"Steroids for Poker" – The First Performance Enhancing Drug for Mental Competition?
I am a person of science. It takes a lot of convincing evidence for me to believe in something, particularly when it comes to topics involving enhancing mental facilities. I have read plenty of books and articles on the current state of developing ‘smart drugs’, and the mechanisms by which they work and the path the future holds for this kind of research. For thoroughness and amusement, I also studied a lot of the grayer areas in mental enhancement, from the mystical to the all-natural techniques. Since I am also a steadfast believer in experiencing things to augment and validate knowledge gained from books (as is necessary, just like in poker), I have tried some very strange concoctions or techniques that profess to enhance mental abilities, all with negligible effects.

Caffeine is already well documented as a very short-term memory/alertness booster, which the body quickly builds a tolerance for and requires greater amounts to produce this small effect. It can quickly become a mental enhancing negative, as one might need great amounts just to feel normal – not a good situation for long mental activity. Harder drugs, such as the amphetamine class, can no doubt increase energy and alertness, but to a hyper state, where the newfound charge is not useful to playing “quiet” mental games like poker. They usually leave a person so jittery and disjointed that it too quickly becomes a very negative “dishancement”.

The herbal class of smart drugs, such as ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and the B-Vitamin precursors, all have extensive literature and sometimes a biological explanation to why they might work, but failed in my own personal experimentation with them. Perhaps these “naturals” would produce some level of increased mental acuity if taken for long periods (which I still doubt), but they do not produce an instantaneous “punch” within a very short time frame, which I believe is what one envisions with taking a ‘smart drug’, similar to using aspirin for a headache. At least that was what I was personally looking for – something that one could take to boost mental alertness and recall very quickly, with a prolonged effect and no uncontrolled side effects like hyperactivity or loss of emotional control. It seemed like smart drugs were still mostly situated in the realm of science fiction.

Recently I came across another candidate. Marketed under the brand name “Provigil”, generic name Modafinil, it was developed as a narcolepsy combatant by the Pharmaceutical company Cephalon. What interested me most were recent double-blind experiments in Europe with Modafinil to test its ability in subjects in acquiring new knowledge and memorizing facts. Modafinil had also begun testing in the U.S. Military as a combat aid for soldiers during long duty in dangerous situations, where alertness was at a premium. Modafinil tested very well in both cases – the European subjects using Modafinil tested significantly better than the placebo set in learning and memorizing new facts, and did extraordinarily well when both test groups were very sleep deprived. The Military studies found similar results for extending alertness during combat missions. These experiments started to be published in mainstream media sources, such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, even some science and medical journals – enough to make me take the findings more seriously.

Further “underground” research sources uncovered that there is a growing trend of popularity and use of Modafinil on campuses across America, where an almost cult-like reverence is given to the drug for allowing the takers of it to study longer and outperform their classmates without the drug. Many of the messages posted by students using Modafinil felt that they needed to continue with it, just to keep pace. Their feeling was that the competitive disadvantage without it was too severe, especially when competing with others who were using the drug in classes graded on a bell-curve.

My curiosity was stimulated, to say the least. Getting my hands on Modafinil proved to be a simple matter, and I procured a supply of 200mg doses. The pills are white and tasteless, with only the fear of the unknown causing any hesitation in ingesting one. “For Science” I thought to myself as I took one and downed it with a bottle of water. Since my main interest was in Modafinil’s effects while playing poker, I began playin online games, proceeding with caution.

As I discovered in my research, the effects of the drug would not be noticeable for at least a half-hour, so I made myself a breakfast burrito and played a few orbits, anxious to see what would happen. It was not a wholesale change in outlook or any physical sensation. What I noticed was that suddenly the low-limit game held my total interest, despite the stakes and the fact it was only one table. I looked at the time on the bottom-right of my computer, and was surprised to learn that ninety minutes had already passed, unnoticed because of my acute focus on the players in the game. My burrito had only been half-eaten, which I forgot about, as it did not interest me as much as focusing on player tendencies. I poured as much interest and analysis in the game as much as if I were playing for the highest stakes. My note taking was long and detailed. My ability to notice multi-player combination plays as they occurred in real-time was unmistakably improved.

