[Poker Brothers] caltabiano's grinding + farming FTW!

1st: LOL!

2nd: Picture Explained

This was completely unintentional, guys, but it end up being really funny. My brother and I had a real laugh over here.

The pictures are of me AND my brother with our respective new styles. Calta is developing a mustache and I've shaved my head ♦ ♦

3rd:

Originally posted by peche025
Interesting change of look dandy, youv'e gone from tough guy to maybe 1970's porn star?!

@Berzerger: Thanks! And regarding Acupuncture, I know nothing of the experiment you mentioned, but I'm sure that in China researchers can find millions of people whose life-time medical care was based on Acupuncture ♦

@Peche: Sure we can swop usernames, contact me on Skype!

Today we'll be doing some intensive grinding/studying, boooyeah. It starts at 2 p.m. (in just 20 min) and it goes untill 2a.m.

I haven't yet planned my schedule but I'll probably be doing a lot of hand reviewing, regular grinding, study grinding**, maybe I'll add a sweat session too.

**i.e. playing one or two tables with max focus, analysing moves and opponents thoroughly.

♠_cool: PEace!

W00t?! 2nd page?! No way man!

@picture episode: ROFL ♦ Mustache FTW btw

caltabiano - 14th of June

So, my second mindset challenge was a GREAT SUCCESS. High five!! I didn't curse ONCE, during this whole week. And boy, I saw a ridiculous number of turn to river suckouts, like I've never seen in MY LIFE. I swear! There was one day that was just ridiculous. Obviously the gods were trying to test my worthiness ♠_cool:

But I made it and I'm happy! I can see the obivous difference in my game when my mindset is pro-like. But hey, I'm not done yet! There's....

- 100% A-gaming for a week!
The rule is simple: whenever I'm not A-gaming, I must stop playing, until I feel like I'm A-gamish again. There'll be no B and C gaming this week. My WR will thank me ♦

To achieve this I'll obviously have to use what I learn from the last two challenges, since cursing and looking at your winnings are 2 big A-game killers.

So yeah, I'm definitely excited about it. Today I managed to play really focused and I think I haven't played as well as I did today for a long time. The most important improvement I saw today wasn't actually PLAYING well itself, but rather realising all of my mistakes. Stuff that would go unnoticed before, doesn't go unnoticed anymore So now I can improve my game during play a LOT more. You can't improve if you always blame bad luck or if you don't realise you made a mistake. So, that's a major achievement IMO.

And now to close the poker side of this post:

http://pt.pokerstrategy.com/news/content/Sessoes-Diamante-NL100-BSS-SH-esta-5-Feira-com-caltabiano_33619

The portuguese community has started this cool project called Diamond Sessions. They'll be having coaching sessions by diamond players and I was invited to do the first one ♦ It'll be on thursday night and I'm really excited for it! I'll be awesome and share all that I can with the viewers. I've been helped so much in this community and this is a good opportunity to give something back.

So, if anybody wanna go there and hear me speaking portuguese and perhaps make fun of that, be my guest

So non-poker related: My trip is in less than 2 weeks!! Holy Moly, I'm super excited! Can't wait to get out on the road, booooooyeah!
There was some discussion here on whether takin a whole month off will hurt my game or not. Whereas I think I'll definitely come back a bit rusty, it'll be good for my game overall. I'll come back with a fresh, rested mind. I'll be ready for another full year of heavy work Besides, this is a trip I have wanted to do for a looooooooooong time. I've been planning it since I was 17. So, I'm not giving it up ever!

Besides, I'll be doing some live poker action Alverine will accompany I expect He'll be killing the tournies in São Paulo, while I crush the cash tables. He also promised me we'll be hitting some university parties and that shall be pretty cool. I'm not an avid party goer, but I'm definitely excited about it ♦

So, that's it for now brothers! Keep it real, keep it awesome!

Cheers!

Only come to say hi and gl in this Diamond Session. ♦

Congratulations on your success!

I tried the same thing as you did way back when I was working my but off too (before school got to busy) and I wanted to do the same thing, only play when I was playing A-game... But you know what that resulted in? Alot less volume

And then... I heard something good in a video. If you work on your B-game, and constantly try to improve your B-game so that your B-game is closer to A-game... then well that's a way better idea. For me it worked out pretty good to be honest, it means that you have to challange yourself whilst you're playing B-game and stop making MANY obvious misstakes and perhaps just make SOME obvious mistakes...

