Yes, this is what habituation is but, that doesn't mean to say that all poker players habituate to wins and losses...Research on habituation tends to be based around sensory stimuli such as sounds or smells...For example if you walk into a slaughterhouse for the first time it will appear to have a strong stench, but after being in there for 30 minutes this stench will be almost unnoticeable. However, you would have to conduct separate research to find out if this is the case for poker and given the variation of the game, I would put my money on the fact that such effects aren't a one size fits all as is for the sensory habituation mentioned above.

Additionally, you are assuming that said player is either a winning or break even player, and secondly you're not considering other psychological implications that may apply to this situation such as learned helplessness, which could certainly result from a string of losses in my opinion.

To be completely honest I think it is misleading and slightly unprofessional for this individual to claim that "exposure to many many sessions or tournaments will do wonders for acclimatizing you to the stresses of variance"...Perhaps if you're a winning player, in all other scenario's I'd say you're going down the learned helplessness track.

I can't find the OP's article so I'm going to assume that it doesn't exist, and at the least that it is unverified. But here's a good article I found while looking - It's from a Canadian university as is the one mentioned in the OP...And it seems to me that certain websites have taken this article completely out of context (as Meth guessed).

Here's a couple of particular quote from the articles results section:

Here is the abstract, followed by a link to the full article for those who can access it - Sorry I can't post up the entire article as you have to pay around $30 to access it...I have access but legally cannot pass this article to third parties. However I believe that I can paste a couple of small excerpts legally.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/n44v5r44u6v41u82/

Speaking of the OP, I can only imagine that measuring cortisol levels during play is an unscientific measure of poker related stress at best.

Got to love how certain entities like to misinterpret scientists findings to promote their business ventures.

Yeah, it definitely seems OP took some stuff way out of context or just fabricated it alltogher.

addicts are always going to find a addiction. better poker than blazing it up in some crackhouse

True, but I don't like talking about poker as an addiction, especially when it's your job. Yo-Yo Ma has been known to practice scales in his hotel room for 6 straight hours. Does that mean he's a music addict?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-yo_Ma

YES IT DOES!!!!

I most definitely agree with those results.

life really looks like the game...if I feel tired with my life I go deep into poker..And it really helps me to forget about any stress

of course addicts are less stressed while using their drug of choice^^

and all the grinders who say they're not addicted, take a break for a couple days and see if u feel an almost untamable urge to play. I doubt that many won't...

I look at this very differently. I think that too many poker players, even good ones, don't want to put in the hours that they should. There are a lot of people in these forums who like to talk about how great poker is because you can sit in your underwear 20 hours a week and make a good living.

I don't know many occuplations, whether emplyed by a big company, self-employed, or business owner, where so many people approach their work with this attutude. And given the poker boom, Black Friday, variance, and all the other inherent ups and down in being a poker player, I believe that this is a mistake. Maybe you, whoever is reading this post, can become a poker millionaire playing when you feel like it, but that's not the real world for most of us.

Once the US government gets finally gets on board with explicity legal and regulated poker, the next boom will come. But it won't last forever. That will be the time to get the hours in, makes lots of money, and save and invest.

When the boom comes, if you can play poker for 40 hours a week and study another 20, go for it! You should be doing a lot of studying, now, to prepare for that day. You won't always be 21 and carefree, with no reponsibilities, and able to play whenever you want. Your family situation will change, and that will change your hours Someday your children will need braces or a college fund.

Make the money when you can, and don't worry about someone thinking that you're an addict. There are lots of poeple out there working all the overtime that they can get, so that they can take get out of debt, or buy a house, or take care of their families. Why should poker players be any less motived?

That's a really good post. I very much agree. I've often noticed that about myself, that even though on some level I feel that I'm playing poker too much, I actually would benefit from playing more than I do. For instance I'll watch TV in the morning or afternoon and kind of drag getting to the casino, or I'll be partying with friends or absorbed in other work and not play for days. I used to think that I had unlimited motivation for poker, but I've recently had to admit to myself that at this point in my life I just don't have the dedication and drive of the pro players who are just out there, all the time, constantly playing and really working on their game. This could be because I get so caught up in sex and relationships, or because my circumstances allow me to kick back somewhat, or because I get very busy on projects or obsessed with reading my favorite writers. Or maybe it's because I get "too" relaxed and contented from meditation, or I just feel so good after I go to the gym that I don't want to do anything else--and again this gets back to sex. Or maybe I'm just lazy or have issues with time management. Or all of the above.

