Op-Ed: Why alcohol is harming your poker winnings
In a guest post, poker writer Lee Davy gives reasons why booze may be having a greater impact on your ROI than you imagined.
Do you get that nagging feeling that drinking alcohol is wrong?
A thought that arises from the sub conscious but never sees the sun?
If you do, then you are not alone. Alcoholic drinks contain a powerful poison known as ethanol. The same type of shit you put into your car to make it run from A to B.
Mother Nature created the perfect mind and body. When you consume a poison your mind and body activate the alarm system to prevent you from a repeat. This is why you vomit (forcibly ejecting the poison), and why you have this feeling that something is wrong (mentally challenging the reasoning behind the ingestion).
It’s a good idea to pay attention to your thoughts and feelings. It’s part of the design to keep you living as long as possible.
I hit the town on Saturday night and it was the first time that I have been amongst drunks in a very long time. I met this guy called Steve and as he swigged his lager, and blew smoke into my face, he recanted a tale of the previous night where he had blacked out and woke up with £7k in his pocket.
“I must have come out a winner in the game.” Said Steve.
These stories are plentiful. We create them in order to tell our mind that it’s good to drink and gamble. It’s a pleasurable tale, and these tales make drinking poison seem natural. If we want to change we need to inject painful associations with drinking.
My interpretation of an alcoholic is someone who has lost control of their drinking. After drinking heavily for over two decades, and not being able to stop, isn’t that a loss of control?
I know, I was an alcoholic.
I have lost count of the number of times I have woken up with my laptop under my pillow and my online poker account drained of all funds. Credit card withdrawals that I neither could remember, nor could I afford. The same pattern followed me into live games. Sure, I booked some winning sessions, when I was as pissed as a newt, but I lost far more over the long run.
Alcohol is an extremely powerful poison that presses down hard on the fast forward button of your life. It’s one of the most addictive habits known to man, it debilitates your immune system, it screws around with your concentration; it slowly destroys your nervous system, eats away at self confidence, and affects your ability to relax. It also tastes disgusting and will cost you a good six figures over your lifetime.
I’ll play that person heads-up any day of the week.
If you need to drink when you play, then you are deluded if you think it’s helping your game. Imagine what would happen to your game if you couldn’t drink? It would deteriorate because you would be focusing on the lack of alcohol instead of the poker. Now, if you never drank alcohol the problem vanishes. Alcohol creates the problem it doesn’t solve it.
People like to believe that losing your inhibitions is a good thing, but at the poker table quite the opposite is true. You may talk freely, and exude confidence, but you will pay less attention to the game, awaken an attitude bordering on arrogance, and you will see spots where there are none.
It’s not just drinking at the table that effects your ROI. Many professional poker players will get drunk on the eve of Day 1 of a tournament, but then not drink the night before Day 2. This is a lack of professionalism. If you cannot abstain during a tournament, then are you really in control?
Create an edge by drinking less
Alcohol is highly addictive. It will become your best friend. The medicine to cure all ills. When you are feeling the blues, a drink injects a bit of red. Need to relax; a shot of whiskey will do the trick. Before you know it your drinking is affecting your relationships. Stress creeps into your life and Tilt gorges on stress.
Many people believe that No-Limit Hold’em is all but solved, and the edges between the top players are razor thin. When technical ability cannot separate the best, it’s the players with the stronger mental focus that makes you bleed.
When you find someone who has strong mental focus, you often find they are in great physical shape. The two go hand in hand, and there is no ménage a trois that involves alcohol. If two top pros are squaring off against each other, one is stressed and the other one isn’t, then who is your money on?
The greatest lie ever told to man is that alcohol offers you any benefits. It’s the biggest con on the planet, and over 80% have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. The fact that this figure is so big accentuates the problem. Everyone around you is doing it so it must be ok?
It has to be ok.
If you stop telling all your lies then you have to accept the fact that you are ingesting a powerful poison for no real reason. You can’t do that. Christ, we might as well wheel you into the sanitarium and be done with you. It's much better to believe the lies. Life is easier that way.
If you are searching for a way to take your game to the next level, then why not consider quitting alcohol? It’s right up there with smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, and eating unhealthy food, as one of the world’s biggest killers.
Life is enriched when you are alcohol free. You lose weight; you gain time, energy and money. Life becomes a stroll. You are more inclined to get into great physical shape and be wary about what you put into your body - all the right ingredients for a sharp mind.
Life in the zone.
That’s what every poker player is searching for.
So why not make it an alcohol free one?
PokerStrategy.com does not necessarily agree with Lee Davy's views on alcohol. Do you agree with Lee, or can alcohol be enjoyed in moderation? Do you party before a big tournament? Let us know in the comments box.
