Confessions of a Poker Smoker

[foolsfoldd]

I will not go so far as to say that I am a professional poker player, but nearly half of my monthly income has been derived from online poker in the last 8 months. I would be less comfortable financially without it and thus am semi-dependent on it.
I, in this span of time, have attempted to quit smoking three times and have seen my play take a notable dive each time I attempted it (once was 5 days, once was 16 days, and once was a week and a half, on-off.)
I clearly have a conflict. I have a goal to quit smoking, because I am nearing by bankroll/savings requirement at which point I am moving to Vegas to play professionally and believe that physical fitness is one factor that can increase overall talent/ability even in non-physical activity ( Phil Ivey, in a recent interview in one of the many poker magazines, stated pretty much the same thing, regarding the many day-long sessions he participates in). However, I will admit that my attention-deficit type personality is controlled MUCH by my smoking habit. This is especially obvious when I play in Brick and Mortar cardrooms. A walk to the parking lot and a smoke can refresh in ways that nothing else can. I want to quit, but see my game suffer when I try, and am afraid that it is not just the short-term withdrawal effects.
Do any of you have experience/advice for this particular situation? Any substitutions/ activities that help?
I am also curious to see what y’all think about the role of physical fitness when it comes to playing poker (perhaps regarding Greg Raymer- My hero but clearly not of chiseled physique).

Any advice would be VERY much appreciated, I would even like to hear other examples of this problem… maybe vindicate this freak who would rather die of cancer at 50 with a successful life of poker behind him than live to 80 by participating in the daily grind.

[The Young Gun]

The Nicotine chewing gum?

[clevernapkin]

For starters, I would suggest that you not move to Las Vegas until you've got this conflict solved. It will certainly not be healthy for your bankroll for your mind to be distracted, especially if you want to be pro. Professionals have to deal with a lot more stress than most, thus quitting smoking while playing as a pro will not be easy.

If you can, take some time off poker to quit smoking totally. Do whatever it takes for you to be healthy. Once you feel you're ready, then off to vegas you go.

[TStoneMBD]

quitting your smoking habit will naturally be +ev in the long run. think of it that way. if you find it difficult to play while trying to quit, you could convert that time to studying twoplustwo instead right? studying twoplustwo over playing is probably +ev as well, or at least it wont be much of a loss. you dont want to be a smoker forever. youre gonna have to quit sometime and go through all the effects of withdrawl anyway. why not do it now so you can enjoy being a nonsmoker and enjoy the benefits of it for a longer duration of your life?

[raze]

[ QUOTE ]
quitting your smoking habit will naturally be +ev in the long run

[/ QUOTE ]

I really hope you dont bust out the old '+EV' in normal conversation lol

Listen man if it helps, I remember reading somewhere that the average successful quitter took 4-5 attempts before they quit for good. I've never quit anything in my life, but my mom definitely did this - she was successful on her 4th shot at quitting and she's been off for 3 years now. Good luck

[galahad_187]

alot of the addiction of smoking involves the process of acually banging the pack, lighting it, and holding something to your mouth. in orde rto quit, take 2-6 weeks off from poker and try the following:

get nicotine gum/patch and use it. get a cigarette pack and empty it, fill it with rougly cigaratte shaped objects - maybe wooden tubes, straws packed with something, whatever.

When your feeling bored/want a bit of a smoke do the exact same thing you would if you were acually smoking. take the pack, bang on it, take one out, strike a lighter, and pretend your smoking.

now, when the cravings get so tremendous that your are going to give in just make it /very/ difficult to get a smoke. have it set so that you have to jog a mile to a gas station and get a pack - then you can take out one cigarette only and smoke it, throw the rest away at the gas station, now you have to walk/jog back.

the hardest part about quitting someone you enjoy (a diet plan/smoking) is that eventually you gave in and splurge. you diet well for 2 weeks then eat 3 pizzas and a cake in aday. alot of times people just can't do it 'cold turkey' so just make it damn hard to get a smoke, but when you just have to have one go for it. but only one, throw hte rest of the pack away.

just my 2c - gl.

[TStoneMBD]

i dont use ev in normal conversions but i do when it applies to money. for instance, i dont say its +ev to bang chicks like some retards do. i say its +ev to quit smoking because it is.

[ElaineMonster]

You poker skill has likely changed due to withdrawals. Withdrawal symptoms include an inability to concentrate. (http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/cravingsandurges/a/withdrawal.htm)
The longer you stay quit, the less dramatic those withdrawal feelings will be. They never go away entirely, but they can be minimized to the point that you rarely experience them. Your play will come back to normal if you stay a non-smoker.

There are coping tricks. Mine is gum. I like to chew gum. A lot. Also, I tend to stay away from smoke-filled places and for the first few months I had to stop drinking too, since that would lower my inhibitions and thus lower my will power to resist the cravings. Some people use exercise or toothpicks as distraction/coping skill. Find whatever works for you. And keep reminding yourself of why you should quit and stay quit (health, family, money...)

Good luck.

[raze]

[ QUOTE ]
i dont use ev in normal conversions but i do when it applies to money. for instance, i dont say its +ev to bang chicks like some retards do. i say its +ev to quit smoking because it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually when you put it that way, I'd rather not quit smoking than not bang chicks !

[foolsfoldd]

Thank you all... I think that you have all just reinforced what I knew- I will not be able to quit while I am still playing. Oh well. You all should see me more on this forum.

---- oh, what do you all think about general physical fitness in relation to poker sucess?

