Poker is 'Brain Food'

In his column in the Jan. 31, 2003, issue of Card Player, Lou Krieger and his co-author Arthur Reber stated: "Few things tickle the frontal lobes more than this kind of investment of cognitive energy" (referring to poker). That's quite a mouthful, and it caught my attention. Good words; well said, I thought.

They went on to explain that playing the game of poker keeps "superannuated characters … mentally young, because the game - if you play it right - just won't let your brain die." Of course, they were referring to older citizens like myself, although I believe the same applies to everyone, old and young alike, but the effect is more dramatic for older people. As we age, our mind loses some of its vitality. We just aren't as mentally alert as we used to be. Most people just accept this as part of the aging process, and too often respond by becoming literal "couch potatoes." That's not healthy, and certainly not a very wise thing to do.

This jibes with my personal experience. Shortly after retiring from my day-to-day job as an engineering manager in the aerospace industry, I found myself starting to misplace things. Where did I put my wallet? I can't find my car keys. My address book is missing. To say the least, it was quite frustrating.

Then, I started playing poker fairly regularly - once or twice a week at the local casinos, and more often whenever I visited Las Vegas. My memory seemed to respond. No longer do I misplace things. In fact, I feel sharper and more mentally alert. It's almost as if I have recaptured some of my youth! (At age 76, that's saying something, I would dare say.)

What's more, I decided to include this topic in a chapter in my book, The Greatest Book of Poker for WINNERS! It's entitled, "For Senior Citizens: Playing Poker for Fun, $, and Good Health." I wanted to share my good fortune with other senior citizens. To help myself in writing the chapter, I did some research on the subject. Not surprisingly, I found lots of material that reinforced my observation. For example, professor W. Warner Schaie at Penn State University reported: "Mental exercises, like physical exercise, can help older people sustain and in some instances even improve their mental abilities." Through further research, I learned that our brain cells transfer information by electrical stimulus. Exercising the brain - as you must do when you play poker - causes synapses to form around our brain cells. They are like collars surrounding areas along the brain cells. Their net effect is to close the distance between cells so that electrical impulses can more readily be transferred from one cell to the next. That makes good sense. A good analogy is that when we do physical exercise, our muscles grow in size and vitality.

Soon, I found myself giving talks at senior citizens centers about the game of poker and why it is good - in fact, healthy - for senior citizens. I've even presented my talk on this subject at a hostel for the elderly and on a cruise ship catering to older people. I must admit that not all of the people attending were happy with my talk. Some of them attended because they thought I was going to talk about strategies for winning at poker. I did talk about my four basic rules for winning at poker, and a little on strategies, but the main thrust was on why playing poker is good for senior citizens. Oh well, you can't satisfy everyone all the time.

I have an amusing anecdote that I would like to share with you. At one of my first talks at a senior citizens center, I was asked if I always win. I answered that I don't always win, but I do win more than 70 percent of the sessions I play. After the talk, people came up front to ask me questions. One little old gentleman (I say "old" because he looked a lot older than I) with a mischievous twinkle in his eye said: "I must tell you, George, I never lose."

"Wow," I replied, "that is fantastic; how do you do it?"

He hesitated a moment and then said with a big grin, "Easy. I never play." We both had a good chuckle.

I don't know if that elderly gentleman ever did take up the game of poker, but I am sure if he did, his memory is much better as a consequence.

Editor's note: George Epstein is the author of The Greatest Book of Poker for WINNERS!.