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

living with just 400$.. That's amazing Hope I could live with just that. I dunno how much average payment here in Finland is but both me and my gf do make around 2000€/month each.

Originally posted by Jadhu
living with just 400$.. That's amazing Hope I could live with just that. I dunno how much average payment here in Finland is but both me and my gf do make around 2000€/month each.

He, that's a lot of money you make. You alone make about the same amount of money my parents do together, lol

Week #3 update - June/09 - caltabiano

Alright people, I haven't played this week as much as I did last week, due to not having so much time. Good thing is, I started studying a lot more than I had been. I had forgotten about the importance of it. It makes os much of a difference. I've already decided to spend more time studying and less time grinding. Of course I'll still have to grind quite a lot.. I've gotta support my ass afterall ♦

Here's the week's graph until now:

I haven't run well for the past couple of days... that last stack was blown off by tilt though =/ Shame on me.

Oh yeah, I played the first round of that live tourney me and my brother are playing and I'm qualified for the next round! ♦
The tourney is pretty much like a step challenge. There are 3 steps. In the 1st step there are 8 tables of 10 players. The 3 finalists of each table will go to the next step.
In the second step there will be 3 tables of 8 players and the 3 finalists of each table will go to the final table. 1st prize is $300 and second $200. Me and my brother are getting both ♦

Alright people, I'll leave you for now. I shall study some more I'll be back on sunday or monmday to make another update.

See ya

Week #3 (1st update) - June/09. Dandycal

Hello everyone,

We're getting to the end of the 3rd week of our Poker player's new life ♦ All is going well so far. WE've faced some of the usual difficulties (variance), but that's quite unavoidable. Groceries are coming out more cheaply than we expected, so we are actually going to spend a little less money than we thought. We didn't withdraw anything from our BRs yet because, as we said, we left with some cash reserve for about 2 months.
I'm feeling quite comfortable with my BR at the moment. I'm playing NL50 but I already have over 60 BI for NL100, so I'm really on the safe side. I see no need of moving up to NL100 now, as I have much to improve in my game still.

Financially, my week was developing very positive until today's -$109 Man, the fish were kicking my ass. There was this table with about 4 really loose fish, I got AK and the fish raises before me so I push with a smile on my face. No hit for me and he shows KK. Ok, no problem, even fish get dealt KK from time to time. So a few hands later I get AKs and the same fish raises before me, I push of course. AK come out on the flop and I'm thiking to myself "haha, got you this time you silly fish!". But guess what, he shows KK again. Fine, I spit out some flaming remarks and keep it going. I get QQ this time, open raise and one of the other fish calls me. Beautiful, I have overpair and cbet, the fish re-raises and I push. Yeah, he shows KK.

But hey, the fish also need to have their day. Anyway, this is the graphic in Party Poker. I admit my EV line worries me a little.

Oh yeah, yesterday I played the 1st step of the live tourney here and busted out in 5th. I played way too tight. And the players were sooo fishy. There was this one guy who limped pretty much every single hand, I noticed sometimes he would limp before looking at his cards. No stealing possible there, since they called a lot. Min-raises all around, and whenever I'd raise to 3 or 4 bb, they'd all say "oohh, what a huge bet". Haha, anyway, I only played 3 hands, made some money making a top pair fold with a bluff, after which my stack was entirely consumed by the blinds. But who cares, I'm a cash game player ♠_cool: Besides, my brother is going to the next step to represent both of us.

That's all for today. Have a nice weekend y'all.

I'm gonna play amazingly well this weekend ♠_cool:

Lol your graph is sick, you've been a luckbox !? Look at the difference between All-in EV graph and winnings

I usually just lurk around the blogs, but i'm loving this pro poker brothers blog...
lookin forward to next update

@dandy- How do you play, with stacked tables? or tiled or what? I'd think with stacked FR you should be able to play alot more than 12 tables. You've obviously played enough hands to be able to know which decisions against which stats are right, I'd think you can make decisions fast enough to play some more no? Do you use any scripts?

Things look really good. I'm over 4 stacks up for the weekend and feel like I can breathe a little bit. A bunch of fish on the tables and I suddenly spot this "crazy spewy I've gotta a K it's good enough for a bluff shove" kind of guy. Naturally, I shout out loud: "Whoooooooppppppaaaaayuuuuliiigaaaaan!!!"

