Best Drug for improving at Poker?
Hi all and Merry Christmas,
hopefully the topic of drugs and poker doesn't violate any of 2+2's rules, if it does, please remove the thread but don't ban me. 😀
So.. pretty certainly most people will say all mind-altering things will be detrimental to my poker game but I am not sure that is true,
that's why I would like to know:
Have you taken anything to help you become more focussed/better at poker that actually worked and was sustainable?
Something to help you study poker more efficiently?
Most of the time I play drinking beer and smoking weed, grinded my bankroll up to 4k this way but this year was like +-0 and I am basically autopiloting every day.
A few days ago I have for the first time tried cocaine but I can't really tell if it makes anything better except me not getting tired so quick.
Just now I am watching a documentary about Counter-Strike where some ex-pros state they were all using Aderall.
I have no experience with pharmaceutical drugs and try to stay away except if there is no way around them.
But the documentary got me wondering..
are there any that could improve my poker game/attention/analysis without ruining my life due to side effects?
Thank you for all serious answers in advance 😀
and as I said, Merry Christmas to you all
NZT but if u stop taking it you die.
Also ban op
Because one more addiction might just cure all the others, Jesus Christ.
I take prescription Adderall for my diagnosed ADHD. I notice a difference when I forget to take it, or when I take too much.
I know some people take it recreationally, and have heard some college students take it to help studye, but not being neurotypical, I don't know how it affects them. I just know I find it hard to focus without it, but taking too much is as bad or worse than not taking any
Chill out Anslinger
Here you go OP
From personal experience I would say taking Adderall and other smart drugs like Modafinil kind of sucks because it’s so good that you never want to stop using it for whatever your application you give it - like if you use it when you play poker you just get used to it and then you need it to play every time to feel like your playing well, or if you’re in college and use it for studying, you will want to use it for every test, every single thing
I would just keep it casual with some weed and beer.
No need to rely on drugs, unless you have some kind of mental disorder which prohibits you from being able to focus properly and you need to take things like Adderall to be normal, you’re probably good
addie. but you might lose your soul reading abilities.
be careful what you wish for.
For me it's definitely PCP.
crack is ok too
IIRC there was talk about banning coffee in chess because it gave a verifiable bump to performance.
Adderall or weed
I've seen many players who will step out of the card room to smoke some weed, then come back and play. I call it the "blaze and raise".
I haven't smoked weed in over 20 years, and never when I played. I'd be curious to know how it improves someone's play, since I mostly just remember a lot of distracting nonsense thoughts.
Weed lowers your intelligence on the short and long term, so you would play way worse.
One consequence of being dumbed down is that you cannot perceive it, you may feel you are a genius.
Try playing a non random game like chess to prove it for yourself.
One time I felt like weed was making me a genius so I tried to play some chess. I lost by time at move 3, I was just staring at the screen and getting distracted. My notes the next day were a mess.
Weed lowers your intelligence on the short and long term, so you would play way worse.
One consequence of being dumbed down is that you cannot perceive it, you may feel you are a genius.
Try playing a non random game like chess to prove it for yourself.
One time I felt like weed was making me a genius so I tried to play some chess. I lost by time at move 3, I was just staring at the screen and getting distracted. My notes the next day were a mess.
One caveat I will say is that it makes you understand people dumber than you, if you have a high IQ. This coupled with the fact that it physiologically makes you more empathic, you can get some interesting insights, I've never tried it with poker specifically though.
That said, again, it's not something you get an advantage on mid-game, maybe just play microstakes NL2, and get notes on what your mental processes and priorities are.
I would ask: At what point in life has anyone ever taken the easy route and it has turned out to be a good long term decision?
For what reason do you want to take a drug to enhance your poker performance? Why would you choose that route specifically?
In my experience as someone that had played poker professionally for a long time, taking drugs (in my case was cannabis) helped me deal with the hardship of the game in the short run. It helped me deal with the lack of fulfillment in the game in the short run. Over time, the short term effects began to diminish, and the long term negative effects increased exponentially. My relationships, my wellbeing, my energy levels and my ability as a professional.
It didn't work for me, maybe it will work for you, maybe. However I have yet to get to know someone personally at a deeper level that takes psychoactive drugs to enhance their lives, and that it has had an overall positive effect in their long term living.
Weed lowers your intelligence on the short and long term, so you would play way worse.
One consequence of being dumbed down is that you cannot perceive it, you may feel you are a genius.
Try playing a non random game like chess to prove it for yourself.
I've never heard this or even any adjacent claims about weed. Do you have any sources please?
My personal experience contradicts this. As long as I maintain my concentration, which is more difficult, my chess gets better when I'm high.
As to not being able to perceive lower intelligence, I'm T1 diabetic, and when my blood sugar goes low enough, my brain stops working as well, and I can directly feel when that's happening, perceive my own relative absence of intelligence.
I would ask: At what point in life has anyone ever taken the easy route and it has turned out to be a good long term decision?
For what reason do you want to take a drug to enhance your poker performance? Why would you choose that route specifically?
In my experience as someone that had played poker professionally for a long time, taking drugs (in my case was cannabis) helped me deal with the hardship of the game in the short run. It helped me deal with the lack of fulfillment in the game in the
Taking the difficult decision for the sake of it being the difficult decision doesn't seem like good decision-making to me. Life ain't Nietszchean.
Even current addicts, let alone ex-addicts, may not be able to express what purpose an addiction is serving. Sometimes the purpose it's serving may be irrelevant and that person would just be completely better off without it - particularly with the more potentially destructive addictions.
