Hi Everyone:

The sixth installment of "Bad Beat Therapy, Part Six: The Psychopathology of Everyday Players" by Robert Samuels is now available in our Two Plus Two Online Poker Strategy Magazine:

https://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/...eat-part-6.php

Best wishes,
Mason

Nice read this month.

I'm particularly interested in sleep in the context of healthy behaviour. People often list diet and exercise when they think about behaviours they can modify to improve their health, but I doubt many people think about sleep.

I'm not sure it's as important as diet and exercise, but making improvements in sleeping habits is something most people are probably not aware of, but can have a significant impact of health and daily functioning, as anyone who has been sleep deprived can testify.

For those with institutional access, this recent article sums up the research nicely.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...jhp.12251/full

Very good article.

+1 very nice thought provoking read.

Since the PD’s lie on a spectrum many people exhibit traits without meeting the criteria for a full blown PD. Also, the trajectory of the disorders and how their symptoms are exhibited can be highly correlative with age. With borderline the late teens and 20’s often contain some especially rocky time periods. Indeed they are learned behavioral coping mechanisms rooted in childhood (+ some biology) but I think we see a much greater prevalence of people with these traits in the poker world than general population.

I wonder if poker culture accentuates the severity of these symptoms and disorders or if it attracts more people with these personality types to begin with. I think it’s a complicated topic to dissect. Is success in a field like poker (& sports, trading) correlative with having narcissistic tendencies? Robert touched on this but same holds true for borderline where trust issues lead to hyper vigilant analysis.

The sleep analysis was very good as well. I don’t know the hard facts offhand but exposure to LED light also plays a role in keeping our brains turned on when we want to sleep.

Great article.