4/9/2007 - Statutory Warning - Don’t Drink N Play

My advice to the all the poker enthusiasts is - Don't Drink Alcohol When You Play, Not Even One Drink  If you play in a casino you'll see that all the alcohol you can drink is served to you free of charge right at the poker table. Since you play poker against other players and not against the house, they are not providing these drinks in an attempt to get you drunk and then take advantage of your drunken state by making you play badly.

The real purpose of serving you free drinks in a casino is to make you want to stay and play longer. This exposes you to the house edge in whatever game you're playing and it affects your decisions. This is why a blackjack player who is ahead $600 will stay and play until it's all gone or why the slot player who hits a $300 jackpot will put it all back in the machine trying to hit an even bigger jackpot.

In a way, the slot player who is drinking has an advantage over you. His decisions don't matter. There is only one way to pull the lever on a slot machine but there are a hundred different ways to playa poker hand and they all require that you be able to make good decisions. Let the other players drink; you'll get their money that much faster.