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
SB ($22.58)
Hero ($50)
UTG ($59.97)
UTG+1 ($51.63)
CO ($30)
BTN ($48.88)

Dealt to Hero J♦ K♣

fold, fold, CO raises to $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, fold, Hero calls $1.25

FLOP ($5.50) 2♣ K♦ 5♠

Hero checks, CO bets $5.50, BTN calls $5.50, Hero calls $5.50

TURN ($22) 2♣ K♦ 5♠ 6♥

Hero checks, CO checks, BTN checks

RIVER ($22) 2♣ K♦ 5♠ 6♥ Q♦

Hero bets $15, CO folds, BTN calls $15

BTN shows 2♦ 5♦
(Pre 38%, Flop 74.5%, Turn 81.8%)

Hero shows J♦ K♣
(Pre 62%, Flop 25.5%, Turn 18.2%)

BTN wins $49.40

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
SB ($40.14)
Hero ($50)
UTG ($26.70)
UTG+1 ($48.88)
CO ($7)
BTN ($113)

Dealt to Hero J♠ T♠

fold, fold, CO raises to $2.50, BTN calls $2.50, fold, Hero calls $2

FLOP ($7.75) J♣ J♦ 5♣

Hero checks, CO bets $4.50 (AI), BTN raises to $9, Hero raises to $15, BTN raises to $21, Hero raises to $30, BTN calls $9

LOL?!

TURN ($72.25) J♣ J♦ 5♣ K♣

Hero bets $17.50 (AI), BTN calls $17.50

RIVER ($107) J♣ J♦ 5♣ K♣ 7♥

CO shows T♣ A♣
(Pre 42%, Flop 24.3%, Turn 78.6%)

BTN shows 4♣ 6♣
(Pre 26%, Flop 3.3%, Turn 0.0%)

Hero shows J♠ T♠
(Pre 32%, Flop 72.4%, Turn 21.4%)

CO wins $20.19
BTN wins $84.06

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
SB ($42.89)
Hero ($50)
UTG ($51.38)
CO ($10)
BTN ($76.47)

Dealt to Hero Q♣ K♠

fold, CO checks, BTN calls $0.50, SB calls $0.25, Hero raises to $3.50, fold, BTN calls $3, fold

FLOP ($8) J♣ K♣ 8♦

Hero bets $5, BTN calls $5

TURN ($18) J♣ K♣ 8♦ J♠

Hero bets $12, BTN calls $12

RIVER ($42) J♣ K♣ 8♦ J♠ Q♠

Hero bets $29.50 (AI), BTN calls $29.50

BTN shows 9♥ T♦
(Pre 36%, Flop 27.8%, Turn 15.9%)

Hero shows Q♣ K♠
(Pre 64%, Flop 72.2%, Turn 84.1%)

BTN wins $98

And to finish this post with some triumph:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
SB ($50.25)
BB ($19.62)
UTG ($77.71)
CO ($50)
Hero ($50)

Dealt to Hero Q♥ Q♠

UTG calls $0.50, CO raises to $2.50, Hero raises to $7.50, fold, fold, UTG calls $7, fold

FLOP ($18.25) K♣ 6♠ Q♣

UTG bets $5, Hero raises to $13, UTG calls $8

TURN ($44.25) K♣ 6♠ Q♣ A♣

UTG bets $20, Hero raises to $29.50 (AI), UTG calls $9.50

RIVER ($103) K♣ 6♠ Q♣ A♣ 2♠

UTG shows A♥ 5♥
(Pre 32%, Flop 1.6%, Turn 0.0%)

Hero shows Q♥ Q♠
(Pre 68%, Flop 98.4%, Turn 100.0%)

Hero wins $100

I got this last hand after following the fish to another table, lol. ♦ Mind you, all these hands happened within some 10mins or so. Sick. It is of no consequence though. I finished positive for NL50 finally. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Everything will be alright. I'm feeling pretty confident.

Oh, and by the way, NL50 owes me 20 AA

That's it for today. Tomorrow starts another week of NL20 Next weekend, my NL50 graph shall be the prettiest things in this world, after my girl of course.

I'm gonna play step two of the local tournament as well. I'll certainly qualify for the final table ♠_cool:

Cheers everybody

Ok am far away from "good" poker player but here is my opinion on your hands:

I think It's wrong to call raise with JK exactly because of situations like this. First of all, it's unlikely but still even fish can have premium hands sometimes ... and you don't want to play against them with just top pair and not so good kicker. Well in general I think you played hand pretty good and fish got lucky ♠ happen all the time.

Second hand: I would shove right after flop ... probably wouldn't change much ... once again bad luck ♠

Yeah, calling KJ in that spot is usually bad, EXCEPT when there's a fish like that, calling every single hand, and I know that all my TP/GK kind of hands will get paid off. If he gets lucky, he'll get lucky =/ But he was the kind of guy that would still call my bets even without 2 pair. And the CO money was pretty much dead, since he'd been folding quite a lot after the flop.

