I often have 2 or 3 bottles of beer while playing online. I find it helps on Friday nights when the play is, lets just say "Loose" and you need to call off your stack with 4th pair because the guy has shoved the river for the last 17 hands in a row.
On the other hand I try not too drink too much when playing live. I find it gives me a really bad headache and then I can't concentrate. (Different story once I'm out though).
In Response to Re: beer + poker : I don't doubt Doh is being sincere in making the above post but it is still fundamentally wrong. Drinking will impair performance in anything, it is just a fact. There's no doubt George Best, Alex Higgins and any number of darts players may disagree but they are exceptions - not the norm. To give a different example - there are many people who live to a ripe old age smoking 20 **** a day - that does not mean that doing so is part of a healthy lifestyle. Posted by JingleMa
Yes it's a fact that alcohol impairs the function of the brain. However it depends on what you are doing as to whether it's a plus or a minus. Any task which requires clear thought and judgement will be negatively affected.
One effect of alcohol is to relax muscles and therefore in some areas as mentioned above it can have a plus effect when taken in moderation. I played a lot of snooker in the 70's and early 80's, in fact I owned a snooker club at that time. I played Alex Higgins a number of times and some other top pro's of the time. Although he drank, he rarely drank to excess when playing any tournament of importance. As anyone who plays snooker to a certain level will tell you, it's all to do with cue action and eyesight has only a small bearing on the ability to pot balls. Far more important is the ability to control the cue-arm and deliver the cue to the ball with precision. A muscle relaxant can and does often help.
Bill Werbiniuk was perhaps the best example of this. He had a condition which affected his arm-muscles and took beta blockers to combat this. When beta blockers were outlawed he took to drinking huge volumes of beer to replicate the effect of the beta blockers. Unfortunately he could never repeat the performances he achieved when he took beta blockers.
In Response to Re: beer + poker : Yes it's a fact that alcohol impairs the function of the brain. However it depends on what you are doing as to whether it's a plus or a minus. Any task which requires clear thought and judgement will be negatively affected. One effect of alcohol is to relax muscles and therefore in some areas as mentioned above it can have a plus effect when taken in moderation. I played a lot of snooker in the 70's and early 80's, in fact I owned a snooker club at that time. I played Alex Higgins a number of times and some other top pro's of the time. Although he drank, he rarely drank to excess when playing any tournament of importance. As anyone who plays snooker to a certain level will tell you, it's all to do with cue action and eyesight has only a small bearing on the ability to pot balls. Far more important is the ability to control the cue-arm and deliver the cue to the ball with precision. A muscle relaxant can and does often help. Bill Werbiniuk was perhaps the best example of this. He had a condition which affected his arm-muscles and took beta blockers to combat this. When beta blockers were outlawed he took to drinking huge volumes of beer to replicate the effect of the beta blockers. Unfortunately he could never repeat the performances he achieved when he took beta blockers. Posted by elsadog
And look what happened to poor Neil Foulds after he was banned from using Beta-Blockers.
I bumped into him recently at a poker event somewhere, he's big into Greyhound Racing now, & seems very happy with his lot in life. Nice fella, ditto his Dad.
In Response to Re: beer + poker : And look what happened to poor Neil Foulds after he was banned from using Beta-Blockers. I bumped into him recently at a poker event somewhere, he's big into Greyhound Racing now, & seems very happy with his lot in life. Nice fella, ditto his Dad. Posted by Tikay10
I played Neil and John Parrot, at my club, the year after Junior Pot Black just before they both turned Pro. IMO Neil was the better player but as you say he lost his game. The first Pro I ever played was in 1969 when I was at Bolton College. A group of us went to a snooker club for lunch and I was sat watching the other lads play. A guy came over and very politely asked if I'd like to help him practice. I didn't have a clue who he was but agreed and played a few shots but mostly I was picking balls out of the pockets. The lads I was with all stopped playing and came to watch us ''playing''
I didn't know who the guy was until we left to go back to college ....... it was the then world champion John Spencer ......... and I was hooked on snooker from that point on.
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On the other hand I try not too drink too much when playing live. I find it gives me a really bad headache and then I can't concentrate. (Different story once I'm out though).
I bumped into him recently at a poker event somewhere, he's big into Greyhound Racing now, & seems very happy with his lot in life. Nice fella, ditto his Dad.