Poker and gambling continually evolve. During the different periods of its history, poker demanded different degrees of involvement and different sets of essential qualities necessary for success. This article is brought to you by 2CardsCollege.

Being able to grab a gun right in time and defend one’s own winnings, beliefs, and sometimes even life was almost the main skill during the original formation period of the game. Eventually, poker has become more civilized and the key skill at this stage was understanding game play. After the dirty smoke-filled rooms were replaced with well-organized tournament series and online rooms, there appeared a generation of young players focused not only on the game, but also paying attention to their health and physical condition.

Poker is moving further away from gambling and in order to compete players today need to focus not only on poker itself, but also everything around it.

In this article, a professional nutritionist will tell how diet affects the tilt and a group of scientists will answer whether self-control and the feeling of hunger are connected.

Reducing the likelihood of tilt: poker diet from a nutritionist

Tilt is a stress. The body reacts to the psychological impact as its homeostasis (constancy of physiological processes) are disturbed and tilt is a corresponding state of the nervous system. It arises not because of the action of some external stimuli, but rather because of the brain’s inability to cope with that stimuli.

The brain needs some excess of glucose and other energy-creating substances for normal functioning. In the absence of that excess during a prolonged gaming session, there could be two possible scenarios:

• The body does not have enough time to accumulate nutrients for the brain and it is unable to maintain the optimal intensity of the brain activity. There comes a productivity decline.

• The brain is working optimally. However, since it is influenced by a large number of stress factors, the body’s fighting reserves are drying up. There comes the tilt.

A balanced diet solves the problem. If the required number of servings of the basic nutrient groups is consumed, the body will have the required number of calories as well as all the necessary minerals and vitamins.

Let us consider a specific example. The table of basic daily needs for a man – 24 years old, 80 kg, 182 cm:

Visually it looks like this:

Now adapt it for your own body.

Count the number of calories for men:

(9.99 * Weight (kg) + 6.25 * Height (cm) – 4.92 * age + 5) * 1,375 – for the first 2 weeks
(9.99 * Weight (kg) + 6.25 * Height (cm) – 4.92 * age + 5) * 1.2 – subsequently

For women:

(9.99 * Weight (kg) + 6.25 * Height (cm) – 4.92 * age – 161) * 1,375 – for the first 2 weeks
(9.99 * Weight (kg) + 6.25 * Height (cm) – 4.92 * age – 161) * 1.2 – subsequently

Transforming into portions:

• Category I: a wholegrain bun (a piece of a rye bread), some rice / pasta / buckwheat /
• oatmeal porridge.
• Categories II, III: 100 grams of fruit and vegetables (fried, baked, boiled, raw), a glass of
• juice – fruit or vegetable
• Category IV a:the steamed meat comes as one serving; fried steak – 1.5, pork steak – as 2
• servings
• Category IV b: a glass of milk / yogurt, 100g of cottage cheese
• Category V: teaspoon of oil, a handful of nuts / seeds
• Category VI: 2 teaspoons of honey, jam, sugar, a few pieces of candy

You could replace animal products with tofu. Number of servings of tofu can be calculated by dividing the total number of meat and dairy products servings in half. Note the following: the rejection of animal products for more than three months is unlikely to lead to a breakthrough in tilt resistance.

The correct sources of glucose are fruit and honey. Nectar is not the juice. Chocolate is not honey.

You should not forget about water – drink at least 1.8 liters of clean water a day.

Count optimal number of servings, make a menu for the week, and start improving your efficiency.

Connection between hunger and self-control: scientists to the players

So, what actually connects hunger and self-control?

The answer is found in the scientific journal PLOS One, in the article “Always Gamble on an Empty Stomach”.
Two groups of young people (average age 21) passed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), and Delay Discounting Task (DDT) tests. All participants did not eat or drink for 10 hours. They were divided into two groups. The first group had a hearty breakfast right before the test and the other had only 200 ml of yogurt.

Test 1: IGT – choosing one card of the four

Choosing a card from A and B decks brings €100; from C and D decks €50. All four decks suggest a penalty card and penalties often exceed the winnings. In the A deck, penalty cards range between €150 and €350 of loss. Deck B contains only one bad card, but with a penalty of €1,250. Deck C penalties range from €25 to €75. Finally, the only deck D penalty card has a fine of €250. Choosing ten cards from the decks A-B turns out to bring an average loss of €250 and 10 attempts from C-D decks, on the contrary, bring an average profit of €250.

Test 2: BART – money for inflated ball

The larger the ball is – the more money is paid. In case of an explosion, the money earned in an attempt “burns down.” Using BART, researchers examined the propensity of the hungry participants for the additional risk.

Test 3: DDT – a choice between short-term small cash reward and a delayed, but larger reward

The initial hypothesis of scientists stated that hunger helps a person to make effective complex decisions in situations where long-term consequences of such decisions cannot be accurately assessed.

Studies have confirmed the hypothesis. Participants who were in the “calm” (well-fed) group had more effective long-run decisions than their counterparts in the “excited” (hungry) group. In the second round of the experiments, as the appetite of the participants was stimulated by the display of food, the gap between starving and well-fed group grew larger.

Daily diet plan: an answer from nutritionist to scientists

Scientists say hunger helps a person move away from thinking about money and stimulates the activity of brain areas responsible for emotions and intuition.

A daily diet plan is a compromise between a healthy diet and a serious science. Here is a version for a tournament player from the European time zone:

• 11:00 – Waking up, a glass of water
• 11:30 – Breakfast
• 12:00 – 12:30 – Walk
• 12:30 – 13:45 – Personal affairs
• 13:45 – 14:00 – Juice
• 14:00 – 16:30 – Training, analysis of hands
• 16:30 – 17:00 – Lunch
• 17:00 – 03:00 – Poker session
• 03:00 – 11:00 – Sleep

During the poker session:

• 20:00 – Nuts
• 21:00 – Fruit
• 23:55 – Quick dinner

If the session gets prolonged, move breakfast later and remove the juice, leaving lunch and subsequent meals as they are. Rare shifts will not affect the overall body adjustment. Do not alternate smart diet days with “hungry” days; it will not produce any results. Do not try to catch up with missed meals.

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