Playing under mind altering substances

[philnewall]

Smoking pot can improve focus, and reduce tilt for short periods of time, but when you come down the concentration goes completely out the window. Of course it depends on what your smoking, but if you wanna play long sessions I would advise to keep well away from the strong skunk cos it fucks you up.

[Boris]

Any sort of stimulant is very bad for your game. This includes coffee and red bull and I'm pretty sure it would hold true for coke, meth, etc...

Downers like alcohol and prescription drugs are probably not that bad for young males with lots of testosterone. The one danger is that you will play too passively.

[J.R.]

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Any sort of stimulant is very bad for your game. This includes coffee and red bull ...

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I strongly disagree, but I'm a caffeine junkie. Why do you think this?

[Boris]

Most of the time people take stimulants to fight fatigue. Common affects of fatigue include irritability and anxiousness. Stimulants will make you feel less tired, but in my case at least, they amplify the irritability/anxiousness. In my experience this is a disaster for a poker player.

[girgy44]

I play high all the time, and feel that it helps me win somehow, maybe I just run well high which is fine with me.

[TStoneMBD]

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Most of the time people take stimulants to fight fatigue. Common affects of fatigue include irritability and anxiousness. Stimulants will make you feel less tired, but in my case at least, they amplify the irritability/anxiousness. In my experience this is a disaster for a poker player.

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ive never smoked pot before so i cant tell you how it helps me focus, im very interested in this discussion however.

as for caffeine and other similiar stimulants, they are very, very bad for a poker player for the reasons that boris mentioned.

[philnewall]

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ive never smoked pot before so i cant tell you how it helps me focus, im very interested in this discussion however.


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For the casual user, after smoking some chronic buds, your sensitivity to stimuli will increase, as will the speed and intensity of your thought processes. The main affects for me are a complete inability to tilt, ability to make unorthodox plays based on reads etc.

However, usually this phase dooesnt last long, maybe an hour for a pair of virgin lungs, more likely 1/2 an hour when I was toking heavy like.

After this you will start feeling generally down and tired, focus will go and you will end up staring blankly at the screen robotically clicking away, reverting likely to a weak-tight style.

Usally the only cure to this is go eat some food, take some uppers, or smoke more pot....which generally causes problems, especially when you start in the morning, as the cycle simply repeats itself, except the troughs are deeper, and the waves are lower.


However, when you start smoking regularly, ie at least twice a day, the problems just compound themselves, any improvement in concentration just disappears, after smoking your heartbeat will start racing, your head will be [censored] up with general haze and mindless paranoia. This is why I have completely quit the herbs now.

That has been my experiance with skunk, a particuarly potent form of weed. However, I've heard good things about hash cakes, they are milder and much longer lasting, as they go through the digestive system instead of from your lungs into your head.

[SA125]

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ive never smoked pot before

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Man, I was too young for Woodstock and I still feel old.

[astroglide]

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Any sort of stimulant is very bad for your game.

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i'd totally disagree with that. adderall, etc would probably help a ton.

[Boris]

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i'd totally disagree with that. adderall, etc would probably help a ton.

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Yea if you're ADD they probably would help a ton. For me it would be a disaster.