Denying the possibility of addiction serving some purpose is to miss the wood for the trees. For a lot of people, the purposes it serves can be what makes giving it up that much more difficult. It doesn't sound like weed was having an overall positive effect for you after a while, so you were correct to give it up, but that doesn't mean it can't serve a useful purpose, both short and long term.
Hope you're good mate long time no see
I did some experiments with red kratom for sleep (works pretty well) and ordered with it some kind of green one, because why not. I am into biking, with good weather I am going out almost every day, 20-30km on mtb bike. I ride specially into hills and in terrain to have some cardio. So I tried this entikong green stuff, and instead of 30 km I ran 70. So I tried it also with mental work, and somehow solved few problems I wasn't capable finish for years. Really kicked high intelligence (after some analyze I think green stuff enabled me to focus intensively for hours instead of minutes). Downside is that it works only around three hours, and also as herb you never know if you get with next shipment rocket fuel or placebo.
I've never heard this or even any adjacent claims about weed. Do you have any sources please?
My personal experience contradicts this. As long as I maintain my concentration, which is more difficult, my chess gets better when I'm high.
As to not being able to perceive lower intelligence, I'm T1 diabetic, and when my blood sugar goes low enough, my brain stops working as well, and I can directly feel when that's happening, perceive my own relative absence of intelligence.
Ever seen the old episode of family guy where Louis and Peter are convinced they're music geniuses when high?
I've never heard this or even any adjacent claims about weed. Do you have any sources please?
My personal experience contradicts this. As long as I maintain my concentration, which is more difficult, my chess gets better when I'm high.
As to not being able to perceive lower intelligence, I'm T1 diabetic, and when my blood sugar goes low enough, my brain stops working as well, and I can directly feel when that's happening, perceive my own relative absence of intelligence.
You've never heard weed makes you dumb? I can cite some rigorous studies, but I want to let this sit for a moment, that not only you don't believe weed lowers intelligence but this is the first time you've heard of it? Your parents never told you anything, your close acquaintances, in school? University? Jobs requiring drug tests to avoid underperformance..
Confirm this for me and I'll post double blind longitudinal peer reviewed n>1000 studies that show more than 10 iq point drops even after cessation.
I don't think I know of any studies that show intelligence drops under the effects because it's just unquestionable.
Regarding diabetes, it's a good point, maybe the high of weed is more hypersynaptic and low sugar is hyposynaptic, so that's why you can detect being dumb with low sugar, there's just no thought. With hypersynaptic you just have wrong random thoughts but you can't differentiate them from organic logical ones.
You've never heard weed makes you dumb? I can cite some rigorous studies, but I want to let this sit for a moment, that not only you don't believe weed lowers intelligence but this is the first time you've heard of it? Your parents never told you anything, your close acquaintances, in school? University? Jobs requiring drug tests to avoid underperformance..
Confirm this for me and I'll post double blind longitudinal peer reviewed n>1000 studies that show more than 10 iq point drops even after ces
Not only did my parents never say anything, I've never heard this mentioned by anyone, anywhere, in any context. I've been around academia and academics, read a combined ~35-40 books on psychology / neuroscience / pharmacology / medicine, and have never seen or heard anything that suggests it. If a peer had mentioned it, I'd probably dismiss it on the same grounds I dismissed the idea that percolated when I was growing up that menthol cigarettes make men infertile. I've both heard and experienced that alcohol makes you dumb, and weed makes you more creative. Never 'stupider'.
On low blood sugar, it's not that there's no thought, it's just slower, of a lower quality, and I'm more likely to get confused. On weed, I don't experience that or anything like it. As I say, my chess gets better, not worse.
If you don't believe me, maybe we could do some tests. in the meantime, your 3rd paragraph appears to contradict the first 2.
ugh weed arguments
Not only did my parents never say anything, I've never heard this mentioned by anyone, anywhere, in any context. I've been around academia and academics, read a combined ~35-40 books on psychology / neuroscience / pharmacology / medicine, and have never seen or heard anything that suggests it. If a peer had mentioned it, I'd probably dismiss it on the same grounds I dismissed the idea that percolated when I was growing up that menthol cigarettes make men infertile. I've both heard and experience
Either you are trolling or you are severely obtuse, here it goes:
2012 longitudinal: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pna...
Video from main author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DyCxPVi...
2018 twin studies by same author: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/...
study on acute effects: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...
Re: low blood sugar, hypo means less not none.
re: my 2nd and 3rd paragraph, I'm making a distinction between the long term and short term effects (acute).
Btw, what's your elo in chess?
Either you are trolling or you are severely obtuse, here it goes:
2012 longitudinal: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pna...
Video from main author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DyCxPVi...
2018 twin studies by same author: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/...
study on acute effects: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...
Re: low blood sugar, hypo means less not none.
re: my 2nd and 3rd paragraph, I'm making a distinction
Hey, don't be an ass. At worst I am ignorant, which is hardly the worst crime in the world. Don't make assumptions about people being trolling, or whatever you're trying to imply with 'obtuse', just because you struggle to imagine things outside of your imagination.
Funnily enough, re low blood sugar, I know what hypo means. I was picking you up on your words: 'there's just no thought'.
OTB ELO for classical is ~1500 I think, but I don't play much OTB these days.
Thanks for the link. I would be interested to see if there's any data with regards to how weed interacts with intelligence when it comes to autism. I've been very stoned for ~ the last year, and my brain has never felt sharper. I don't make dumb decisions while stoned. Never have done. I might get disoriented in certain situations more easily, but given the amount of chess and poker I've played while high, and the general level of self-awareness I have, I'd have thought I'd see some signs of it.
That, and literally never having heard this before, is why I'm struggling with all this.
.
