Tales of the Honeybadger

[Honeybadg]

... felt a little gutted to win only +£435 on Wigan last week ... could have easily bet straight at the 1-0 ... GRRR!

Anyway - Sat 2 for Wembley - Finland to win the Eurovision Song Contest - Finland just under 50/1 - They were more this morning - Pop Bubblegum plus girl/girl kiss takes on the Power Ballads. It would be the best way to qualify ... if it doesn"t win - I will have to try the normal route tomorrow night!

Denmark odds on - not as catchy as other favourites - some saver money on Finland without the favourite.

See what happens ...

L

[Honeybadg]

Wembley bound?
Finland did me no favours that night - so I will have to look to "qualify" in conventional fashion.

DTD new skin - fine - but hard work to get set up - database shared with Genting - fine - but cannot be a great surprise that you might want to use the same debit/credit card ...

830pm kick off - not ideal - it will be interesting to see the number of runners.

If you make it through with 50k chips - that would be 250BB - so in a way taking 25k through would be fine - might have to take a siesta this afternoon to prepare!?!

L

[Honeybadg]

So the Wembley dream has come true ... albeit with only 105BBs to take to day 2.

Great structure to Day 1(B) ... lots of time to get into position ... albeit the key play of the day was folding to the all in shove on a dangerous board whilst holding AQ in to JTxQQ ... flush there too ... I made the bet ... which was followed by a pretty much instant all in ... there was another spot like this later on ... so a few chips leaked perhaps ... but for the most part I was cruising following 88 turning into a set ... followed by the same spike with 33 ... vs the same opponent!

It could have easily been a much bigger stack ... had I been on the right side of the AK vs TT vs 88 (short stack) ... value added flip ... but no help ... so back into the pack ... An AK spike would have put me on 65k (325BB for Wembley) but more importantly a stack to go crushing with.

I have to make the call ... hoping for the weaker ace ... or to win the race ... however ... could have cruised into Day 2 with 200BB.

Structure is slow - but not pleasing to start day 2 with 40% of average - see what happens - win the next crucial race and feel good.

I will be fascinated by how big the field is!
Overlay??

Lots of great side action ...

L

[Honeybadg]

Champions League Final build up ... great final ... so pleased that the German sides prevailed over the Spanish.

Hard to put my finger on why - I think it"s a case of hard work maximising performance.

Bayern immense - but Dortmund should give them a good game.

Then of course there is the very weird fact that next week I get to wander into Wembley to play the ISPT Main Event ... field of dreams ... time to run good ...

[Honeybadg]

Played an absurd $2 re-buy on Stars - $100k g"tee - massive field - heading towards the money I decide to slow play AA in the big blind ... flop A9x two diamonds ... I keep semi-slow playing ... turn is a blank ... river is a diamond which of course has me dead ... vs Q9 suited ... it will happen from time to time ... turbo structure ... feeling need to build a stack ...

Getting tempted by the SCOOP 41 L or M?? - 4 Max
Time to play some absurd sat"s

[Honeybadg]

What a difference a week makes ... tonight mixing some terrible hyperactive play with some terrible match ups and beats ... lowlight of the satellites KK vs A2 ... no good ...

In the SCOOP 41 M - Super early it is AQ into A5x vs 55 - lost just about the minimum - but then played some super trash - before losing the flush draw shove vs second pair - pretty much the worst I have played.

In the SCOOP 41 L - Playing almost as badly - I retained a few more chips but managed to turn two pairs on an Ace high board - only to meet the turned straight - okay a bit of a cooler but did not need to be an exit hand.

Redeem myself in the big $162? Cannot play worse - good to get it out of my system!

L

[Honeybadg]

Big $162 - Lost the mega flip Th7h into Qd8h6h vs KsKc - was to move into top 30
Was a classic up and down bounce around ... make a stack ... lose KQ vs 66 flip vs short stack ... win the flush draw + over card vs overpair flip ... I am doing the shoving with the flush draws ... same opponent ... overpairs twice ... 1-1 on the flush flips ... fair enough ... not meant to have the overpairs both times!

Next stop Wembley?

I am score the SCOOP 42/43 might tempt me tomorrow ...

[Honeybadg]

Here we go again ... ideal start to a poker day waking up at 11.57am ... super rare to sleep so long ...

SCOOPS begin at 4pm - so I can likely plug myself in by then.

Qualified for the SCOOP 43 L - on FPP point satelitte - which was nice.

