[illegit]

It's often said not to criticize a fish for his/her poor play. The logic is that you don't want them to realize they are making mistakes and correct them. I think this has some merit against some decent-mediocre opponents who just have some leaks in their game; no need to help them out. But against a true fish I feel there is no danger whatsoever in roasting them, ESPECIALLY after their bad play has just won them a pot.

I doubt you could ever convince a terrible, non-thinking player that they made a bad play if it resulted in them winning the pot. Thus I feel there is no harm in roasting their play in such a circumstance, and in fact are even benefits. They interpret that as you being upset that they got the best of you, not that you understand something they don't. All the more reason for them to keep playing their normal game; they can get lucky and scoop a pot every once in a while and make an opponent mad. They love that type of stuff! It's what the fish live for. This scolding will almost never result in them going home and re-evaluating their play, rather they will gleefully remember when they 'upset' you by hitting a 2-outer against them and really look forward to doing it again. I say roast away.

PlayerX: "You limped in w/ 83 UTG? WTF were you thinking moron?"

FishyMcFish's thoughts: "yeah, i was thinking I'd limp in and flop 2-pair against your AA and win this pot, just like I did. BOOYA!"

What FishyMcFish doesn't think: "Oh crap. you're right. This play is probably costing me money in the long run. I need to start thinking big picture. let me go home and re-evaluate my life, and come back next week as a solid player ready to take your money!"

If fish were capable of having these thoughts they wouldn't be fish.

Now, if a fish has just made a bad play and lost a pot there's no need to flame him, in fact there's every reason to let him think he made a good play but got unlucky. In those spots encourage the fish if the opportunity is there.

But one may respond "OK, but what benefits are there to roasting them?" A few possibilities. First you can put them on tilt and they'll try to come after you even more often with garbage than they normally would. The caveat is that if talking trash puts YOU on tilt and makes you start going after the fish in bad spots and affecting your game, then you shouldn't do it. But even if you don't talk trash they might be affecting your play so this is something that always needs to be considered regardless either way.