Im talking cigs here.

How do you quit smoking, and not have it effect your poker game?

I play long MTT sessions online, and after every hour there is a break, I go outside and have a smoke..

I'm thinking about firing up a session, but am afraid I am just going to be far too tilted after about 3 hours to keep wanting to play.. And with that as a result, I will most likely just punt off stacks. I'm at the point where I almost don't want to quit smoking because it will effect my play.

I have the niquorette gum, but it's certainly not the same, and I def still want to smoke a cigarette.

Anyone else who has tried to quit smoking, and plays poker have any good advice for me?

I'm about to try...i do the same thing during my online sessions on the breaks...same with live, right after the last hand i'm going to where i can smoke and lighting up immediately.

It's going to be an adjustment for sure, I'll update as I progress

Reading the Allen Carr book next week as well (picked it up for like $3 off ebay). Lots of supporters and hoping it gets me to look at cigarettes in a different way...I already hate that I smoke, but hoping I can get some good advice.

Also, www.reddit.com/r/stopsmoking is a good source of advice/support

I quit smoking as an online mtt pro once before - i'm back smoking now, but the the quitting itself wasn't so bad, and i stayed off them for a good 6 months.

I think you'll find that the extra time you'll having during breaks will be really useful. I know I that I put on some weight when I quit, but i'd only lost that weight because I had no damn time to eat during breaks as a smoker :P

I found the nicotine replacement stuff was pretty good, consider using patches all the time and also a low nicotine gum during breaks, maybe go outside or wherever you would have smoked during the synch break to chew the gum when you feel like a smoke.

For me the oral fixation was a pretty big part of it, I found that drinking a lot of herbal tea helped keep my mouth occupied, and i'd generally make one on most synch breaks.

I recommend taking a couple of days off grinding when you quit, to see how it affects you initially. I found that I did get more agitated and a little bit puntier, but with the nicotine replacement it wasn't so bad.

GL

Hey thanks for the post.. This is off topic, but I remember you from 180's back in the non doj lameness glory days.. you wuz goood..

I ended up trying out playing tonight.. I didn't get too tilted, (had the niq gum) And it was pretty awesome because I was able to keep registering for the super turbo 6 man sng's while playing.. When I usually would just plan accordingly to make sure there was no more running during break.. So I was able to put in a little extra volume.

I also felt that playing poker during the breaks was kind of helping me cope with not being able to smoke during the breaks, and I thought it was gonna be the exact opposite.

Def gonna try out the tea idea as well..

The only thing I'm kind of afraid of is I usually smoke da reefers when I play (didnt tonight) but every time I smoke, I follow it up with a cig, so I'm thinking that is when it is going to get brutal.

had the same problem tried electronic cigs . Quit smoking 2 mo ago. feeling the same but better ( breathe easier, teeth whiter, better taste etc etc )
The problem with electronic cigarettes is that you have to find a good setup ( or one you enjoy ) so you don't go back.

I am also a chainsmoker who wants to quit for several reasons. I am wondering when succesfully quit smoking helps me to tilt less or more. Now I smoke whenever I feel slightly annoyed, like a quick fix. But maybe I get this annoyed because of the nicotine addiction in the first place?

Did you play better or worse during your non smoking period, WhiteRabbito? Or no difference whatsoever, mentally that is.

Ive seen those, I have considered them. You can like use those in public places right?

Heres what ive been trying to do though.

First off, I'm a smoker, but in the past have done chew for weeks at a time and it does the same thing for me is cigs. Like when I'm doing chew I'm not thinking "man I need a cig" my craving is for-filled.

So Ive just been trying to tell my body that I am doing tobacco when chewing the gum..

3 days and counting.

btw on a really good run in poker right now since I quit, havnt had a losing day the past 3 days.. Weird.

When I quit cigs, for the first 3 days I just quit poker and kept my mind occupied with video games and other fun ****. It's a great time to take a break and just reflect on your poker game, get some stress relief, and think about other ways you can enjoy a 10 minute break other than smoking a cigarette. I'm 3 months down the road from quitting smoking(smoked approx 1 pack a day for 2 1/2 years), I can say with certainty it was WELL worth it. I have more stamina, better concentration, less easily irritated, etc, etc. Overall, much much healthier, feel soooo much better, and my mental stamina is off the charts compared to before. The first 2 weeks of quitting it feels the exact opposite though. You'll feel like you don't enjoy anything any more, just pure drudgery for 2 weeks essentially. I can't even begin to say how much better my mind has been without smoking though. My poker game is at an all new level purely thanks to the extra stamina and focus I have now.

I posted this in another smoking thread.

E-cigs can be a healthy alternative to cigarettes, good luck to quitting nicotine though. I was switched to ecigs completely for 3-4 months before I tried quitting, the withdrawals were equally as bad, if not worse as with cigarettes. However, I've read somewhere that e-cigs are up to 1000x less harmful to your body than cigarettes, so it's worth switching anyways. Also, after only 1-2 days of smoking an e-cig, I found it was just as satisfying as smoking cigarettes, and honestly better than real cigarettes. The buzz is cleaner, plus you can use it wherever the **** you want and it leaves no smell or smoke at all. My only recommendation is to make sure you get a good brand. The cheap **** will leave you disappointed, trust me. All that said, it's still worth it to quit nicotine even if you've successfully switched to e-cigs(which is beyond easy to do), though it's definitely not any easier than just quitting cigarettes cold turkey.

Good to hear that it seems to be going okay so far, I remembered you from 180s too.

I think if I quit smoking cigarettes while I was smoking weed too, the whole thing would've been easier for sure. Now I'm trying to quit smoking weed and kinda relying on cigarettes to get me through it easier, no way would I quit both at the same time though. In a couple months I'll probably try to quit cigarettes again too.

I felt like I was playing better, and was more focused overall, but I didn't quit cold turkey, and I think I would've been really tilty for a while if I tried to play after just quitting with no nicotine replacement.

Im not a smoker OP, but I have been reading a lot about self control lately. Self control is believed to work like a muscle and can get fatigued in a similar way. Using up lots of your self control on either taking bad beats/playing poker etc or actively trying not to smoke probably wont be good for either one, try to ease off smoking when not doing demanding self control tasks and then maybe allow yourself to smoke when playing only on breaks, then try every 2nd break etc. GL

14 days with out a cig, feels great, being on a huge heater while not smoking for some days feels even better...

Biggest problem though. My reason for quitting was to save the 2300 or whatever it costs a year to smoke a pack a day. In these 14 days I have spent over 160 on niccorrette products.. If I can't quit the gum and patch too, the whole point of quitting is pointless.

fixed

+1 to ecigarettes!!!