Though I do not want to endorse any meta-physical abilities, I did feel a sense of displaced time, where I had such high concentration on what players were like and what they were going to do in the game that it did feel a bit like predicting the immediate future with great accuracy. This predictive ability might have been an illusion caused by my mind’s willingness to calculate multiple scenarios very quickly and thus when one of the scenarios “came true”, it felt like I had already done the thought process for it. I very rarely had time when I did not know what I was going to do almost instantaneously, never feeling like a situation required some more time for thought. Conscious that this type of feeling and fast-play also occurs when drunk or NOT thinking straight, I had some concerns that Modafinil might be adversely affecting my game, but the distinct difference was that I was able to truly calculate the variables and run it through many logical gates as I normally would, and could not do under the influence of alcohol. My thinking was crystal clear, focused, and because of my seemingly magical new ability to highly predict others’ actions (due to concentrating hard on their play) as never before, seemed abnormally fast as I was able to determine variables and crunch them in thought, ready to act as soon as I had to. It was as though time was either expanded, or the units of thought I was able to generate per unit of time was greatly compressed within the same frame.

The next logical step was capacity testing. Normally I can play a maximum of 3 tables simultaneously with what I consider my ‘informed game’, meaning that I was taking specific player tendencies and current flow of the games into direct account before acting. I am willing to play more than 3 tables with what I called my “damaged game”, meaning I consciously know that, because of the added amounts of opponents with each new table, I will not be able to keep track of all the variables at once, and thus I will miss opportunities where a variance play would be more effective in a given situation. When one plays a lot of tables at once, one is forced to “default” actions a lot of the time because the players change so frequently online, and also because it is difficult to keep track of who might in an altered emotional state. Short-handed games alter this decreased tracking effect even more, as one tends to devote more focus on the “shorty” than the other tables. Everyone is different of course, but for me personally, my comfort level where I don’t feel like I’m giving up anything due to distractions is 3 tables, or 27 simultaneous opponents.

With Modafinil, I found that I was able to extend my ‘informed game’ to 6 tables with relative ease. I added other tables one at a time, lingering on the newly added variables until I felt I had a good read on the players and game, which usually took about 30 minutes or so, while still involved with my previous tables. My increased attention to detail allowed me to reliably track player movements on all tables, most importantly when new players came into any game. By this slow growing process, I felt the ability to scale attention to over 50 simultaneous players, with perhaps the capacity for more as my experience in this situation grew.

[As a side-note to technique, it was vitally important that none of my active tables overlapped with any other, blocking the information as it streamed in. My personal set-up for this was using a video card with dual monitor outputs, two 21-inch monitors set to 1600x1200 resolution on each, and placing the monitors side-by-side and sitting “in between” the two, as opposed to having one directly in front of me and one to the side. Basically the idea is to have all the action visible without needing to shift one’s eyes or head around, and relying on the increased awareness of Modafinil to keep track of where each player you were facing was sitting, which is normally difficult since their names/avatars are “shrunken” at 1600x1200 resolution and multiple actions are taking place simultaneously. Its similar to the ‘speed reading’ techniques taught in the early 90’s, except that this actually works in terms of retaining the information effectively. I did stick to full tables only at first, so that the action points occurred a bit more slowly and the pacing on the tables were similar. ]

In further experiments since then, I find that I can include short-handed games into the mix, but strangely it is best for me personally to only have 2 shorties active out of the six, and to arrange the six games in an upside-down triangle arrangement, 3 per monitor, with the shorties on the bottom of both monitors. The numbers I generated as my results for this arrangement, though still preliminary, seems to confirm that my per hour results are very close to scaling 1:1 with those I had playing 3 tables without Modafinil, indicated that I am not suffering the normal loss of efficiency as one adds more simultaneous tables than one is attuned to playing. If my results non-Modafinil could be arbitrarily ranked as a “3” on a given scale for three simultaneous tables, my results for six tables on Modafinil would be “5.72” - some loss, but well above what I would expect given the doubling of load.