But yeah, in a regular situation, that would be a fold

Week #3 (Final review) - June/09. Dandycal

Hello everyone,

3rd week is over now and in the next days poker will get even more intense. We have now ceased almost 100% of our part-time work as musicians, so more time for grinding, which is now our main source of income.

It is in our plans to buy a second computer soon, so we have more freedom to work our own schedules and grind even more than we've been doing so far. I believe in a couple of months that will be possible.

Yesterday the tables were very very fishy in Party Poker and I finished my session with 5BI profit. Not bad. I've been working on my non-showdown winnings, which represented a very large part of my losses in basic SSS. Steals/re-steals, loosening up the opening range, adjusted c-betting can surely making a huge difference.

This was my Sunday Session.

Still green despite the 200bb losses on Friday. Overall partypoker graphic.

I'm now playing a little bit over 8vpip/8pfr, rather than the nit 6/6 of basic SSS. But I guess I can loosen up even more.

@ Dadude: I was stacking them while playing 20 tables NL25. But for NL50 I chose to tile them and play less tables so that I can pay more attention to the game/opponents and enhance my game. I manually tile 9 tables with the size of the auto 6table tiling, so that a few of the tables overlap the others partially, but still I can get a good view of all of them. As I get more confident I'll increase the multi-tabling skills =D. Besides, with Party Poker's traffic it's pretty tough to keep 11 good tables on.

Peace, guys.

What's up people?! I just came to update my status on the live tourney I was playing.

Status: Busted!
How: The most grand, beautiful, fantabulous, amazing satisfying way: CRACKED ACES!!

AA x TT.. it was not even a set... it was a 1 card flush. WTF!! All in pre flop obv. It was in the second level of blinds still... I was gonna write some more whining, but I just decided not to =D Nothing to worry about. Shit happens, the universe unfolds as it should and sometimes the universe just has to throw some shit on the fan, that's ok.

I'd just like to say that I now respect tournament players a good deal. You gotta have a lot more heart for playing tournaments. Cause if my aces get cracked on a cash table, I just say: "I'll get another rockets in a matter of 1h max and I can get my money back". Whereas in a tourney, I go: "WTF SHIT!!! AAAAHHHH I'M BUSTED!!!" Downswings must be really fucked up in tourneys.

Oh yeah, after the All in, I still had 1bb left and I was sitting on the bb. Got dealt AKo and lost to 44, lol

Anyway, at least I have some more time to grind today =D

See ya peoplez

ohh god... what a way to go.

still... im loving the attitude. stay cool guys. ♠_cool:

Week #4 (1st update) - June/09. Dandycal

[X]

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Think about it, most of our life is all about our attitude towards it. What do you want to be? What stops you from getting where you want to get? Yourself, nothing else. So just do it! Become whoever you want to become and get where you want to get. Get your ass up and go to work!

Set goals for your life in an intelligent manner. Financial goals in our poker career can be motivating, but they don't help us improve ourselves (I took this from Gerv's blog =D). If you set as goal to reach a certain bankroll by the end of the month, what will you do if you fail due some crazy variance? Nothing! You can't sit down and try to find reasons for your failure, thus improving your game/study/discipline, simply because the result did not fully depend on yourself. I mean, it's good to have goals like that to motivate us (we have papers stuck to the wall above the monitor here with large $$$$ which we want our bankrolls to become soon enough), but we need other types of goals as well. Goals that can help us organize our time and effort and increase our discipline.

Setting goals puts you way ahead of those who don't have goals. Writing down your goals puts you way ahead of those who only thought of their goals. Writing down your goals and reading them everyday will simply put you in the most successful group of people there is. ♠_cool:

A little bit of theory: 3 betting range

The gold-sections charts for adjusted re-raise ranges are very helpful, yet they are quite generalised. Obviously, we have to adapt ourselves to individual situations and individual opponents.

One example:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
SB ($50)
BB ($50.94)
UTG ($50.25)
UTG+1 ($7.75)
UTG+2 ($11)
MP1 ($60.07)
MP2 ($27.69)
Hero ($8.25)
BTN ($8.50)

Dealt to Hero K♠ A♣

UTG raises to $2, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $8.25 (AI),

villain is 9/12, PFR(EP) 8%, Fold to 3 bet 81%

According to the charts we fold AKo against UTG with 8%PFR. But against this particular opponent we have huge FE, as he folds 80% of the times to 3 bets. Let's calculate our EV:
FE = 80% Equity against a calling range of 1.5% (QQ+) = 30%

EV = 0,8*2 + 0,2 (0,3 *16,5 - 8,25) = +0,95 (blinds and rake disconsidered)

So here we actually have a positive EV and our AKo is good for a push.

