Thursday, 28th March 2024 11:01
Home / Uncategorized / APPT8 Auckland Day 1A: No honey for Honeybone

My first day working in as a poker reporter came at the APPT Sydney Main Event back in 2007. I arrived for my first day of work full of enthusiasm but really had little knowledge about any of the local players. I knew some guy called Joe Hachem and I remember champions like Chris Moneymaker and Scotty Nguyen playing that event.

However an image that I vividly remember is arriving onto the casino floor for my first day of work and watching Paul Khoury do his first video interview of the event. He’d grabbed some big friendly Kiwi guy to chat to. James Honeybone was his name apparently. I’d never heard of him, but Paul was interviewing him and not Moneymaker, Nguyen or Hachem. So I naturally thought this guy must be kind of a big deal.

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Over the years I’ve got to know James pretty well, and his story is rather unique. It might say he’s a Kiwi on his passport, but over the last few years, Honeybone has discovered that he’s really a Brazilian at heart.

A few years ago, Honeybone headed over to São Paulo where he has been working as an English teacher and translator, and playing a little poker on the side.

“I’ve been playing the LAPT since 2011, and following the Brazilian Poker Tour regularly,” said Honeybone who has a 7th place finish to his credit in the LAPT Vina del Mar Event among over $200,000 in live earnings. But his passion for Brazil is matched by his love of his home town tournament in Auckland.

“I qualified online four or five times for this event last year, but I was in the middle of my teaching assignments in Brazil,” explained Honeybone. “I had to make a choice and poker had to miss out. So there was no way I was missing this event this year!”

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Donning a Brazilian Poker Tour t-shirt, Honeybone had high hopes for the APPT Auckland Main Event this year, but unfortunately his stay was rather brief as one of the very first casualties of the day.

Honeybone raised preflop, and then bet every street before moving all in on the river on a board of J-7-6-5-4. Honeybone held A-3 for the bottom end of the straight, but his opponent tabled pocket eights for the top end of the straight to send Honeybone to an early exit.

Até mais tarde!

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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