Finally there is the durability question. Normally, when playing live poker or 1-2 online games, my limit for one continuous session without a significant (i.e. hour long) break is about six hours – not as large as one might expect for a professional player. I used to be able to go much longer when I first started out, but over time, either age or general loss of passion for the game has reduced my single-session sit time. I just find myself wondering about what is happening outside, thinking about other things like books or movies, or just start to feel restless that I have spent so much time sitting and not really creating anything of use (one of my dislikes about the poker life). When playing 3 tables simultaneously for high stakes, my limit usually topped out at 4-5 hours before growing tired or bored.

Modafinil changes these “restlessness limits” drastically. As I noted in my first experiment with Modafinil, I became so tunneled in to what I was doing, concentrating so hard on doing it well, that in fact I loss track of time quite easily, even forgetting to eat (or acknowledge hunger, though I did feel it.). The first hint I had indicating how long I had been going without a break was when I noticed the sun going down and the need to turn on artificial lights. I was so enthralled with what was happening that there was nothing I wanted to do more than continue the experiment, and thus my mind did not wander, did not start to think that life outside was much more interesting like it usually does. I ended up going a full 14 hours on six tables before stopping, with just a few pee breaks and enough time to make and eat a sandwich somewhere in the mix.

Even after stopping, I did not feel exhausted or spent, but rather interested in doing more activities to see how Modafinil might be affecting my senses. I listened to music (you notice lyrics more), watched a few DVD’s (you notice ambient sounds much more), and wrote a few pages (typing is even faster, finishing something you started before is much easier, starting something completely new is more difficult because you get flooded with thoughts and ideas). I had been up for 19 hours, and though I felt I should be “sleepy”, and did in fact feel some difference in my mentality, I did not feel so tired that I was sluggish. I never yawned once or found myself lacking focus. As the final test, I showered, got into bed, and picked up my reading from a book on the Riemann Hypothesis. I expected to have the eyelid-jitters, where I would basically pass out or find myself reading the same sentence over and over while my lids tried to shut. After two full chapters with very acceptable understanding (amazed), and hitting the 24 hour mark of being awake, I made the conscious decision to stop and see if I could fall asleep. Though it was again daylight, after putting the book down and settling in, I fell asleep within minutes.

One final effect is the amount of sleep needed after taking Modafinil. As I am lucky enough not to have needed to set my alarm clock, I planned to sleep in as long as my body wanted. I found myself naturally waking after only 5 hours of sleep, completely alert and ready to get up, when normally I require 7 hours, and maybe more after being up 24 straight. Normally when I (and I’m sure most others) do not get enough sleep, I feel it for the rest of the day as a lingering fogginess, a listlessness in action and thought. I did not have this feeling at all, but felt very refreshed and eager to get moving, like a child would be for a family trip to Disneyland that day. This was the last surprise of my experiment with Modafinil. It drastically effects the same night’s sleep requirement in order to feel refreshed and alert for the following day. In prolonged sessions of continuously taking Modafinil, I found the cycle of 19 sharp, effective hours followed by 5 hours of sleep to be sustainable, seemingly without end. Even deep into the continuous experiment, I did not feel the drag of missing sleep catching up with me. Sleeping was not hard to come by, but never did I feel compelled to “crash” because I was just too exhausted, even from accumulated long days.

Summary of relevant experience:

· One 200 mg dose is effective within 30 minutes, and lasts at least 14 hours, more if you “want” it to. Though you can go to sleep at your normal time without the drug interfering, you can also continue doing vigorous mental activities for longer if you just do it. You do not yawn or feel sluggish, even though your mind/body does start to indicate that it might be time to sleep in some fashion, but this feeling does not “take over” and knock you out.

