Stay Young, Play Poker

David Sklansky and I wrote “Poker Is Good For You” in 2009. It was widely discussed, and we were invited to speak at Harvard Law School. David couldn’t go, but I shared a panel with Jim McManus and Mike Sexton.

We wrote that poker can improve study habits, math understanding, logical thinking, concentration, patience, discipline, a long-term focus, realism, adjusting to diverse people, handling losses, depersonalizing conflicts, planning, focusing on the most important subjects, applying probability theory, conducting risk-reward analyses, and getting into people’s heads.

These qualities help everyone, but poker can also do something wonderful for older players: It can actually delay some nasty symptoms of aging.

That’s why the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks sponsors poker classes for seniors by George Epstein, author of The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners and The Poker Algorithm.

Older people often worry about aging. We see so many people who need oxygen tanks, scooters, walkers, canes, and crutches that we naturally fear becoming feeble. We see that others get confused and forgetful, making us wonder, “When will I lose it?”

Nobody has scientifically studied poker and aging, but solid research clearly proves that mental exercises resembling poker can delay mental deterioration. If you’d like references, please email me.

Mental Stimulation And Aging

Research emphatically supports the principle, “Use It or Lose It,” for both physical and mental exercise.

I discussed this issue with Prof. Arthur Reber, author of The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology and Poker, Life, and Other Confusing Things. We agreed that mental exercise definitely improves memory and other cognitive processes, but nobody knows exactly why.

It doesn’t matter how mental stimulation works. The critical fact is that it does work. The more mental exercise you do, the longer you will remain sharp. Conversely, if you’re a couch potato and play poker on autopilot, your memory and thinking will deteriorate more rapidly.

Novel and demanding mental exercises are best. If you’ve been doing crossword puzzles for years, solving more puzzles won’t help much. You’ll get better results by forcing your brain to confront new challenges. If you’re an avid poker player, just playing more hours isn’t very helpful. Instead, change your approach to poker, a subject I’ll discuss later.

Poker has one huge advantage over most mental exercises. They generally require doing things many people don’t like or won’t do for more than a few minutes such as work on puzzles or play certain types of video games. But millions of people enjoy playing poker for hours. Instead of taking a mental training program, they can just change their poker approach.

Effective training programs include score-keeping systems to help you to measure progress, correct mistakes, and stay motivated. Poker has an exceptionally powerful score-keeping system. Winning and losing money have much greater impact than solving puzzles. You’d much rather win money than get a good score on a puzzle.

Isolation And Aging

Research clearly shows that isolation speeds up aging. People who live alone and don’t interact regularly with others lose their sharpness, become unhealthy, and even die more quickly than those who frequently relate to others.

Poker Combines Mental Stimulation And Social Interaction

Most research on mental stimulation and aging focuses on solitary activities such as studying, doing puzzles, and playing video games. Fortunately, much of poker’s mental stimulation comes from its social nature. To play well, you must analyze your opponents’ cards, styles, and strategies. The harder you work, the better you’ll play, and the longer you’ll stay sharp.

What About Exercise And Diet?

Both are much more important than poker or any mental activity. If you don’t eat right and exercise regularly, poker won’t accomplish much. Unfortunately, the poker culture and environment reinforce the natural tendencies to exercise too little and eat too much unhealthy food.

Eating burgers, fries, and sweets and drinking the colas and alcoholic drinks that are so popular in cardrooms (and other places) will make you gain weight, clog your arteries, and increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, etcetera. You’ll tire more easily, and your mind won’t function as well.

To delay aging, you must resist the temptation to eat and drink foolishly. You can easily buy salads or bring fruit or veggies from home. I do it and become amused when an overweight, cigarette-smoking, cheeseburger-chomping beer drinker asks contemptuously, “Are you really eating carrots?”

I just smile, nod, and resist the temptation to reply, “If you quit smoking and ate them instead of that junk, you’d live longer and play better.”

Not exercising has the same general effects as eating badly, and there’s no excuse for it. You don’t need to join a gym and work out on fancy equipment. Just get off your butt and walk around the cardroom frequently.

In addition to improving your health, memory, and thinking, taking walks while playing can directly help your poker. Just use that time to analyze how you and your opponents are playing and plan strategic adjustments. I do it so often that a few players make jokes about “Al, The Walker.”

Your fear of negative reactions may prevent you from taking walks, but you shouldn’t care what foolish people think. They want you to do stupid things like play too many hands and be more passive so that you’re easier to beat. In addition, if you act sensibly, it may embarrass them about their own foolishness. Just ignore them and take care of yourself.

You may think you don’t have enough time to take walks and buy fresh foods, but that time can improve your poker, your health, and your life.

Poker Can Save You Money

Virtually everything in Card Player correctly emphasizes winning money, but most players are long-term losers. If you’re over forty and have family responsibilities, you may feel guilty or your family may complain that you’re “wasting time and money.”

All recreation “wastes time,” and golf, skiing, boating, traveling, and so on can be much more expensive than poker. If you play for affordable stakes and poker helps you to stay younger, sharper, and healthier, the time and money spent are bargains.

A Word To Young Players

You probably don’t think much about health or aging. But, as an ailing Mickey Mantle once said, “If I’d known I’d live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” He learned a belated, painful lesson: It’s never too early to take care of yourself.

Diet, Exercise, and Smart Poker Reinforce Each Other

If you don’t exercise, eat bad food, and play poker on auto-pilot, you will age more rapidly and damage your health and poker results. Conversely, if you exercise frequently, eat well, and maximize stimulation while playing, you’ll feel better, age more slowly, stay healthier, play better, put money in your pocket, and live longer.

It’s not rocket science. You just need the discipline to apply a few simple principles. Future columns will contain specific recommendations. ♠

Do you often wonder, “Why are my results so disappointing?” Ask Dr. Al, [email protected]. He’s David Sklansky’s co-author for DUCY? and the sole author of five poker psychology books.