Tales of the Honeybadger

[Santino67]

Good luck to your team today Louis, been great meeting you at last mate  

[Honeybadg]

Flat Badger tonight ...

5 games into the Heads Up - On fire 4 wins and a defeat ... but Mary"s KK into Jxx vs Jx slaughtered on the river ... and an epic defeat for me vs Chris Kelly left us decently in the pack for the MTT ...

Unfortunately no dice for either of the Scottish teams ... my exit AQ vs JJ and no help ... a very frustrating MTT with AQ galore ... even smashed into AQ3 ... only to find Chris Kelly raising with 33 ... and sadly but correctly needing to fold ...

I guess a couple of weeks ago ... I am holding JJ vs AK when into the minor money at the Black Belt ... so long curves to ride these things out ...

Good competition - and a much more focussed field today - The format feels correct though maybe some tinkering with the 8-pack blind structures.

Great venue - somewhere to return to and run good ...

L

[Honeybadg]

Saturday Morning

My hotel cannot boil and egg ... they haven"t done this for ages ... there appear to be a power struggle between the kitchen and the management ...

They can sell me all manner of things including a large or small brown (or black) comb ... how  many hotels carry a range of four combs yet cannot cook basic items??

... amazingly they can poach an egg ... though my request for a medium poached egg yesterday seemed to confuse them ... soft or hard only ... Who wants a hard poached egg? How hard is it going to be??

It"s a funny hotel ... we got a great deal ... and it has a laptop safe ... but it"s the type of hotel you only stay at once ... the plumbing features an incessant gurgle and the air conditioning sounds like a machinating metalic cow munching the wirey grass grown beneath the Angel of the North"s giant wings ...

I like Newcastle ... a dazzling display of scuttling hens leaving the casino ... a war zone of flesh ready for the battles ahead ... the battle to be coolest and chicest and to display the most skin ... I am sure there is space for a Northern version of  "The Only way is Essex" ... a modern day Byker"s Grove ... where the petals can flourish by the fog on the Tyne ...

No more poker for a few days ... my mind is released ...

L

[Honeybadg]

Weird poker day ... lost in the $109 buy in $60k g"tee ... but bounced back with 31st of 264 of the $109 re-buy ... played the short stack well but once I got to the money I decided to get busy shoving QTs into AT ... and somehow riverred the straight ... now in decent shape ... I pick up AKo ... raiser before me ... obvious shove ... called in two spots ... and just about the dream set up AKo vs TT vs JJ ... but sadly no help ... flop QJx ... leaving me two tens ... to go into 8th place ... shooting for the $17k first prize ... but no ... $583.10 handy fodder for my cannons tomorrow ...

I played a weird style today ... not thought out ... but limping to show strength ... then betting out and showing the bluffs ... then doing it again and getting called down ... doh ... that said it was all pretty small ball ...

It really felt that was the spot to triple ... next time!

L

[Honeybadg]

... obviously time to spew $120 to a fish who called my $10 raise (playing $1/2) ... I hit my Ace ... but a horror flush on the board has "him" calling ... and hitting is 32s on the river ... oh well ...

Is it bed or more poker?

L

[Honeybadg]

... it should have been bed ... managed to lose to quads with my full house ... standard ...

Up and down the ball bounces ... what next?

L

[Santino67]

Saturday Morning

My hotel cannot boil and egg ... they haven"t done this for ages ... there appear to be a power struggle between the kitchen and the management ...

They can sell me all manner of things including a large or small brown (or black) comb ... how  many hotels carry a range of four combs yet cannot cook basic items??

... amazingly they can poach an egg ... though my request for a medium poached egg yesterday seemed to confuse them ... soft or hard only ... Who wants a hard poached egg? How hard is it going to be??
L

They get their eggs from the farm with the shell-less eggs??? WTF???

[Honeybadg]

What a night ... what was meant to be an epic poker adventure cut to shreads ...

Warm Up - AK in Axx (two diamonds) flush draw shoves and hits ...

