Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD) and Poker

[RandR]

I wanted to know if anyone here has ADD and if they feel it affects their poker play. Also, whether your taking any drugs(adderall,sertera, etc..) for it, and does that help. Ive always thought that Ive had ADD, but havent done anything about it. The symptoms seem like they would be very detrimental to becoming a great poker player. Any response would be appreciated.

ADD - A neurobiological condition characterized by developmentally inappropriate level of attention, concentration, activity, distractability, and impulsivity.

[daryn]

ADD is a joke.

maybe i'm not just a lazy slacker! wait, i must have some kind of condition, yeah that's the ticket. we'll call it ALS, advanced laziness syndrome. nice.. now i have an excuse.

[SmileyEH]

I've known some kids with ADD and it is no joke. We're talking extremely intelligent great kids completely unable to function without constant stimulus or drugs. I remember one kid I knew when I was like 13 forgot to take his ritalin for the day and spent an hour running around in circles...tooks his drugs the next day and was suddenly functional.

-SmileyEH

[Brandon J. Fuchs]

From what I understand, speaking to several people who know Phil Helmuth quite well that he was treated for ADD as an adolescent. I don't know if he still takes his medication or it is still the diagnosis but I do know that he was diagnosed. With all the wrong diagnoses these days who knows, but it sure seems to fit his mold. So having ADD doesn't mean you will be a crap player, it can perhaps give you an edge since you will be paying attention to everything, betting habits, facial expressions, that most people don't have the effort to care about.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
we'll call it ALS, advanced laziness syndrome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stephen Hawking has ALS. Need a new name.

I guess you could argue that he doesn't walk around much so he's lazy, but it kinda means something else.

I'm not sure one way or the other on ADD. I know a couple kids with it and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt before writing them off as lazy. Discussions go pretty much like: "Well why don't you just do -whatever-", and their response is that they have ADD and they can't. I can't understand it at all, but hey who knows? Perhaps there's some chemical imbalance that can actually be corrected.

~D

[RandR]

[ QUOTE ]
ADD is a joke.

maybe i'm not just a lazy slacker! wait, i must have some kind of condition, yeah that's the ticket. we'll call it ALS, advanced laziness syndrome. nice.. now i have an excuse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great post! Looks like you really did your research for that one and ALS... how clever is that [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[scrub]

I don't have ADD, but have been (legally) on ADD drugs before.

ADD drugs definitely make me a better poker and straight pool player.

The best multitabler I know has an extremely short attention span and finds that he enjoys 6 tabling the most for that reason...

scrub

[RydenStoompala]

ADD was invented by pharmaceutical companies. There's no such thing. Hundreds of thousands of kids are drugged every day in America, mainly because they cant watch TV while they are in class. It's like repressed memory syndrone, another psychological fiasco manufactured by the weakly-regulated "profession."

Best drug for poker? I'm guessing a strong natural halucinogen like Peyote would be good if you're looking for incredible concentration and a complete lack of time awareness. Maybe mescalin? I've read about guys playing on acid just to relieve the boredom. I use coffee and bottled water.

[tpj]

Although I don't doubt there are a few true cases of kids with an inherent chemical imbalance that can be regulated properly with drugs, I'm absolutely positive (w/o proper evidence of course) that ADD is very often misdiagnosed for a disease with similar symptoms...

I believe its called "lack of parenting"

tpj

[marklipp]

i agree that kids, and people in general, are prescribed drugs far too easily for any given malaise. ADD is probably misdiagnosed the most in young kids, because they're kids and the parents can't deal with their personality/energy....so drug 'em!

but unfortunately it is real. maybe it was all the crack my mom smoked when she was pregnant.....

it's like having six different trains of thought, each getting a portion of your time in the forefront. you can work it out without drugs though.

i can see how it would help in multi-tabling. but i'm still working on 1table. in live games, i'm distracted by non-pokers things, but people have a hard time reading me. in the end, i don't think it helps or deters enough to make a huge difference.

this is good: http://www.oneaddplace.com/articles/hallowelladd.htm