As for C-game when you make almost ALL obvious mistakes then just close down imo as that equals tilt in my eyes

Don't know what you think about it but I'd like to hear your thoughts on it

xx

@Tudazul: Thanks! I hope I can do a good session

@vonki: Yeah, I totally agree. Like Tommy Angelo said, we gotta lop off C-game, so that in the end there's only A-game.
There's one problem with working on your B-game during play though. You don't realise many of your mistakes.

I believe that's the main difference between A-game and B-game actually. During A-game, you're really focused, so you pay a lot more attention. It's hard to work on your B-game WHILE playing your B-game. It's like telling a woman she should be calmer, while she's on PMS ♦ It simply doesn't work, because she doesn't realise she's being crazy.

So, my idea is: whenever I'm B-gaming, I stop, BUT only for 5mins maximum. It's a break just to take a breath, refocus, and go back to the tables. By doing that, you'll eventually take B-gaming out of your repertoire, because you end up "unlearning" how to play B-game, since you only play A-game ♦ You learn to be focused all the time, even if you need to take a couple of minutes to get some air.

Of course, if I decided not to play for the rest of the day whenever I started B-gaming, I'd end up playing a lot less also

I slightly disagree though!

I mean, ye I do turn into a crazy monster when I'm PMS'ing too but I have actually learned to identify it. I am aware of it, and sometimes able to change it. You just have to accept the fact that you have alot of emotions going on and that it's easy to go crazy but if you're strong enough you CAN control it. And I think it's the same thing with poker, at least it is for me.

Sure I do mistakes that I am not aware of, but I also do some mistakes that I am quite aware of. I mean, I surely DO recognize I'm playing B-game (just like one recognizes she has PMS when she starts crying because there is no breakfast in the house ) and if you then start thinking about your every move you will be aware of the mistakes you do and do your best not to make as many, even if avioding all of them is a bit tricky. Just like keeping every emotion in track is.

Oh and btw is monday at 21h my time okay for a coaching? I discussed it with koaesica and monday at 21h should be just fine.

We're going to the themeparc in stockholm (where he lives) on sunday and then back to my place in the evening for a couple of days grinding etc. Think it's gonna be awesome. Adrenaline ftw! Gonna get into every roller coaster there is... the faster and scarier the better! ♦

Theme Parks rule ♦ Sure, Monday is perfectly fine.

I think that, whereas you do realise you're B-gaming, just like women realise they're PMSing, you don't realise the consequences of your B-game, becasue you're in the B-game mindset.

All this A-gaming, B-gaming, C-gaming thing is all about mindset. I mean, you have this specific amount of poker knowledge at hand. It's just a matter of how to use it. During A-game, you'll use it very well and during C-game you'll probably not use it at all ♦

So, when you're not A-gaming, it basically means you're not right midsetted. So I don't think it's about fixing leaks that you have while B-gaming, because the leaks are not the problem! The problem is the cause of the leaks, i.e. the poor mindset at the moment. Lack of focus, not thinking enough about a decision before clicking the button, not calculating odds properly. All of this is mental and emotional, not strategical. So, fixing theoretic mistakes is no good in order to improve your B-game. You made a call that was wrong, from an odds perspective? That's just because you didn't pay enough attention. It's not like during your B-game, you don't know the odds needed for a flush draw, but during A-game you do know it. You know it in both cases.

So like you said, the idea is to realise it and change it. You have to go back to A-game. If you can do that on the spot, at the very moment you realise it, do it of course. But if you can't do it, take a couple of minutes of break and re-focus.
I don't like the idea of "I know I'm playing my B-game, so I'll look for the leaks and try to improve it.", since your focus is already hurt (and that's why you're playing your B-game), meaning you'll have a harder time spotting the mistakes

(slightly off topic but adding some sexyness to the blog)

\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ 2 X 1 \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/

haven't posted in here that much! but have regularly read this from the start! kee it up guys, i have a feeling you'll go far!

Oh god, i :heart: Brazil girls. Post more imo.