This is actually an interesting question, though... and whether you're playing "too much" and are addicted, or aren't playing enough, may to some degree hinge on whether you're playing well in the first place, or your approach to the game in general. Maybe if you're ****ing off and trying to get high off adrenaline rushes when you play and spewing money, then subconsciously you'll be aware that you're addicted. But if you're highly disciplined, and have a relentlessly efficient approach to the game and tend to be profitable, then you'll see it as a different kind of pursuit, possibly like a profession. Even if you're "deep" into the game for extended time frames these attitudes could come into play... and they might alternate within the same person. For instance, the 3 drinks blow-off-steam gambler fun player might in the back of his mind think he should be winning or beating the game, and somewhere in the session start at least imagining that he is taking a very serious approach.
Likewise the bloodless pro might suddenly feel somewhat unhinged and unconcerned and donkey off a bunch of buy-ins just for the **** of it, thinking he might get lucky or something.

Who's addicted and who's not is a tricky question... Free Will in general is a very tricky question, and when you plug yourself into something as absorbing and enjoyable as poker, it gets trickier. When people say "addicted" I think they often are referring to the gambling aspect of the equation--the cliche of the gambling addicted degenerate. In my experience, what gets me sometimes is just the fun and gameplay factor, and a kind of repetitive inertia that makes it hard for me to break away from long sessions or to quit at the optimal times. Being addicted to a game isn't bad as long as you're addicted to being good; being addicted to gambling to the extent that you want to bet on where flies land, or on the color of the next car on the street obviously is.

Not true. I've known many people who got addicted to poker in their late 20s/30s and never had the slightest kind of addiction to alcohol/drugs/other gambling throughout their young adulthood.

(I'm not using this as an argument against poker, just against your statement)

Poker was incredibly stressful when I started out and for the first few months. Now a $500+ downswing here and there is not even 1/100 as bad as losing a $2 stack was when I first started.

Back then I cared and stressed and was concerned. I'm a winning player now but I really don't feel it anymore? I guess everyone experiences this. It's good for poker.

Maybe has some bad influences outside of poker?

yeah but the 6 donuts i eat each session cant be great for me

Poker is good for my life ie. "healthy" because in trying to learn more about becoming a better poker player I also learn how to function better day to day.

For example handeling stress, learning how to not tilt in poker, provides me with the skills i need to not strees the **** out at work when im having a rough day.

The video in the quote above led me to this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7U8m...eature=related

which is bloody hilarious and also applies pretty much directly to me and my wife a lot. She watched the vid with me and we laughed about it. But the point is it helped us both understand a bit why we argue. Which, Incedentally, is happenening a lot less since we went to counselling about 4 months back. Something I refused to do for far too long. And might never have done had I not read an article in a poker mag about going to a psychologist to help to understand yourself and your mind better in order to play poker better.

Im not playing for a living but it does cause me stress. my poker roll is not replaceable at all atm so if i lose it i lose my hobby for a while. I play a lot, probably an average of 6 days a week, I dont really keep track of hours but its at least 2-3 mon-fri and I regularly do 20+ on the weekends at least I think its a lot for a recreational player, maybe its not.

not addicted to poker...Addicted to the COMPETITION aspect. It replaxes hockey, football, and baseball as i get to old and fragile to play those anymore. I play 20hrs a week and never deposit more than $50 a month. May sound like a lot to some, but its my hobby. Cheaper than golf, skiing, even a night @ the movies...lol, and it gives many more hours of fun, than they do. Last, but not least, its fun to learn more strategies and stuff thru videos and forums. It's fun to learn when you enjoy something. I think addiction happens to people with certain predispositions, someone addicted to poker, could easily have chosen cigs, alcohol, casinos, fat or anything else to be addicted to, it just happens to be poker. Drives me nuts when idiots BLAME poker for their 'addiction'... went off the rails a bit here , but the post annoyed me.

very true, Ive noticed a huge relation between poker, business, relationships and life in general.
things you learn in one can be transfered to another with great results.
smoking pot lead me to this and my life is better as a result.

qft... i'm a less tilty person but i'm fatter for sure.

This.

Well, it's not really good, because im loosing my mind when i play poker. So, when im on poker i dont think on nothing else except poker.. Huh, kinda weird.

Couldn't you transpose this bizarre line of thinking onto every vice? Video game playing, doing cocaine, playing beer pong...anything?

I think poker is really good for the mind, but not so much for the body.

Yes, but that's true for any sedentary job. I never weighed more than 139 pounds (at 5 foot 10) until I turned 30. At that time:

1. My National Guard job switched from infantry to musician.

2. My full-time job switched from laborer to pizza delivery (driving all night, with all the free pizza I could eat.)

3. I was going to college part-time.

4. I decided that I didn't have time to keep running.

Every part of my life was more sedentary, and when I stopped working out, I eventually worked my way up from 139 pounds to 193, and my resting pulse went from 64 to around 90. Now I"m a poker player, also a sedentary job, but my weight is down to 183, my pulse is in the low 80s, and I know that if I keep at it (I like running, I even did a marathon, I just stopped making the time for it) I'll drop at least 30 more pounds without any problem at all.

It doesn't matter if you're a cubicle rat or a poker player or a student. If your job is sedentary, you'll have to fit some exercise in their someplace if you want to stay in shape. Poker does not make you fat, or weak, or lazy. Life choices do that.