[Siegmund]

I have to say that I am very skeptical about the notion that anyone plays better poker after drinking even in moderate quantities. I suppose there could be factors at work like the first drink helping someone get past some nervousness, or the opponents overplaying because they think he is drunk.

But in 14 years of serious tournament bridge, I have yet to meet a single bridge player who played better after drinking. I can think of exactly one who doesn't play noticeably worse after he drinks (he's a very experienced player, expert when sober - half braindead he would still play better than 90% of his opponents.) On the other hand, I have met hundreds whose play is significantly impaired (say two costly mistakes that the player ordinarily knows better than to make in a 3-hour session) by even a single glass of wine after dinner. As a rule of thumb, I would say each of the first two or three drinks is the equivalent of missing about two hours of sleep the previous night.

The VAST majority of people experience decision-making impairment from even very small quantities of alcohol, with increasingly severe effects from more.