· Increasing dosage does not increase the effect, only the time it lasts by an additional 4 hours or so. Decreased dosage, say half a pill (100mg), seems to effect both alertness levels and working time, giving just a minor boost in concentration, and still allows drowsiness late in the day.

· The effects of full dosage Modafinil seems to sustain itself even over prolonged times of taking it. The maximum time I personally used it for was 12 days in a row, each day finding the need for sleep slightly decreasing from 5 hours at the beginning to about 4 towards the end. Concentration and alertness levels seemed to stay at its high level, though you get used to it and might discount its effects after 3-4 days. It is most noticeable the days after discontinued usage, where once again I felt sleepy after big meals and found myself surfing websites instead of fully concentrating on my online games after stoppage of use.

· I did not detect mood swings, nor did my associates who knew of my experiments. They claimed I was a bit more talkative, and perhaps more serious overall, but I was still “myself”.

· Modafinil did not seem to effect my eating, except when it caused me to get engrossed in a particular activity to such a degree that I put off eating. It may have slight sexual side-effects, not effecting interest but performance. It makes sex a more cerebral experience, where you are studying the situation instead of just enjoying it at a primal level (like you should). It did not effect arousal or cause dysfunction. If anything, it makes one last longer, because you experience sex in a different manner, somewhat clinically. You never get ‘lost’ in the moment, but tend to analyze it all.

· Quitting Modafinil was personally very easy for me, so I did not detect a physical addiction. However, I can easily see why it might cause a psychological dependency, as it is both very useful and enjoyable to have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mental energy. If you are one who dreads wasting time due to tiredness, or just hate it when you do not feel your sharpest, Modafinil provides an easy solution to this - and perhaps a long-term danger of addiction.

· It is not useful as a recreational drug. You do not really feel euphoria or tingling or any overt sensation. You notice its effect when you focus on something and concentrate, where it allows you to do so effortlessly. You can still get quite bored under its influence if you are stuck in an activity that is mundane. You will feel awake and never doze off, and can do a mundane activity for prolonged streches, but if your mind has nothing ‘real’ to focus on, you will still feel neutral.

· Though this article focuses on Modafinil’s effect for poker, I found it useful in just about any activity where I needed to be sharp mentally.

· I personally have discontinued my use of Modafinil. It was just so stunningly effective that I can’t help but think that the other shoe must drop. I worry too much about the extreme decrease in sleep and the unknown long-term effects it might have on my mind. I do use it on rare occasions, but do not do so for more than a single day, and poker is usually not the reason.


My poker sessions with Modafinil did decrease over time, not because of the usual mental tiredness from playing, but because the newness of the experience of poker under Modafinil wore off, and my general boredom with poker would creep back in. However even if I quit poker early, I still felt like I wanted mental activity of some sort, instead of a usual nap. If I willed myself to do it, I could easily play 14 hour sessions of poker as before, with my new multi-table maximum, and did so on many occasions.

My conclusions have been very surprising to me. Modafinil is the first drug I have found to be truly effective in increasing the ability to play poker, in fact effective in all mental activities. It is not necessarily a “smart drug” in that I do not think it raises one’s native capacity to think to a higher level, but rather allows one to reach and sustain one’s natural highest level much more easily than the normal distractions of life allow. It also decreases the careless “tired” mistakes that are normal when engaged in high-level mental competition for long periods of time. But again I should emphasize that it will not turn a dim-witted player into an insightful one, though I do believe that it would aid an enthusiastic student of the game in picking up subtleties and nuances of the game more rapidly.

Where these attributes of Modafinil would be most useful in poker are obvious. For cash ring game players, Modafinil coupled with the efficiencies of online, multi-table play allows one to get in an atrocious amount of “high quality played” hands in per day, scaling almost linearly as tables are added, until one hits his own personal maximum. As already noted, it also increases this personal maximum to a level that I found impossible to achieve without the drug. Though I am only one data point, the scaling and efficiency results for me personally have be so significantly increased that I find it hard to imagine that I am experiencing outlier results, but rather it is easier for me to conclude that the effects from Modafinil are very real.