[pa3lsvt]

[ QUOTE ]
alot of the addiction of smoking involves the process of acually banging the pack, lighting it, and holding something to your mouth.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a formerly former smoker who quit cold turkey once, I cannot agree more. The physical addiction symptoms lasted about a month or two. The mental addiction lasted much longer, until I started smoking again years later.

When I quit, I used toothpicks that I carried in my shirt pocket (where my smokes were kept). I found myself just reaching up to my pocket for no reason absentmindedly. The frequency decreased over time. The toothpicks gave my hands and my mouth something to do.

I even had recurring dreams about smoking (only time in my life I had a recurring dream). Hardest thing I ever did in my life. Of course, I'm an idiot and smoke a pack a day now.

gl

[Cowboy21]

May I suggest Skoal? I've found that besides stopping your withdrawals, You will also have the effect of distracting other players in a B & M setting.

[Prelude008]

I say quit but the decision is yours since you will quit or try only when you want to and are ready.

Just think about the future. If you continue to smoke, chances of getting Lung or some other cancer are pretty good. It is pretty inconvenient with painful sideeffects since the effects of Chemo are numerous and none of them are good.

Even if you don't get lung cancer, you'll probably screw up your lungs and will have to depend on neubulizers (sp? for breathing treatments) to open up your lungs so that you can breath. Every four hours is common if your lungs are really messed up. There's also the possibility of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulminary Diesese) which is also very bad.

I'm being serious in telling you to seriously think about your heath and the consequences of smoking, as I've seen these effects on others that "continued" smoking. I didn't say "choose" or "decided to" because I know it is a severe addiction that's very hard to overcome. Perhaps considering the long term effects might be an added motivator to quit.

If you don't think you can play and quit at the same time, I second the other suggestion of reading 2+2 as well as books and studying.

Good luck to you.

[Mike]

I smoked for 19 years and quit a number of times. Until not smoking is the most important thing in your life , you will continue to have problems stopping and you will give up and return to smoking.

Of course you can prove me wrong.....

[mattw]

i quit for a year once. i never got over the feeling of not wanting a cig.

still smoking.

[livinitup0]

Go check out my post in OOT. Its become a pseudo-support group for a few of us doing the same thing. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks for me.

PS. Get the patch.

[bolgenmod]

[ QUOTE ]
Until not smoking is the most important thing in your life , you will continue to have problems stopping and you will give up and return to smoking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Golden words and very true.

I smoked for ten years -- at the end I was smoking over 3 packs a day -- and in 1986 I quit cold turkey: no gum, no patch (there wasn't a patch back then), nothing. And never EVER cheated ("just a puff") or even wanted to. Because I just changed my mind. I don't know what did it: like every other smoker, I had tried to quit before, usually lasting all of a day before I broke down and just had a cigarette. Something in me just changed. And before that, I must say that I had always thought that "power of positive thinking" stuff was a load of crap. Still do, but not when it comes to quitting smoking: the ONLY way I was able to do it was to somehow decide that I just didn't want to smoke. Period.

No scare tactics, no peer pressure ever worked. And remember, this was waay back in 1986 when there was not much anti-smoking sentiment. You could pretty much smoke almost anywhere -- and I mean ANYWHERE: I was a patient in the hospital, and I was smoking in my hospital bed. (Hard to believe now...)

Sometimes I had recurrent dreams of almost smoking. It was like a horror movie: I would suddenly realize that I had been smoking -- I'd look down at my hand, and it was holding a cigarette! And I would practically HEAR the "Psycho" music at that point of the dream. I would never dream that I was actually smoking, just that I had been, and it was a nightmare.

Then in 1999, about 13 years after I quit, I started dreaming that I was actually smoking. And I was sad to be smoking in my dreams, but it wasn't really the same horror/nightmare dream. Just sad resignation. Rueful. After a few months of these new dreams, I started thinking about smoking when I was awake. About how I hated it. About how the world had changed since 1986, and now EVERYONE hated it. About how I never ever wanted a cigarette in 13 years. About how I could just go to the 7-11 and buy a pack of cigarettes. About how I knew that if I ever had even one cigarette, I would be back to smoking full-time. (I was one of those people who began smoking at 13 or so and immediately smoked a pack a day.)

After about a week of this, I went to the 7-11 and bought a pack. I felt awful. I didn't have to smoke it. I stuck it in a drawer. For days and days, I just looked at that pack. And thought about that pack. And how I didn't have to open that pack. But then I did it: I smoked that cigarette. And was back. Pack a day almost at once, now closer to 2 and a half almost 7 years later.

It's funny that at the same time I started smoking, my marriage was getting ready to implode. All I noticed at the time was this cigarette obsession. No marital problems, not me! Looking back, I realize I missed the signs at the time, but it was clear in retrospect. I wish I could say I started smoking again because of those problems, but I really can't. Some pretty awful things had happened in those 13 years I didn't smoke (no surprise as one ages, in my case from mis-twenties to late-thirties), but I had never wanted to smoke before then. So why start again? And even though 1999-2001 were absolutely the worst years of my life (so far!), did my mind really make me start smoking again because it knew I was about to have some terrible times? No way I could ever believe that. And although smoking never made those bad things worse, it sure as hell didn't do a damn thing to make them better.

Even knowing all this, I am still sitting here smoking as I type this. I don't believe in psychic or mystical experiences, but I do know that my mind knows more than it ever tells me. So here I sit, hoping my mind will start telling me to quit again. I know from bitter experience that that is the only way I will ever even want to quit again. But also that when my mind is ready, I will do it.