$100 re-buy - I shove with AT called by KQo and lose on the river - to be fair in this one I had chances to make earlier marginal calls on horror boards ...

Sunday Million - I catch the J Flush on the Turn - vs the Nut flush - Argh!

Time to give up (for the night!)

L

[Honeybadg]

Reflecting on last night ... some nasty spots ... but pushed me towards doing some analysis ...

In my $215 buy in events on Pokerstars I have cashed 10 from 23 ... on the face of it that is pretty good ... and from memory only one when I crawled to the money ...

However all minor cashes ...

If we say that top 10 is a major cash and on average 550 paid ... then expectation is that I would need 55 cashes to expect a "Major Win" ... which is probably going to take 10 years given the amount I play!

On the same basis - I would need to play for 100 years to "expect" a win - Mmmm!

I am not sure to do with this info ... I can play more ... and surely I can also play better ... but in that 10 cashes there are Aces cracked inside the money, and a one outer defeat in the last 100, underlining the need to play massive volume or be very lucky in order to secure the massive win ...

... so why play poker ... is it fun ... I guess it is sometimes ... a challenge which takes my brain away from work ... but whereas you can always work harder ... but cannot stop your Aces gettign cracked by the 56s shove ... you can travel half way across the world and play for 5 days and lose a coin flip ... how many life times can you play to iron out the vol" ... feels like one might not be enough ...

I recall a chap getting to day 3 of an event and getting the money in good with AA vs another pocket pair and losing it on the bubble ... OMG ...

It terms of face to face play ... I think I am 2 from 7 cashes that would feature on the hendon mob ... same logic to apply ... At the International I am c4 from 11 ... and pretty sure most of the other exits were bad beats!

But three years of graft and I am level once you knock off the travel costs!

Lots of experience - but the VOL kills you - that is until it lets you ascend to heaven!?!

L

[Honeybadg]

Cash reflections ...

Against very good players at my home game I am plus c£2k ...

... against online players my desire to play every hand is an obvious leakage!

That said - I think playing Showbiz six pack poker is great fun when you crush the table.

This leads my to ponder an APAT cash game ... mmm

L

[Honeybadg]

A Royal Flush ...

... I have been in the main been avoiding news of the royal wedding ... but tonight I am watching a documentary ...

Quote

" ... like every "good" middle classed girl, Kate went to Piano lessons ..." What?

L

[Swinebag]

I am not sure to do with this info ... 

I"d do nothing with such a small sample size in such an event with big fields

[Honeybadg]

I think as the sample size gets bigger the expected length of time required to cash big will increase!

I am chilling this week ... losing money on Selby ... GRRR ... no poker since Sunday ...

Had a great apple pie and custard tonight and the watched "The only way is Essex" which was totally REEM.

L

[VBlue]

Interesting read on your thoughts about ironing out variance and introspection on why you play.

I have had similar questions when putting in a load of hours playing STTs only to break-even, but if you continually work on your game, then there is definitely money to be made with good game selection.

Do you play lots of different variants of poker?  I have made a concerted commitment to play STTs only with one afternoon a week playing MTTs and have found good games that I can turn a profit in.

Just my views and not meant to be teaching badger to suck eggs, if it comes across like that  

[Honeybadg]

I think my main aspiration is to win something big - so in that respect I have to accept a lot of volatilty.

I work say 55 hours a week, so limited time to play, hence grinding cash or STTs doesn"t really fit in.

I used to grind and spend winnings on tournament entries, which in a sense gave me a freeroll to take something down, but that is when the nature of massive fields kicks in ... so perhaps two lifetimes required to take down something huge ... at current pace ...

OR I need to attack high buy in events ... even more vol"

Next up is PKR Live VI £750+50 in London - Day 1B is May 20th, then finishes on May 22nd ... I think they are expecting 300 runners ... so £225k in the middle ... maybe 300 is a bit optimistic but a great pot ... (and I guess a great field!) ... 20,000 chips and 1 hour levels.

Take it Down!

L