players with bad attitude (Helmuth, obviously).

caltabiano: Yeah, durrr is really trendy nowadays and everybody likes him and all. I haven't seen too much poker on TV to be honest. But from what I've seen, durrr has a very good mindset. I mean he'd lose these huge pots and not make a big deal out of it. And that's what I believe makes an actually pro: knowing how to lose, not how to win. Dealing with winnings is fairly easy. I really like Doyle Brunson just because of the way he says: "I'm all in." I dislike players with bad attitude also, such as Phil Helmuth. I mean, he really exaggerates sometimes. Also there are some players from the community that I really look up to, such as twicet and thelastnail.

The "2 months, 10k" challenge

Felipe: "You should always wear a helmet when dealing with the variance on Titan Poker."

PokerStrategy.com: Speaking of community, which other poker blogs do you follow and why? Do you even read what your brother posts in your dual blog?

caltabiano: I follow twicet and thelastnail (reason stated in previous question obviously). I'm often reading fongie's blog too, as he's playing the same level as I am. I used to follow Timothy's, but he's never posted again. I wonder what happened to him. Oh yeah, I like going to snodreliss just to see his pretty nonSD line. And there are more obviously: gerv, soycd, terrorblade... There are many good blogs out there; it's hard to name them all.

dandycal: There are many good blogs indeed. I haven't been reading much on that, as my time is mostly taken by studying/grinding, especially with the 20'10k' challenge going on. But the "Monkeymode" blog is surely worth checking out, and I also like to take a look at some other SSSer's blog, such as rahxephon1's and the one by the maniac grinder sm112. Oh yeah and I do read my brother's post btw. Respect!

caltabiano: Yeah obviously! Respect! Oh yeah, and obviously I read your blog also =) Is that guy in the wolverine outfit your father or relative?

PokerStrategy.com: I gotta say, I'm surprised to hear that you check other's posts actually. As for the guy in the Wolverine costume, yes, we hang out. Regarding blogs, you two recently had posted a sort of challenge. Tell me about your perspective on it and how things went from your part.

dandycal: The 20'10'k challenge, yeah. Our goal is to make 10K together - winnings only, no bonuses included - by 01/01/2010. It's not such a difficult challenge; we have 2 months to make 5k each which is very possible. Our idea was only to motivate ourselves into 1- improving our game a lot and moving up limits 2- putting in some serious volume for these 2 months and then being able to take it easy for a while. Of course things started off worse than we could have imagined.

caltabiano: Yeah, well, the thing is: Variance is an actual living being. So this is what happens: We say to ourselves "Let's make a challenge, BUT let's set ourselves a pretty safely achievable goal." Variance thinks "Well, that wouldn't be a challenge then, would it, dummies? But not to worry, I'll do something about it!" And then things just started off with us walking backwards, as we're now ~80k hands into the challenge and about -$1.4k FTW! 😉 But it's nothing to worry about. We'll definitely make it!

Black Member brothers?

They weren't kidding about that music part. Also, seems like the only audience is one house plant.

PokerStrategy.com: I can only wish you the best of luck with that cause apparently you'll need some of that. Also, if you watched our high stakes news recently, Isildur1 is part of a reality show called "2 days, 2 million" - kinda puts things into perspective, doesn't it? What are you going to do after this challenge? Any plans for more challenges or what?

caltabiano: Yeah, I've been reading about that... I can only hope Durrr has read all the BRM and psychology articles in PokerStrategy.com. Well, after this challenge, I'm most certainly taking a week off and traveling with my girlfriend to some quiet place. And then for next year, I plan to grind my way through the midstakes. Maybe we'll be issuing some more challenges, who knows? Our contract for this flat expires on the 1st of June of 2010, so we gotta make plans for that, as we can already afford a bigger place or 1 flat each. Or maybe we'll go live abroad, I don't know. So we can certainly come up with something challenging, not only poker-wise, but life-wise.

dandycal: A week off after the challenge sounds very nice to me as well. For next year I hope to be joining my brother in beating the mid-stakes SH (BSS). I do have some ideas for challenges involving live poker and traveling a lot. First, probably some Casinos around South America, and second, as soon as I'm rolled for it, some live poker+ road tripping Europe + BM party surely crossed my mind.

