Tilt protection

I woke up this morning with a sore neck. Not a good sign given my history of physical ailments hurting my play.

Sure enough, I played like a donkey and made mistakes that I haven't made in months. I needed a distraction to keep me away from the tables on my day off.

Enter Guitar Hero, a truly awesome guitar-playing game. I learned about it through the girly chat box, and it was only a matter of time before I couldn't resist its pull any longer.

Some people rock harder than others.

So I went to Best Buy and bought a Playstation 2, the game and a memory card. I'm sure I could have gotten better deals if I had looked around, but even so, the PS2 only cost $129, Guitar Hero was $70 and the memory card was about $20.

I spent most of the rest of the day rocking out on my new plastic guitar, and there was no chance of me wasting any more money by playing poker when I knew I was at less than my best.

I play a rockin' "More than a feeling."

---

I watched all of the tuff_fish videos from this 2+2 thread that Iggy linked to.

Good Lord, this guy is hilarious.

What's interesting about tuff_fish is that he isn't a terrible player altogether -- he understands concepts of odds, position and reading hands. And he does think through his hands as he's recording these videos.

But in almost every video, he goes on tilt and makes a horrible call or all-in bluff. How many times has that been my downfall as well?

Tuff_fish's aggressive game will win him some money sometimes, but his sloppy play dooms him.

He could be a dangerous player if he concentrated on why he was making some moves, why he failed to continuation bet others, why he slow plays when he should fast play, what his opponents think about his overbets, what information his underbets convey and how his mindset influences his game.

Patience, focus, discipline and analysis are where the money lies -- not in thoughtlessly checking down some hands, calling down others and pushing the rest.