No he's crituiqing his play because you said he played the hand good, but he actually played it absolutely atrociously...

the villain flopped middle set. How did he play it so poorly?

If HIS villain (our hero) is aggro, playing passively lets them bet away a lot more money than if you play back. When I'm playing against aggressive players, I often go into check/call mode because I make more $ that way than if I bet out. A LOT of players assume that the only indicator of a strong hand is a raise, so when you don't they assume you are weak, and keep firing.

And like I said, if I had been the hero the villain would have my stack on that hand more often than not. You do not always have to raise and re-raise to isolate, just calling (sometimes) is very deceptive IMO.

JC

on reflection I tend to agree with you, there are so many cards that kill the action.

I do play passively SOMETIMES (with sets, etc), a lot of guys pounce on the perceived weakness and hang themselves.

John C.