The Well: Shaniac, 2.27.07

[registrar]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think the 'setting a bad example to our younger readers' line is spurious.

[/ QUOTE ]

You think he sets a good example?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think teenagers previously averse to pot-smoking suddenly rush out to get high because their favourite poker player indulges.

And I think that it's very difficult to persuade people that smoking pot is bad, because it isn't, occasionally. It takes a long time for the effects to become clear and, even then, they are not very clear in many or perhaps most cases.

[aejones]

ucla, i certainly see the relevance.

however, i really wish it wasn't a relevant issue. i mean, there's no way that, long term, using any mind altering substance can help your game. the bottom line is that being sober will lend yourself to thinking the straightest. if being high gets you more creative, then i think your personality wasn't cut out to be a top flight poker player, and you're using mind altering substances to perhaps act on your inhibitions or get creativity and reads, things which should and do some to most of the btter poker players while sober. i think it's a bad example that these wells have turned into this, not necessarily because drugs are the worst thing in the world, but because they do make it seem both "good" and "cool" from certain points of view to the more impressionable posters (c'mon, we know people look up t oyou guys). anyways, it may not be there in plain meaning, but the connotative ways it is inferred reflect drug use positively (or, at least "trying it") positively, and i, for one, can't see how it is good to let younger poker players think that this is how great ones got there start- becuase it can potentially mean some very bad things for very bad people.

if you notice in my well, i tried to answer a lot of the personal questions concisely, and pertained almost the entire thing to strategy. i understand fully that this is something where people want to know about other people's lives, but to focus on something negative in somewhat of a positive light kind of gets under my skin because i know for a fact this is a public forum where many aspiring poker players are trying to pick up tips. like i said, might not be a problem for a lot of you guys, but congrats, because that [censored] can turn some people into lazy [censored] bums who end up living on their friends couch as lifeless stoners.

[Soulman]

nice post aejones.

registrar,
I've seen some very bad results of excessive pot smoking firsthand. A couple of friends of mine started potting every day, after earlier using it infrequently. After a year, we barely ever saw them anymore. When we did, they were pretty zoned out or just disinterested/out of it when not high. The girl coped fined with school, the guy flunked out in a lot of subjects. I'm 100% sure a lot of it was from the pot. After she got pregnant, they got their [censored] together, cut down on the pot (girl quit obviously) and were back to their old selves pretty quickly.

Another guy I dormed with had the most [censored] up memory EVER due to using pot every day. As an example, he once asked me to explain the basics of a computer game I was playing. 5 minutes later, he asked me the exact same thing, and didn't remember that he had asked me the same question earlier, nor the answer. After he quit, his memory improved massively.

That being said, I've seen other people handle it much better...at least the ones that don't do it every day. But daily use, what I've seen of it [censored] you up to some extent. It is of course possible others have different experiences.

[gboro]

[ QUOTE ]
if being high gets you more creative, then i think your personality wasn't cut out to be a top flight poker player, and you're using mind altering substances to perhaps act on your inhibitions or get creativity and reads, things which should and do some to most of the btter poker players while sober.

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't think many poker players are getting high for these reasons.

personally i feel kinda jumpy when i play a live tourney. my eyes and mind begin wandering. the slow players and dealers begin to irritate me. but when i blaze beforehand or at a break i tend to come back to my seat, put my music on, stfu and get in my comfort zone. i start to focus on my table, look up at the screen and see how many players are left, the average stack etc, and it becomes a game again.

i can't imagine that the casual smoker would be helping their chances by getting high before a tournament, they would be goofy and all over the place. but i think for the people who are used to it, pot can definitely lend to a positive mindset for playing cards.

[registrar]

Soulman

I agree that a heavy dope smoking habit can and does have deleterious effects. As you know, I've quit myself after over 15 years of smoking more or less all the time and this is because I think it does take a toll. Nevertheless, it didn't stop me getting a degree from Oxford, holding down a steady and well-paid job and raising a relatively fucntional and happy family. I think the main issue is what it does to your social life and interpersonal relations and, over time, what it does to your mental equilibrium.

However, let's face it, if you're under 30 and play a lot of internet poker, these things aren't necessarily paramount. I think the main reason why I smoked dope is because I'm easily bored and one is never bored when high. I find it really hard to play poker straight because it is really, really boring a lot of the time.

My main issues with this thread were, however, that:

1. I just really don't go for the setting a bad example thing. I'm dubious in any case, but definitely in this one.
2. If Shaniac's responsibilities are essentially to himself and he is younger than I am, then the need to quit will not have become apparent as yet. ALL of my college stoner buddies have quit now. They have kids and heavy jobs and just can't do it anymore except in our home games when they turn green and give me all their money.
3. I get the impression that Shaniac is with it. While I smoked every day and sometimes all day, it never really interfered with my public time. I didn't wake up and spliff up. I didn't got to work and spliff up. I'd generally be stoned for about a third of my conscious hours.

So, if Shaniac wants to do it, that's no biggie. And if he chooses to be honest in answering questions about it, that's no biggie either. I would predict that he'll find in the future that he doesn't want to do it so much because that's just what seem to happen to the vast majority of people who earn their corn through mental and not physical excertion.

[Soulman]

reg,

I see where you're coming from here. The only worry I have is that you yourself probably managed it better than most; some people do indeed start the day by smoking up from when they first wake up and then go down from there.

There's also the 'pot is the first step on the road to harder drugs', which I honestly don't know how much truth there is to. I know a fair amount of people who started with alcohol/pot and went on from there, but I can't see them being all straight without the pot anyway. I expect there is a fair bit of research on the subject matter, but I'm too lazy to find out [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I don't think shaniac should be dishonest either, as long as it's not glorified (I don't think he's doing that).

Anyway, guess this has been thread jacked enough? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[shaniac]

UCLA, you need to read The Natural Mind by Andrew Weil.

It's true that I probably smoke too much pot, but your assertion that I am "severely harming" myself sounds ignorant and overblown. I also never encouraged anyone to smoke pot themselves and made a point of saying that.

All that said, marijuana is easily the least harmful, most beneficial substance of any recreational drug, and it is quite possible to enjoy a harmonious relationship with the flower throughout the length of one's life.

[shaniac]

Also I never ever said weed was a good tool for improving one's game--just that my own mental composure benefits from it.

[billyjex]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think the 'setting a bad example to our younger readers' line is spurious.

[/ QUOTE ]

You think he sets a good example?

[/ QUOTE ]

omg is this serious

[shaniac]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think the 'setting a bad example to our younger readers' line is spurious.

[/ QUOTE ]

You think he sets a good example?

[/ QUOTE ]

omg is this serious

[/ QUOTE ]

UCLA says: "Hopefully at some point he gets the help he so clearly needs" so, yes, I believe he is serious.

UCLA, you seem to embody a lot of the irrational, close-minded viewpoints on drug use that I have encountered throughout my life. If you really believe these things, I seriously recommend reading Weil's "The Natural Mind."