Pros and Cons of Drinking Coffee While Playing Poker
4 minutes
Posted by: Ivan
Coffee can be an excellent stimulant if you want to ensure you’re more focused and concentrated while playing poker. That said, drinking coffee while playing poker doesn’t come without its side effects on your success, especially in the long run.
On this page, we’ll go over both the pros and cons of drinking coffee while playing live or online poker to help you determine if coffee is giving you the edge to beat other players in this highly strategic game or whether you should avoid drinking it at the felt table.
Pros of Drinking Coffee While Playing Poker
Like with energy drinks and poker, the pros of drinking coffee while playing are fairly apparent. Containing caffeine, it can provide the extra advantage many players are looking for. The most significant benefits of drinking coffee at the table are:
More Focus & Better Attention to Details
The first and most obvious advantage of drinking coffee while playing poker is that it will do wonders for your overall concentration, focus, and alertness to other player’s decisions.
When you play a highly strategic and skill-based game like poker, this can be the separating factor that will help you beat your opponents.
A caffeine-aided brain is more likely to outperform a caffeine-free one, let alone one impaired by alcohol or other common gambling mistakes – click here to find out more about these.
When your brain is working at optimal capacity thanks to caffeine, you’ll notice how much more effective you are at picking up other player’s signals and promptly taking advantage of any errors.
You Can Push Through Fatigue
Grinding your way through poker sessions day after day can lead to fatigue. This especially applies if you’re playing in a tournament setting, and you need to stay at the top of your game for consecutive days.
Coffee can help you get an extra edge and push through the fatigue for a while.
With one strong cup of coffee, you can get back on track and get a few hours more of effective and concentrated play.
This can make a difference between getting knocked out of a poker tournament or coming out on top after a long day of strategic battles.
You Can Have A Few Drinks and Stay Sober
If you’re playing in a live poker setting in a casino or poker room, you’ll most likely be surrounded by gallons of alcohol.
In many cases, these beers, shots, and cocktails will be free of charge as long as you’re playing. This can put you in a dangerous situation of quickly getting tipsy without even noticing it.
Balancing a night of moderate drinking with a pot of coffee will help you stay sober at the table and prevent potential hangovers the following day.
This provides you the best of both worlds. You can enjoy a few beers or cocktails and still keep your sharpness when it really matters.
Cons of Drinking Coffee While Playing Poker
While the advantages of drinking coffee when playing poker are highly celebrated, the disadvantages are unfortunately often overlooked.
However, some of these can harm both your game and health if you’re not careful. With that in mind, here are some of the biggest cons of drinking coffee while playing poker:
Caffeine Crashes Are Sudden & Rough
Taking in several cups of coffee during your poker session is a recipe for disaster at the end of the night.
While you’ll undoubtedly feel that initial kick and the coffee will help you stay concentrated, the highs will inevitably pass.
And, when the lows come, the caffeine crashes are sudden and can quickly ruin your session.
One minute you’ll find yourself making smart and strategic decisions, and you’re reading every move around you and making optimal bets based on the situation.
The next, you’ll be going through caffeine jitters that will significantly impact your decision-making.
No amount of caffeine can prevent your body from catching up to reality and showing fatigue. Playing through a caffeine crash is never a good idea.
You’ll start making bad choices and rapidly depleting your bankroll. The only thing you can do when this comes is to stop playing right away.
Staying Up Late Makes Things Difficult Tomorrow
While coffee might help you push through a tough tournament day or stay up all night playing online poker, it will certainly make your life more difficult the next day.
If you’re playing deep into the night on a caffeine high and go to sleep at the crack of dawn, you probably won’t be up for anything the next day, let alone be able to concentrate on playing more.
Moreover, this will just start another coffee cycle the next day, which can be difficult to break if you continue the pattern for some time.
