Doping (use of performance-enhancing drugs) in Poker

[olivert]

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I cannot believe that this topic has generated this many serious responses...

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It gets even worse, front page news: http://www.eog.com/index.aspx

Article: http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=28304

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Any website that chose to plagarize a forum posting, word for word, without attribution or further research to verify what was posted (my original post contains errors regarding caffeine and sudafed being on the WADA banned list, which were later corrected) certainly has credibility problems.

Also, I did write later in this thread that I do NOT believe drug testing should be introduced in tournament poker because drug testing will actually make the doping problem in poker much worse. We have seen with other sports where "undetectable" drugs were introduced by biochemists and their associated hucksters. I personally do NOT want tournament poker to be the next hot market for the services of those biochemists who are in the performance drug trade.

[davidlong14]

My results are much better when my opposition are drunk &/or stoned.

[Quanah Parker]

I think steroids and roid rage could have a much bigger effect on poker than people realize.

I'm sure Chris Benoit's wife will never check raise him again.

[Zetack]

Do they get any edge? I'm not sure they get the type of edge that I would worry about.

Basically we're talking about drugs that purportedly improve concentration/focus and alertness.

So maybe what we're talking about is, instead of being, on average at 80% of the Doper's absolute best game throughout the tournament, now he's at 85%, on average, of his absolute best game.

It may very well be, then, that this actually doesn't change a single poker decision he makes at any point in a tournament. Certainly, odds are good it doesn't change any poker decision he makes when he's in a pot with me.

Further, because the vast majority of players get knocked out early in a tournament, its very possible that the doping player never gets any improvement in his play over what he would have without doping, simply because he gets knocked out before he would have seen a degredation in his play through fatigue, lack of focus etc.

If, say, there was a drug that let's a player play at 110% of his non-drugging best, then I might be concerned. But when you're talking about a somewhat smaller degredation of his game over time, I just think the edge a player might gain is simply too negligible to worry about.

If a guy were getting fatigued and losing focus and he goes and sticks his head in a rain barrel, or takes a twenty minute cat-nap or whatever, and increases his alertness and focus I don't care. I'm not particularly worried about him achieving similar effects chemically.

That doesn't address drugs that lower heartrate, but quite frankly I just think that's a non-issue. If we're going to let guys wear caps, sunglasses, even a sweatshirt hoodie pulled tight over your face, I'm not going to pick out a heart rate lowering drug as an unfair tell-eliminator.

A final note, while it certainly makes good intuitive sense that drugs that improve focus and alertness or whatever, would improve your poker playing, and I have so assumed in my points above, we actually do not have any empirical evidence that it is so.

[MrFizzbin]

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Any website that chose to plagiarize a forum posting, word for word, without attribution


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It clearly says at the bottom:

Source: 2+2 Forum. Isn't that a citation ?

Or would you prefer:
Source: OLIVERT the all knowing all seeing all wise source of all poker media wisdom

Lol olivertegoamnents......

[DVaut1]

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Also, I did write later in this thread that I do NOT believe drug testing should be introduced in tournament poker because drug testing will actually make the doping problem in poker much worse. We have seen with other sports where "undetectable" drugs were introduced by biochemists and their associated hucksters.I personally do NOT want tournament poker to be the next hot market for the services of those biochemists who are in the performance drug trade.

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Please send whatever drugs you ingested that makes you think the poker world is plagued by performance enhancing drugs, that some non-existent sanctioning body might enforce "testing", and the poker world will become a hot black market for biochemists and "their hucksters" to ply their super-drugs should testing become a reality.

Seriously, is the thought here that Harrah's is going to make the tens of thousands of people who show up during the WSOP pee in a cup before they let them hand over their money and sit at the table -- and that should this completely unrealistic scenario ever play itself out, that enough people would be 'caught' by such testing that biochemists and "their hucksters" would find it worth their while to "infest" the poker world with their undetectable performance enhancing drugs? Really?

[flavio321]

i like to drop X while playing and parachute adderall while peaking. it helps you stay focused and up all night long.