Playing on Prescription Meds
 

So I just got out of the hospital today after an 18-day stay. Long story short I had a very bad infection that started in my throat and made its way into the tissues surrounding my lungs. I had to have surgery and lots of antibiotics, but am now recovering at home.

The issue at hand then is what to do about poker playing while I am on prescription pain medication (oxycodone, the heavy stuff). The drugs definitely effect my mind, I'm not like drunk or anything, or really looped up, but I'm certainly not quite as sharp as normal.

This makes me a little hesitant to be playing cards online. On the other hand, I was beating up on the NL 200 games at Party playing 3 or 4 full-tables pretty hard during my summer break before I got sick. Also, I'm gonna be having all sorts of free time of sitting on my ass in the weeks ahead.

So what do you guys think? Should I playing poker at all while on the drugs, and if so how should I maybe go about approaching it?

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

Play at your own risk. I believe that is generic percocet, a pretty strong narcotic pain medication. I took that after knee surgery and had the mental capacity of a grapefruit while taking it. I couldn't even follow the storyline of a cartoon made for kids, I was just staring at images on the TV without mentally comprehending what was going on.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

Percocet is oxycodone plus tylenol, so yeah, it's pretty much the same stuff. I've taken a lot of it over the days from when I was severely burned a few years ago and taking a ton of it and other opioid pain meds, so I probably have a bit of a tolerance for it compared to most people, but like I said before I'm certainly not a 100% mentally.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

I hurt my back and was on a cocktail of heavy duty painkillers. I figured, I'm gonna be laid up in bed for a few weeks, might as well put in some serious table time. You know that feeling when you're sitting in front of the screen at 4am after 7.5 hours of a MTT tournament, and you have to stand up during the 5 minute break so you don't fall asleep and get your chips blinded off? Multiply that times 2 for the 4 hours after taking a dose. If you're a multitabler, I say play one table and watch a few others at most. Pretty soon your calling $5 bets preflop with 23os thinking it was completing the SB in your Sit n Go and folding second nuts to a river min reraise.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

I recently had surgery and was on Vicodin (sp?) for a little. It made me an even more patient player, I loved it.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

On the other side of the coin. Drugs like Adderal are prescribed for attention deficit disorder and can help you focus during a session. Paul Phillips has said he thinks it sharpens his game.

I've tried it and like the effects, but it does make you a little too speedy sometimes.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

i dont have any trouble playing while on painkillers. i recently shattered my wrist in a motorcycle accident... i cant work in this condition, so i sit home, play poker and eat vicoden.

no problemo

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

Iggy- Adderoll is great but personally makes me sweat like I'm running a marathon, between the stress of the game and my heart going 6000 miles an hour. Kinda embarrassing lol.

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

Obviously, it's time to move up in limits. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Seriously, if you 'must' play, play cheap tourneys of SNGs.

You approach it as knowing you very well may not be up to par, so you compensate by playing a game that will minimize your losses until you find out just how much it does affect your game.

b

Re: Playing on Prescription Meds
 

I'd be careful with this. After major surgery I was taking the percs, and at the time I thought they weren't affecting me at all. I felt pretty much normal.

Several weeks later I was asking my wife where all these things in our room came from and she said they were all gifts from friends after surgery. I had no memory of receiving them or ever even seeing them before.

Vicodin is not nearly as strong and I still have to take it from time to time. I play live with no problems and no effects to my mental or motor skills, but I'm a big guy.

Your mileage may vary.