Trying to quit smoking but still play

[Metromancer]

but it's not working out due to my horrible temper tantrums. I've been losing money as a consequence. My temper, which can once in a while be a problem, just seems to be really out of hand at the moment. This happened to me like a year ago when I was trying to quit and I've only now put 2 and 2 together. So this question is more for any smokers/former smokers out there. Should I maybe just quit playing for a few months until I'm over the physical addiction part of quitting? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[chesspain]

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Should I maybe just quit playing for a few months until I'm over the physical addiction part of quitting? Any other suggestions?

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Actually, you'll be over the physical nicotine withdrawel in less than one week, although you may struggle psychologically with the addiction for weeks. Unfortunately, your problems with anger run deeper than just an addiction to cigarettes.

Do a search here for the many recent threads on "tilt," and/or consider reading books like The Tao of Poker, The Zen of Poker, Inside the Poker Mind, etc.

[jukofyork]

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but it's not working out due to my horrible temper tantrums. I've been losing money as a consequence. My temper, which can once in a while be a problem, just seems to be really out of hand at the moment. This happened to me like a year ago when I was trying to quit and I've only now put 2 and 2 together. So this question is more for any smokers/former smokers out there. Should I maybe just quit playing for a few months until I'm over the physical addiction part of quitting? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

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Try reading up on the reasons why quitting smoking makes you angry:

One of the things you have to realize is that smoking effects your blood sugar levels, and when you quit the angry outbursts you experience are your body's way of trying to cause blood sugar releases (via adrenaline I think [long time since I read up on this - see here for a starting point]).

I found that eating sweets, drinking sugary/glucose drinks helped me get through the first few weeks. I think the "healthy" equivalent is to drink fruit juice and eat (slow release) complex carbohydrates rather, but I can only say what I did and what helped me...

I think also you have to be careful drinking caffeinated drinks, as after you quit smoking you're tolerance to caffeine is much lower and you can kinda give yourself the "jitters" drinking too much coffee etc (see here for a start). Even so, I also found that drinking some caffeinated drinks like Red Bull, coffee, etc actually seemed to help (possibly by also triggering the blood sugar releases you miss from smoking?).

You should find that after a couple of weeks your blood sugar fluctuations start to normalize out and you wont get the angry outburst so much and you wont really desire sugary stuff anymore, but you might find that you have to eat more regularly than you did as a smoker else your blood sugar plummets and you start to feel ill rather than angry (ie: I used to be able to go almost all day without eating as a smoker, but now I get headaches if I go too long).

As far as poker goes, then their might also be another smoking related problem. I think I remember reading that smoking triggers dopamine releases and dopamine is the "reward" neurotransmitter (see here for a start). This might mean you either damp down bad feelings when you lose at poker by smoking, or magnify the "reward" you feel when you win by smoking and without it poker (or games in general [ie: I personally get just as emotional about a bad blunder in chess..]) may not feel quite the same. Even so, I must say I played online poker constantly after I quit for the first few weeks and found the overall fact that: a) you are away from other smokers and b) you have something for your hands to do, outweighed the emotional aspect of getting angry.

Hope some of this might help and stick with it! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Juk [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Warder]

I'ver heard the book by Allen Carr has helped a lot of people to quit smoking, although I myself have never smoked. Just something you might want to check out. Seems to be well received by amazon reviewers.

[Gonso]

I quit after 15 years. Bought a box of 21mg patches. Used one a day for about 6 days, then started cutting them in half for the rest until I ran out. Just keep passing those 7-Elevens on the wya to work, and try to remember that next smoke will cost you thousands due to all the other smokes you'll have to have after that.

Good luck.

[MattDog]

Do what you need to do to stay quit.

I avoided cardrooms and bars for the first couple of months when I quit.

Quitting is super hard. I felt like crap for what seemed like forever.

Then one day I felt fine. Haven't looked back since.

[BJK]

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but it's not working out due to my horrible temper tantrums. I've been losing money as a consequence. My temper, which can once in a while be a problem, just seems to be really out of hand at the moment. This happened to me like a year ago when I was trying to quit and I've only now put 2 and 2 together. So this question is more for any smokers/former smokers out there. Should I maybe just quit playing for a few months until I'm over the physical addiction part of quitting? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

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I think quitting smoking is more important than anything. I did it myself, and I had to take a 30 day break from the game. When I sat back down again after 30 days, I didn't notice a thing until my first bad beat. I had to quit for the night.

I played that way for about six months before I could really work my way through the tilt, but I learned to overcome it and return to my usual play.

These days, I won't step foot in a poker room (or any public facility, for that matter) that allows smoking.

[BJK]

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Actually, you'll be over the physical nicotine withdrawel in less than one week, although you may struggle psychologically with the addiction for weeks. Unfortunately, your problems with anger run deeper than just an addiction to cigarettes.

[/ QUOTE ]

My tilt problems after I quit smoking really had nothing to do with anger, and I really can't explain the emotion. I was frustrated, and I tried to make things happen. Anger just isn't quite the right word, though.

In the past, lighting up a smoke after a bad beat would clear my, but I've long passed the stage where I get angry at a poker table.

These days, the way I counter bad beats is to try to calculate the pot equity I lost and adding it to my win total for the night to see where I "should" be. It works for me.

[Quanah Parker]

Smoke a lil herb, instead.
It'll do the trick, seriously.

[Metromancer]

Thanks for the comments and observations, folks. I think I'm going to turn off my chat when I'm playing for now, and just stop playing for the day if I feel that I'm starting to get ticked off. Think I'll try to stick to some cheap tournaments for a while, too, which should keep me out of trouble. I appreciate the support and good wishes.