I am currently staking a close friend of mine. After agreeing to stake him, I also asked that he does not smoke pot while playing. He said that he believes that smoking pot has no negative influence on his game, and that I shouldn't worry about it (citing a few top players on this forum as an example). Should I make this an issue, or should I not even worry about it? Thanks guys.

o god, this thread is going to be huge.

was I one of these names?

He said top players, Shaun.

I'm assuming he means the likes of Mario, Ray, and others.

You are probably better off doing a little research on studies that have been done on the effect of marijuana on cognitive function. You are never going to get an objective answer here.

Srsly Shaun, you should not be the poster child for why "pot" smoking is good while playing.

That said, I think I probably make some mistakes because I'm high, but I also think I make some plays I wouldn't have otherwise which are +EV for sure.

Also it keeps me sane, and I think this is the number one issue. If it helps me handle bad beats, etc. while multi-tabling and not tilting, it's +EV to me overall even if it makes me slightly worse at any individual decision (which I don't think it does)

I could do studies - but I'm sure the validity/objectivity of them would be in question as well.

I can't remember whether he mentioned you or not, shaun.

agree with this word for word

Well, put it this way. If you owned an airline, would you allow your pilots to smoke pot while flying?

I mean, this discussion will go nowhere. I have yet to meet any poker player that smokes pot that will say it impairs their decision making.

So, let me spare you a ridiculously long thread that will derail into a drug usage argument. A bunch of people will say it doesn't effect them, or even helps. A few people will come in and say, WHAT? Drug use is for stupid people. This will go on for like 8 pages. You won't be any better informed then you were when you started the thread.

Hey I'm the friend he's staking,

I suppose I would agree in general that it would not be good to be extremely high before playing poker. If there is people around me and [censored] is going on I personally don't feel quite on my game. However with that said, I think I have played extremely good when I'm high when I'm by myself and can listen to music and really focus in on the table.

But even not considering that, after an hour after I've smoked and I'm still technically high, my game is sharp, I'm confident in this.

This is just my personal experience with smoking and playing poker. I'm interested to hear other people's experiences though.

Shuan I didn't mention you but I didn't know you smoked, we'll smoke down sometime.

overall, pot is -EV while playing poker. i no longer smoke before or during play and my results have improved.

I say this if I didn't smoke and I am playing I will play my A game a lot but I will easily tilt and play my C game a good chunk of the time as well as get bored and prob quit a shorter session.

if I do smoke I def don't play my A game prob a B+ but I play B+ like 90% of the time also I can play longer sessions and I am less likely to get bored and do something redic because I want to quit my session earlier.

I shoot cocaine directly into my eyeballz. Staek me plz.

The real question is, does DeebSpellcheck smoke pot while correcting shaundeeb's posts?

I know heavy smokers that can drive/play games/etc the same or better when they're high, and I know lightweights who I barely trust to walk while high(myself, Im like a tyrannosaurus thats tail flings wildly knocking over trees and ish) I think it depends heavily how high his tolerance is/strength of strain/how much in a session he smokes, aka you cant really get a general answer that works at all.

actually all of this is irrelevant since its your [censored] money and he can either agree or not be staked.

I agree that I have the final say, since I'm the staker. However, I also want him to do as well as possible - I could care less if he smokes or not, it's more about evaluating EV. I was merely curious on whether or not smoking is plus or minus EV - I now realize, this question really isn't going to go anywhere, and it's obviously all about the individual. In this particular case, he seems to think it won't affect his play, so I'll trust his judgement.

I wonder how often I IM my friends and am like "Man I just donked off my stack cause I'm so high"


Probably kind often But at the same time I think there's a lot of times where I end up stacking someone because I'm so high too

The thing is we're not really going to know if individual decision making is negatively affected, but I think the biggest issue for ALL of us that smoke while we play is it relieves stress, helps concentration, prevents tilt, and allows us to play LONG sessions - all of which are enough +EV to overcome and slight -EV decision making.

i have played MTTs while high maybe three times total and two of those times i final tabled one.

the defense rests your honor

assuming you get up and are stoned most of the day, you'll play pretty badly in the time it takes to get used to only getting stoned after your session

and thats the last ill say because im getting a cold sweat thinking about it

seriously, if I've been playing 8 hours and am deep or semi deep in a few things and I take a ridiculous beat I handle it so much better and just grind on when I am high. I definitely don't think I play as well early on high though.

There is 3 things I can def say will happen....

1) Death
2) Taxes
3) Shaundeeb will smoke a blunt

That being said...he smokes and last time I checked he did better then most...so light em up!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jx9rUyQR3bw&feature=related

cant decipher this no matter how sober i am

ok, ill try to explain

you have your routine for the day, say, you do a few things in the morning then start your tourneys and start getting stoned.

you get told you have to change this routine, so that you dont start getting stoned until after your session. assuming you've been doing this a while, for the first week or so, your session will be hard to get through because you're used to being stoned by then

or maybe thats just my experiences of when ive gone somewhere i cant smoke or not been able to pick up and decided to play poker anyway, and it doesnt happen to anyone else or maybe it only makes sense if you give up completely