Criticism

There are certain things I do well, in my not-always-humble opinion. I think my preflop play is usually excellent. I don't get in trouble with slop or danger hands. I'm selective, and I'm aggressive. I also try to be a little deceptive now and then. Cue the criticism...

First hand in question at the PCS's tourney 1 of Season 4 - we are down to 20, so we've consolidated to two tables. I join John and Tim at the black table. Also joining the black table is Ray V, who played with me at the outside table. He seemed solid, neither loose nor tight. Fold. Fold. Fold. And all the while Tim is yapping about how tight I am. I should just get a tattoo on my forehead. In early position, I get the Hellmuth hand, two black nines. I raise the 300/600 blinds to 1500. It's folded to Ray, who pushes all-in, a huge reraise. Actually, it's me that would be all-in, or I'd have 4000+ if I fold. If it was one of the other slobs at the outside table that tried this, I'd call, and expect ace-big, or ace-suited. Not Ray. I knew he wouldn't reraise for all of his stack if he didn't have queens, kings, or aces. I folded, John and Tim exploded at my apparent cowardice, and I defended myself by reminding those two that I saw his play in the first 90 minutes, not them. Ray later admitted he had kings.

On the very next hand, I play the hand that heaped the abuse on me. I'm dealt aces in early position (UTG+1 I think), and I get a brain cramp. I decide to limp in. Ray limps, SB completes, BB checks - 4 players in the hand, and no raise as I would've hoped. Probably because the second I limp in, Tim starts with the chatter about how I have to have aces. John's in concurrence - he wasn't going to play anything short of KK, AA, or AK. With that in mind, I can probably use this to my advantage later - limp in with a decent drawing hand, T9 suited for instance.

Flop was QT4, rainbow. The blinds checked to me, and I couldn't see any reason not to go all-in. Ray called me, and Tim cackled when I showed my aces. Ray had KJo, so he was on an open-ended straight draw, but I had two of his outs. The turn was an ace, and I've never been more disappointed to catch a set of aces. The river didn't pair the board, so I was bounced out in 18th place (24 players). Naturally, Tim and John felt this was a horrible play on my part. Someone called me who had to catch a 6-outer or double me up to a very-comfortable 10000+. Perhaps the play was a bad one, but when the money went in, I was a huge favorite. I'll take that every time.

Later in the tourney, I was rooting for Jesus to get into the money. He's bubbled three times now (including tonight, the poor bastard), and I was whispering some advice for him. I gave him a few ideas to consider, and warned him away from limping in with QTo in middle position with one limper in front of him. He busted out when Moss limped in UTG, then called Jesus's 3x BB raise from the SB. Flop came A62 - check, check. Turn was a blank, Jesus went all-in, Moss called in a heartbeat with his set of aces. Oops.

John and I stuck around with Jesus after the tourney was over, and talked poker. Part of the talk was how he could've handled his last hand without losing all of his chips. Instead of all-in, which was a big overbet of the pot, a 2/3 pot-sized bet on the flop or turn would've been a better way to test the waters.

Then it was my turn to be criticized. John offered that my play is verging on tight-weak, the horrible hell that any self-respecting poker player wants to avoid. His point was that my play after the flop was too weak - I allowed opponents to steal pots from me way too often. I asked him to point out a specific hand where I was too weak. He couldn't (or wouldn't, more likely) pick one out for me to consider. It didn't take me long to think of two. My blog-post on the PCS championship tourney discussed three hands, and the first two were instances where I played too weakly after the flop. My JJ vs Dallion and Jesus, and my 99 UTG vs Tim's steal-raise.

It hurt a little bit to be chastised so sharply. I really would've preferred a specific example or two. I appreciate that they want me to improve, and my post-flop play can definitely use some beefing up.

In honor of that, I propose the following at the next PCS:

1) Chase/raise with a flush draw. (John mentioned "we know you never call with flush draws")
2) Check-raise the crafty bastards, preferably with junk.
3) Raise, bet, bet the first time I'm dealt The Hammer. And show it.
4) Reraise somebody preflop with something mediocre, like JT suited.
5) Take a little longer to consider things I think are a little odd. My spidey-sense is getting better at detecting when things aren't what they seem. A little time and a little more reflection will help me make better reads.

If I want to alter my table image, I'll have to show a lot of cards when I fold/win hands. I just hope I'm at a table with a lot of the regulars. I set the O/U on my rebuys at 2.5.