Poker While Horny

You may not be able to talk politics at the table, but one social feature of playing live poker is the otherwise-free-wheeling conversations you get into. That’s why I’m not embarrassed to discuss this following topic, even if it’s not the sort of thing generally discussed openly in “polite” society. Because it ends in higher profit, it’s fair game for a poker discussion.

Down “Swing”

I’ve been on a long downswing. Like 3/4ths of my bankroll kind of downswing. As my expectations turned to “how am I going to lose today?”, I found myself playing too many hands. Can’t win if you fold, right? This accelerates the losses, natch.

I’ve experienced this dynamic many times in my poker “career”. Start to lose→play too many hands→tighten up preflop→start to win. Repeat.

Now, because I practice strict bankroll management, the losses generated by the above cycle don’t affect my financial life, just my enjoyment and frequency of playing poker. But I continue to search for ways to shorten the “play too many hands” phase.

An Unconventional Intervention

I’ve been playing PLO as much as I can (Thursdays at Lucky Chances—see you there!). If “play too many hands” is tempting in Holdem, it’s nearly irresistible in PLO. Three broadways & a dangler? Dang, I can flop the stone cold nuts. Call. In the small blind? Sure! Position doesn’t matter as long as it’s the nuts, does it? (protip: it does).

I got to the place in my cycle where I knew I was playing too many hands, but in the moment while playing I’d call anyway.

Then came the day in question. I awakened with an ahem high libido. Spent the whole day feeling that way. I was honestly nervous going to the casino—would the distraction of my mood further degrade my decision making?

Fold. Fold. Insta-fold. No problem! When I got to a playable hand, I was much calmer than “usual”. I was thinking a street or two ahead in a way that I rarely do. Far from being distracted, my thinking was clearer.

What’s going on?

I have 2 explanations, one based on ADHD/dopamine & the second on evolutionary biology. (What follows is just how I think about it. I am Not a Neuroscientist.)

One of the causes? correlates? of ADHD is low levels of dopamine. Dopamine is the brain juice that makes you remember emotionally significant events. Those with Boredom Sensitivity (my preferred renaming of ADHD) generally have low base levels of dopamine. That’s what makes it hard to think conventionally, hard to stay on task.

That’s how hyper-focus works: you do something that gives you a little jolt of dopamine so you want the next dose. And the next. (See also Test-Driven Development.)

What raises base levels of dopamine? You got it—high libido (among other things). Sex is emotionally significant so you get a dose of dopamine from it. Think about it enough times during the day & base levels rise. When I took that dopamine level into a session I found it easy to fold mildly losing hands.

You know what else gives you a hit of dopamine? High-quality chocolate. I experimented with this too, nibbling on a dark chocolate bar during a session. Much the same effects, easier to control.

The evolutionary biology explanation for improved decision making under conditions of high libido is that if possible procreation is in the offing, then having your brain invest energy in thinking more clearly increases the chances of passing along your genes. Not that I want to actually pass along any more genes, but evolutionary advantage keeps chugging along regardless.

The two explanations are not mutually exclusive—raised dopamine levels leading to clearer thinking is a mechanism, evolutionary advantage is why this trait persists despite the obvious costs.

Conclusion

I’ll continue to experiment with ways to raise my dopamine levels before & during sessions. I enjoyed this natural experiment. Let me know if you try it.