Where I think Modafinil might even be more effective in the realm of poker is in long, multi-day tournaments with the brutal, extended hours of play per day. One of the obvious main differences between tournament and ring play is the inability to dictate your playing hours in the former. If the tournament director is determined to play down to a set number of remaining players for the day, there is a very good chance that an extremely long session is in order, with a participant ‘stuck’ at his table until the goal of the TD are met. Besides the designated breaks and meals, a tournament player has little choice about choosing whether to play on, even if he knows he has long lost his peak mental performance. If the day requires sixteen hours of play, those players who can sustain their best play for the greatest amount of time within that sixteen have a significant advantage over those that peak and crash after 8, 10, or 12 hours.

Extending this thought, if we look at a super tournament like the Championship WSOP event which will take 5 or more stress filled days to complete, and has an abnormally large chance of causing sleeplessness and exhaustion as the days progress, a player that requires less sleep in order to feel completely rested, and benefiting from a state of heightened awareness in his waking hours even with this shortened rest, will again have a tremendous advantage. The cumulative weariness of those long days would affect anyone, chipping away at one’s ability to sustain his or her best. Since lots of no-limit Hold’em play is so deadly towards a single, thoughtless or “missed-cue” mistake, the ability to side-step this type of mistake would be huge. My experiments with Modafinil seems to provide a very practical and effective solution to this problem, more effective than I would have thought possible without it already being a mainstream staple in poker or any other mental activity. I would not be surprised if at least a small portion of players have already found this solution, and have incorporated Modafinil into their regular routines, as its results for me personally have been so profound, bordering upon my expectations of science fiction.

That brings me to the reasons for writing this article. Poker is about gaining and exploiting edges against your opponents. Usually study, observation, analysis, and experience, which are all “naturally occurring” processes that everyone has the capacity to practice, coupled with the ability to mentally sustain our applied knowledge in these areas, are what achieves these advantages, and thus, even though some players will always be better than others, poker is thought of as a ‘fair’ game. Modafinil is the first artificial stimulant that I have found that alters this landscape by giving a player the ability to perform longer mentally and at a more concentrated level than what one can achieve normally. Modafinil not only helps in gathering knowledge with a sharp, observational outlook, but also in applying your intellect without normal taxation. If you are already an analytical sort of person, it also helps to contain the emotional destructiveness of tilting, as one can focus beyond the immediate result and concentrate on the overall plan.

I actually debated for quite a long time before deciding to write about this topic. Selfishly, I know that not disclosing this personal discovery could greatly aid me in playing the game and benefiting from the edge, an edge sustainable only if others are kept in the dark. Ethically, I feel it is still a gray area. The reason I finally decided to write about Modafinil is that I think this drug and those like it to follow are going to alter the landscape of thought games, and, if Modafinil is just a precursor for what is to come, will eventually become mainstream in the relatively near future. My not writing about it now might only delay the spread of it by a tiny fraction of time, if it affects the spread of it at all. I also would like to hear others’ thoughts on the subject. The obvious comparison is with steroids in baseball, but during the late 80’s period when it was not well known and those few in the forefront gained the most. We might be in that similar time period for mental performance enhancers, and the ethical questions it will generate. I think Modafinil represents the first breakthrough drug for mental competition, with perhaps more refined and effective substances on the horizon. I believe that, if not during the 2005 WSOP, by 2006-7, Modafinil and drugs similar to it will play a role in the play of the games, and we as a community should open the dialogue now.


Disclaimer: Provigil and its generic name Modafinil is a prescription drug. Like all prescription drugs, a trained and licensed physician should be consulted before using Provigil or Modafinil. The effects I described in this article are my personal experiences only, and should not be taken as an endorsement to take this drug. The mechanism of how Modafinil works in the body is not well understood, and long-term use effects are still very much a question that has not been answered. Anything that alters your mind should be considered high risk and dangerous. OK?