Why do many of the best poker players in the world smoke weed? What is it about marijuana that gives the smoker an advantage in tournament poker? These are questions that get asked more often than you'd expect and not just at online poker rooms such as Reefer Poker, which obviously, by it's namesake, cater to the hoards from the cannabis culture, who are in their own homes and have chosen to play with other like-minded individuals but what about the Poker Pros we see on TV?
Many Professional Poker players who compete in high-stakes tournaments, often televised, such as the World Series of Poker on ESPN, are known to be chronic marijuana smokers. California and Nevada have booming businesses in medical marijuana, it's fast, simple, and affordable to acquire a license in Las Vegas to smoke marijuana legally and once licensed an entire catalog of medicinal marijuana is available to the patient/card player. Various cannabis strains have recommendations for various ailments as well as reviews and testimonials of the effects of smoking, plus a qualified bud-tender is always on hand at the cannabis dispensary, to suggest certain types or strains that are best suited for playing poker.
Let's drop the Hollywood stoner stereotype for the sake of this discussion and consider that a Poker Pro has been smoking weed for 10 years or more and is good at bluffing (that he's not stoned) and after a break only his closest friends, or whomever he's been smoking with, has any idea that he's just quaffed (ie. Smoked) a reefer of the strongest, medicinal grade cannabis, known to mankind, and now he has his Poker-face on, behind a relaxed nonchalant looking, often smiling face. However his heart is beating slightly faster but more importantly a part of his brain that is usually not very active has now kicked-in to high-gear and the Poker Pro is collecting detailed information about his opponents that they're not even aware he can read. In short, the Card player high on marijuana is like a poker scientist in stealth mode. As a side note: I've referred to the Poker Pro as "he" because the vast majority of Pro's are male but I happen to know that female poker pros also regularly play high, especially online.
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According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2007, 14.4 million Americans smoked marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed. That number is likely very low as many people will never admit to consumption of a banned substance, in a survey, to someone they've never met. The same research says that about 6,000 people a day in 2007 used marijuana for the first time--2.1 million Americans have discovered something about smoking marijuana that they like and many of them discovered that THC, the main active ingredients in cannabis, improved their mood and enhanced their activities whether it be work or play. The fact is that we live in a wired world, during this information-age, for the masses life is connected to the Internet and weed enhances almost anything online, especially poker, which may explain why the number of smokers is so close to the number of people who play online poker. Not saying that everyone playing poker online is high, just that it's an interesting coincidence that the number of smokers and the number of players in nearly the same.
So what is it about marijuana that provides an advantage to the poker player who smokes it? To help answer this question we need to understand what ailments are commonly treated with medicinal marijuana and what scientific evidence of efficacy (effectiveness) exists from clinical applications. The list of ailments is very long and contains such neuron type issues as Alzheimer's, tics, Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome and perhaps the most common ailment to receive a medicinal marijuana prescription; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which some people joke, is an ailment that our entire society suffers from. Every day more clinical studies are being conducted to provide further proof but to a seasoned Poker player they don't need an FDA approval to know that when they smoke the herb it brings a certain feeling of calm to their brain that enables them to acutely tune-in on everything going on at the table. Marijuana is like a performance enhancing drug for the poker-playing mind and enables them to smoke the competition.
Not sure if I'd enjoy playing poker without smoking some hydro first, since to me, these two things are connected and the same thing goes for all my friends.
Wow – now that’s perspective! I think we often react in agreement or disagreement because of our emotions, but hearing another side of poker and marijuana, passionately presented, really makes us think!
What a interesting blog on Poker on Marijuana - Reefer Smoke !
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Great article. Thanks for this, and keep doing fine on your blog. CU
I'm actually experienced with this, and I totally agree with you.