I found that with a tighter opponent (6% EP pfr) we'd have about 0 EV. And it's also very important to notice that our EV decreases when our stack is bigger and increases with a smaller stack. We must also remember that if our stack gets too small, our FE might decrease.

So as a consequence, I'll definitely be 3 betting a little more loosely than the charts suggests with my AK, and fold mostly against real nits who have a range very similar to our SSS range, bloody TAGs!

I'm leaving the graphics and numbers for the end of the week. Peace.

Week#4 (Final review) - June/09. Dandycal

Two months ago the computer that my brother and I share broke down. We lost our HD and became idle for 3 weeks. Our idleness lead us to much thinking and !**shazam**! we decided to live off poker and leave our parents house the following month (June). I was then trying to beat NL25 (SSSing) with a bankroll of about $250. It had taken me over 4 months to build that $250 bankroll. Well, in June I managed to take that BR to more than $1600.

Plans for next month?
The temptation to move to NL100 exists. I have reached 80 BI for that AND I still have lots of bonuses to release in Party. But that's a no go right now. I have to withdraw at least $500/month for my expenses AND I'm not satisfied with my play on NL50 yet, there is A LOT of improvement to be made.

So here is the plan: I'll keep $1000 BR (100BI - very safe even for SSS) for July with which I'll grind NL50. I'll play at least 80k hands, thus raking nearly $2k and getting about $1k back bonuses/rakeback. Bonuses/rakeback will guarantee my next $500 withdrawal and all the rest along with my actual winnings I can use to boost my bankroll. Even if variance gives me a hard time, the 100 BI will make it through without counting with extras.

My brother and I are going to buy a laptop in July, and with 2 pcs we'll be able to work a lot more (grind+study).

Career development:

Achieved Step1: 100 BI for NL50 + confident SSS on NL50 = minimum level to get minimum necessary income.
Step2: 100 BI for NL100 + medium confidence on NL100 = comfortable level to get minimum necessary income.
Step3: 100 BI for NL100 + confident SSS on NL100 = feeling quite at ease regarding the necessary minimum income
Step4: Mid-stakes SSS = increase life-standards ♠_cool:
Step5: High Stakes SSS? Not sure yet.

Another very important thing: I'll come up with a study plan for July. A better organised and disciplined study agenda will be put to practice. This is essential. Our blog will probably get more interesting with a lot more strategy
discussion and funny remarks

What do you hope for the future?
Hmm, not too much and not too little. Something like this:

June Summary - Caltabiano

♠_cool:
So I pretty much made back to brek even. I'm so proud ♠_cool: Due to nice rakeback + bonuses plus stuff, BR goes up to 2.8k. \o/. I'll cash out $800 or less and start the month with 40BI for full time NL50 in ladbrokes for huge bonus deal ♦ I think I improved my game a LOT! Especially post flop. I decided to set myself on the way out of weak-tightness! ♠_cool:

I plan on getting some coaching, but I haven't found anyone to coach me yet =/ I can't reach pokerstrategy coaches for some reason. If one of you is reading this, please contact me

I figured I have to play less than 40k for the full bonuns in ladbrokes. Therefore I decided I'm gonna spend a lot of time studying, and like my brother I'll have a pretty well defined routine for it. I guess I'll be plaaying 5h a day and studying 2h - 3h. With the monmey I withdraw I'll surely buy some poker books and part of it will help me buy the laptop 2 computers FTW!! ♠_evil:

That's it people. Now when somebody asks me what I do for a living, I proudly answer: "I'm a poker pro!"

I just read your blog in one breath and it is AWESOME
What you're doing is so intriguing, the whole process of starting a new life, not just playing poker.
Wish you the very best but with this costs of living (here in Bulgaria 400$ are also a sum OK enough, if you're not paying rent though) I think that you will not only just exist, but improve your lifestyle to above average.

GL, I will follow!

1st July/09. Dandycal

It couldn't be better for the first session of the month, I'm very satisfied.Party Poker's traffic has proven itself very very fishy in NL50, even though it's hard to find many tables you can find a good deal of bad players there. Best time of the day is 6 to 12 pm GMT, that's when tables are the fullest.

I've withdrawn $650 for expenses and now I have to build my BR to reach NL100:]. So let's play some $$$!

Catch you later guys. Peace.

PS.: @finchybg: I'm really glad you enjoyed it, thanks! And good luck to you too.

cool , maybe we've met on party poker nl50 ♦

wishing both of you good luck, looks like hard work is paying off

Hi dandycal,

Hard work (nearly) always pays off Nice graph and good luck with the grind!