With the World Series of Poker's $10,000 entry Main Event starting today, the world is buzzing with chatter about poker. The thousands of players playing in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are vying for a first place prize higher than last year's $8 million dollars.
With this much at stake, it is no surprise people are looking to stay in the zone and get any advantage they can to have a better chance of placing and/or winning. People are now discussing cannabis as a possible performance enhancing substance.
The recent legalization of recreational cannabis in Nevada this past week has brought the discussion of cannabis into the mainstream. This has caused more attention to WSOP officials and players to the possibility of cannabis being used as way to survive the long grueling tournament.
A recent WSOP article quoted WSOP veteran Bryan Micron as deriving some of his poker success from the fact that he uses cannabis before, during, and after tournaments. Bryan is known most for his 15-seconds of fame moment back in 2006 when on ESPN he did the Michael Jackson Thriller dance after winning a huge late hand in the '06 WSOP.
He said that that dance and his professional poker success was due in fact that he smoked cannabis.
So while Bryan Micron may be open about cannabis use while playing poker, some of the poker community including players are not happy about it. It has been reported that there are players reporting other players for smelling like cannabis after tournament breaks. They say its a distraction. I personally believe they are just afraid or unfamiliar with a different playing style.
It is such a big issue now that the WSOP officials at the Rio are on watch for players going back to their cars and smoking cannabis on the Rio's parking lot. Players have already been kicked out for this.
The cultures of poker and cannabis have long been intertwined and has been an open secret among poker professionals that cannabis helps some players performance.
What do you think? Are the WSOP officials at the Rio taking this too far?
I know personally smoking cannabis definitely helps me perform better in poker tournaments because it helps me stay in the moment during sometimes several hour long tournaments.
I know we have a large poker and cannabis community here on Steemit so I am interested so what the community thinks.
SOURCE:
https://www.leafly.com/news/pop-culture/secret-history-cannabis-world-series-poker
Thank you as always for your time and attention
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