Muppeted

So tonight i was playing free league APL (Australian Poker League) at the Attfeild tavern in Maddington...

I started off playing my usual pre-break poker... which is ultra tight.. the reason being that you start with 2000 chips and the blinds at 50 and 100 meaning that your "M" starts at about 13 (If you are unfamiliar with what an "M" is... simply Google "Dan Harrington's M" and you'll know what im talking about)... as you have probably noted... the advised play for an "M" of 10-20 is to loosen up and start raising in position with mediocre hands... this is all well and good if the rest of the field realized the strategic implications of the position, the sad but true fact is that they don't... if i raise 3x the BB (three times the Big Blind) then i will get 4 or 5 callers anyway...

So its tough going until after the break when everybody gets an extra 1000 chips, plus another 1000 if they have used their spend card... after the break i had caught a couple of hands and chipped up a fair amount ( i believe i had about 3500 in chips) after the break i changed gears and started raising and 3 betting people, this seems to work to a degree in the free league because people realize that their chip stack is getting increasingly smaller in relation to the blinds (their "M") so they feel they need to play tighter... this strategy is actually a double edged sword because in me raising a lot of pots people become frustrated and start calling with their usual garbage... so i need to be careful in some spots...

Now to the hand in question... 500 and 1000 blinds and i had about 7000 (actually a larger stack at this point in the tournament) it is folded around to a player that i am unfamiliar with in the cutoff (on the right of the button), this player had 5500 in chips and chose to call... i had not seen this player play many hands at all so i assumed he would be your usual TAG (Tight Aggressive) player who would fold most hands and come in raising with their good hands...

All others folded and i elected to raise to 3000 total due to the fact that i believed he would have raised a premium hand and therefore called with a so so hand, and would fold to a decent bet... this player thought for about 30 seconds and called... at this point i had him on either a small pair (88- 22), KQs,KJs,J10s or a smallish suited A...

The flop came 4d 6h 8c... Ive flopped broad way... at this point im thinking about how i can get all his chips into the pot... i believe that this player is in fact a half decent player ( due to the fact that i hadnt seen him play more than 2 pots since joining the table) so i elected to check knowing that if he had any of the afore mentioned hands that i had put him on, this flop would be begging for a bet after i show weakness, not to mention the fact that the pot has 6200 and he only has 2500 left and an all in bet could win back about 2.5 times his stack... He elects to check.

After the check on the flop my range for his hands broadens a touch due to the fact that a decent player would have at least made a probe bet to find out where they are... the turn was a 7s... this card means that any 5 beats me, it is hard for me to believe that he was sitting on a 5 pre-flop but it would explain his check post flop, due to the scary card and the fact that the pot is big enough for me to be happy to win without a fight... i bet 2000...

He thinks for about 10 seconds and goes all in... right now i have no idea what he has but i assume im best, in either case im obviously pot committed so i call the extra 500... he turns over Ks 9d... hmmmmmmmmmmm

I look at his cards and realize that he is just another run of the mill free league muppet... looks like my original observations were way off... he does have 8 outs ( four 5's and four 10's) but realistically he should have folded preflop...

I am thinking about how ill stack my chips after taking this muppet for all he's worth when the old faithful muppet-loving river shows a 10c and i stare in disbelief as the muppet takes all my chips and has a look on his face as if he new the straight was coming and its just routine for him...

I instantly go on tilt and go all in blind in the small blind... i believe that this is probably the worst part of my game... as soon as i get a bad beat i go on tilt and then its bye bye chippies... in fact i had A9o and got called by KJo and K6 in the BB... just more confirmation that i continue to give people in the free league too much credit ( naturally i lose to 2 pair)...

signing off...

Shane