PokerStrategy.com: Hmm, would be nice to see some Black Member brothers rising up. But enough about poker. Tell me more about your day in general. What do you do in Brazil in general? Do you guys do anything else besides wrestling snakes, attending carnivals and dancing capoeira?

dandycal: As a matter of fact I don't attend carnivals nor dance capoeira (wrestling snakes is my favourite hobby though). I practice Aikido rather, and read a lot on my own, mostly philosophy and some studies on religion (hindu, nordic, greco-roman). I might start studying Acupuncture some time soon, and of course there is some partying usually on weekends.

caltabiano: Well, I start my day by fighting my way out of the jungle where we live. I'm usually attacked by sloths and monkeys...Ok, enough of these jokes about my country ok?! We're a civilised people! I like to start my day by waking up. Some people like to start it by going to sleep, but I guess I'm just... different. After breakfast I go to the square to work out. I find that working out in the morning is a lot superior to working out at night or late afternoon, as I feel it gives me great disposition for the day. Apart from poker, I've been studying music, influenced by my girlfriend as she's a musician herself. And I obviously spend some quality time with her. I don't go much to parties, to be honest. My brother does it a lot more often than I do. I'm sorry that there's no beach + naked girls in our daily life, as I'm sure some people were expecting this.

dandycal: What? There is definitely some beach + naked girls in my daily (dream) life.

The "Do you really know your brother?" moment

caltabiano getting ready for the Titan Poker variance.

PokerStrategy.com: What about beaches and naked girls? Oh.. Nevermind cause now it's time for everyone's favourite "Do you really know your brother?" part! (You don't). I will ask each of you 3 questions about your brother and we'll see what happens next (probably a lot of post-interview drama related to "You don't know me, you don't care about my feelings). We'll start with you, Daniel and then Felipe will tell us if you were right:
- how does Felipe play medium suited connectors in middle position?
- what is his favourite romantic comedy?
- what's his opinion on roasted rabbits?

dandycal: 1 - I say he open raises or isolates UTG limping fish. 2 - That's a hard one, but it might be the story of me and my last girlfriend 😉 3 - He's a vegetarian, very sensitive to animal slaughter, so if you ask his opinion about this he'll just probably start crying and go away.

PokerStrategy.com: Felipe, this is the moment of truth. Was your brother right?

caltabiano: definitely, suited connector is the nuts, everybody knows that. b/3b/push is definitely the line to be taken there (I do not take any responsibility for those who are actually silly enough to try this at home). Yeah, my favourite romantic comedy is definitely his story with his last girlfriend, as he totally blew it and now she despises him completely and that allows me to have fun =) And as for roasted rabbits, I just think it's... well, you know... ;( the poor...;( little things... ;(;(;(;( I don't wanna talk about it!!;(

PokerStrategy.com: Alright, Daniel, you win! ... something... Let's see if Felipe know you this well too:
- what's Daniel favourite starting hand?
- what's his opinion on clown cars?
- what would he do if he was trapped on an island filled with cannibalistic communists?

caltabiano: - AQo, because he likes being dominated. He's always screaming: "DOMINATED AGAIN!" So I can only assume that. Sometimes he even throws himself on the floor out of joy.
- He thinks they're absolutely outrageous... as a matter of fact, he's even issued a letter to the president asking him to write a law or something, that takes these cars out of the market at once!
- He'd go kamikaze and ty to take them all down, as anyone else would!

PokerStrategy.com: Daniel, it's your turn now. Was your brother right?

dandycal: I'm surprised, after all these years living together... pretty disappointing.
- AK, because I like dominatING and I love the thrill of an AI against PPs. When I throw myself on floor it's out of anger, not of joy, that should have been pretty obvious.
- I am planning on getting one for myself, please. Didn't you see all the photos I look at everyday and keep as my wallpaper?
- Ok, you got this last one right.

Food is ready, let's wrap this up

"And then he shows ten high haha! Oh god I am so lonely..."

PokerStrategy.com: Wow Felipe, that was pretty embarrassing. I guess there's gonna be a serious discussion after the interview. Speaking of which, we're pretty much done guys. Now is the time for you to say something to your brother, something special obviously. Also, if you have any other shout-outs to the community and me (please), then go for it!

caltabiano: To whoever updates the strategy points: please update my strategy points, so that vhallee doesn't embarrass himself publishing a Diamond interview with a Platinum member!
To the community: Thanks for all the great stuff out there. All the great blogs, all the great articles, videos AND people. This is definitely a top notch poker school! So, yeah!
To you: Nice beard, sir.
To my brother: Is the food ready, buddy? I'm hungry.

dandycal: I definitely want to say how much I appreciate all that the community of PokerStrategy.com has offered us and a big thanks to all the serious (not all of them, right Vali?) staff who work and contribute so much to the community. To all players who are starting up and dream of living off poker, I'd like to say that this is a miserable path you are choosing, full of difficulties and you'll get yourselves into situations so disgusting that will make you feel sick... but it's great and you gotta love it!. But seriously, best of luck to all who are starting and all who have been there for a while also!
To my brother: Yep, sir, it's lunch time!

PokerStrategy.com: Alright guys, that's about all (for now), so thanks for the comment Felipe and go to hell Daniel. All in all, thanks for joining me for this special interview and best of luck over there!

dandycal: It was an honour! Thanks for the opportunity, sir!

caltabiano: I won't say goodbye, cause my mom taught me not to speak with my mouth full.

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