Calta, I posted some hands in the handjudge forums, I would like it if you could be the one to evaluate them instead of kaitz if you have time (no stress about it though)

@dadude: nice to hear from you, man!! and thanks! \ :)/

@NightFrosta: alright then, I'll add a new photo everytime Brazil wins a match ♦

It might be summer for most of you, but it's definitely winter for us. Feeling cold over here is quite rare and it happens for a month or two in the year. But the other day, as I put up my running shoes for some early morning exercise the outside thermometer showed the amazing mark of 6º. I would love to see some snow but this is as cold as it gets for us, I guess.

My new working schedule is working pretty nicely. Now for the first time I actually know how many hours I'm dedicating to poker.

Last week's score: 36 hours
22h of playing
14 h of studying (includes some sweat sessions)

Pretty nice imo. Most jobs take 30~40 hours a week and I think in the long-run poker will pay off a lot more. Of course I could choose to do something else, like being the backup musician for a comic Elvis Presley cover in a cruise ship. Funny, somehow that sounds rather familiar...(check the link and run the risk of laughing)

YES, the two guys on the right wearing the outrageous golden suits are my brother and I.

Good times, haha. But anyway, that was before we knew we could earn money playing poker and then take holidays in cruise ships rather than having to work in them ♦. By the way, there is usually some CRAZY PARTY ACTION going on the southamerican cruises, especially during carnaval. I don't think you get any of that in the mediterranean (or do you?).

But back to WORK. During the end of yesterday's session I had a quick enlightment. For a few minutes I entered this really focused state, completely detatched from results at the table or real life distractions. I sat upright, breathing calmly with full attention on the four tables in front of me. It felt pretty GOOD.

From now on, THAT will be my standard for A game, and I'll be aiming at that every single day. And my efforts will stretch beyond the poker table, to A game in life. Booyeah!

I also finished reading The Poker Mind-Set (high five for that) and feel ready for some "Treat Your Poker Like a Business" material now. Yeah, that's going to give me some awesome motivation AND mind-set.

To wrapt this up, I'll add some awesome quotes for inspiration:

"Be the best you can be. Know what you want in life and work towards it. No matter how well, you think you are doing, there is always something that could be better. Have you reached the top of the mountain? Well, then it's time to look to the stars!"

Be awesome this weekend, guys! Peace!

hahah that laugh was just what I needed in my break ♦ Highlight of the day without a doubt

hah! you guys rox!

That's alright...

BTW bass >>> lead/rhythm in terms of developing grinder mindset IMO.

Right now I just want to say how much I love this game.

For the last 10 hours I've been playing and studying poker. I reviewed hands with vonki and Mathness for about 3 hours, then we sweated for many more hours and the rest of the time I just played by myself. It was awesome and I felt like I learned sooo much. Damn, I love this game.

I lost many many pots, mostly in the last few hours. And even though I'm not checking my balance, my game definitely deteriorated after seeing so many hands go wrong. Psychology is just SO important here. And it's such a challenge sometimes, which just makes me love this game even more.

Really, it takes a lot of confidence to keep your cool (i.e. not tilt, not feel bad) 100% through a bad session. And what does it take to achieve such confidence? A deep, solid understanding of the game. A superficial, result-oriented mind just won't get you there, ever. And it won't get you far in real life either. Circumstances change, but the principles are the same. You gotta make the RIGHT MOVE with a smile on your face. Poker teaches you that. Damn, I love this game.

If you really want to, you can become a f*** ninja. Seriously, you can develop yourself to an extreme because you can always improve your edge. ALWAYS. Play higher limits, play better opponents, win more from worse opponents. Know your opponent inside out, get in his mind, know how and why he bets. And even more, know YOURSELF. Know why and when you tilt, and get a hold of your own thoughts and feelings for god's sake. No kidding man, I really love this game.

I love this game because it teaches me that I can't blame anyone else for my mistakes without sounding like a fool; because it punishes me for every single sub-optimal decision that I make and so it helps me improve. It demands vision and solid will power. It's no good to be an aggressive bully or a fearful nerd. You'd better be aweswome or pray you're lucky.

Also, the poker table is a hostile environment, don't forget that. Everybody there is busy trying to take my money and outwit me. So next time I sit at a table, I'll take it more seriously than ever before. But I'll have fun with it and laugh at the results, cause the truth is I just love this game.

daniel, please skype me if you guys have future sweats and stuff! thanks!

Man that video was great. And not bad either, I wouldn't mind touring cruises like that gj