Poker and Drugs

[BruceZ]

I was just reading Mason's reviews and came across Texas Bill's Winning a Living, The Professional Guide to Poker Profits, by William Melms. He says this book discusses some unusual topics, such as how different drugs affect you at the table. Has anyone read this book, and can tell me what he says about the effect of opiates?

This has been discussed here from time to time, and it reminded me of my experience. While recovering from a skiing injury, I played a fair amount of poker while on opiates for pain. It appeared to have a profound positive effect on my mental clarity, especially on my ability to read hands and opponents. I say appeared, because it is possible that it only seemed that way to me, but I actually believe it is a real effect. It also had a very negative effect on my ability to concentrate on a single thought at a time, especially on my ability to perform mathematical computations. In short, it seemed to enhance my ability to take in many things at once, which is good for certain aspects of poker, while it detracted from my ability to focus on just one thing at at a time. On balance, I'm not sure whether it helped or hurt, though I seemed to do better overall with larger swings. I'm not advising anyone to rush out and try this. These drugs are highly addictive, and many, perhaps most people who get involved with them wish that they never had.