Not sure on the rest of the plan - How about a walk in the English summer??

It might only last two days - which would potentially make it twice as long as the Scottish summer??

L

[Honeybadg]

Dull min cash exit from SCOOP 42 M - AQ in A9x vs 99 - call the police ...

Should be my last hand before Wembley.

Looking like a massive overlay.

[Honeybadg]

Wembley set up looks like a moon scape ... I am liking that ... looking forward to it ... loving a 12pm start ...

First task is get back to an average stack and then who knows.

Feels like it could be last big poker tournament for the summer - well the Wembley series of events in any case.

Time to run good.

L

[Honeybadg]

... certainly not a lot of run good today ...

The draw was fine - but mixed running into massive hands with missing every draw ... one bluff caught ... so then a hell of a battle back to 25k before the following momentum killing hand ...

Early raiser - I call with KTo flop KTx - he bets I call - turn is a blank - he bets I call ... the whole hand is screaming AK ... river A ... he value bets 3.5k into about 10k ... I tank it ... AQ/AJ are about the only hands I beat (and they are remote) but I pay him off ... he flips the obvious AK ... I still had about 30BB at this stage ...

Got back into shape ... then ... Raise with T9s frop 976 ... I bet out ... min raised ... turn is a 7 ... I check ... value sized bet from super tight player ... I am out of here ... he says he had 66 ... who knows?

Then the epic death by a 1000 cuts card dead for 2 hours ... before a brief recovery AT vs KQ ... weird call ... however a short lived recovery as I re-shoved A9 vs the super active type who flipped AK ... no help ...

A battle lost - the KT hand - 93% at the turn - spew.

Weird to play at Wembley - yesterday super hot in the tents - today absolutely freezing - I lasted long enough to miss the APAT event and £250 Turbo - great structure - would have been better in the conference centre - with the ability to walk on the pitch??

It will be interesting to see how many the side events get ... let"s see what is in my mind tomorrow! Poker - maybe in my armchair??

L

[Honeybadg]

Decided not to venture back to Wembley today ...

Sunday Warm Up ... KQs makes the flush vs ATs ... spew ...

Focused quickly shifted to the $109 re-buy ... hand 2 TT vs AK for a double stack holds ... a surprise perhaps ...

A fairly merry progress to the money 99 paid from 879 ... then a series of marginal folds ... twice with 88 to shoves ...

Also a super weird hand ... with a raise, re-raise and all in in front of me holding JJ ... what to do ... I have called these and been crushed ... and called them and been in value added races and lost ... perhaps I was due one??

Exit hand the frustrating 6 handed ... AJ vs AQ ... had AK and AQ shoves through unchallenged ... standard exit for a frustrating 11th of 879 - for $3,060 ... $52k up top ... was needing a double to be competitive so the early folds slightly annoying in a way ... would have happily shoved them all ... but harder ... and less optimal to call them down.

Last three tables impressively aggro ... with the third all in raiser in my JJ fold hand seemingly tight ... but you "always" do the wrong thing with JJ!

I am definitely shoving the first two raises and taking my chances ...

Next up?

[Honeybadg]

... next up ... I play some deepstack cash ...

Two hands to ponder ..

42o into 2264x vs 44 ... OMG ...

AT into AxKx9 vs K9 ...

The play inbetween was not amazing - I could have extracted some further value at times - but I might have just lost more to the hands above!

I think I will fall asleep until the WSOP Mega Sat on Sunday - 7pm ...

[Honeybadg]

More horror cash yesterday with 666 vs 999, AA vs QQ aipf smashed, JJ vs QQ as overpairs, flopped two pairs vs turned straight ... coupled up with opponents always having the goods!

Played some good heads up ... but all profit killed by AK into KK followed by top pair into AA ...

Only tournment played had a KQ in to Kxx vs KJ for the chip lead by lost - they had the straight draw too but obviously calling when behind ... bet before me ... I min raise ... anyway I am still ahead of average but card head until AQ vs AK vs AK ... no help ...

Think I might skip the cards and watch (and bet on) the golf ...

Hunter Mahan - just a little over 7/1 - seems good enough ...

L

[Honeybadg]

Rain rain everywhere ... Cilic must be a value bet at 4/1 to beat Murray ...

Cilic is the holder (albeit opponent defaulted the final last year) - conditions are wet - Murray not looking very up for it.

Close battle - coin flip at 4/1??