Can you play winning poker if your mood is depressed?
I ran cold for 2 weeks, playing a lot of poker while recovering from surgery, about 25 hrs per week.
Then, at the end of
Some information that most people don't know about the severeness depression can take.
Yes, treatment-resistant depression (TRD) can have overlapping symptoms with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), particularly in older adults. This overlap often involves cognitive issues and mood-related changes, which can make differentiation challenging without thorough evaluation.Key Overlapping SymptomsBoth conditions can present with:Memory problems or forgetfulness
Difficulty concentrating or slowed thinking (cognitive slowing)
Apathy or loss of interest/motivation
Sleep disturbances
Fatigue or low energy
Mood changes, such as irritability or sadness
These similarities arise because depression (especially when severe or resistant to treatment) can impair cognitive function—sometimes called pseudodementia (depressive pseudodementia)—mimicking early dementia. In contrast, early AD often includes depressive symptoms as part of its neuropsychiatric profile, with up to 40% of people in early stages experiencing depression.Important Distinctions and ContextIn pure TRD (without underlying neurodegeneration), cognitive symptoms are often reversible with effective depression treatment (e.g., antidepressants, therapy, or interventions like ketamine or TMS in resistant cases).
In early AD, depression may appear as an initial or prominent symptom, and cognitive deficits tend to be progressive and less reversible. Late-life depression that is treatment-resistant (poor response to multiple antidepressants) is sometimes linked to higher risk of later dementia, possibly due to shared factors like inflammation, brain changes, or neurodegenerative processes starting subtly.
Depression is a known risk factor for developing AD later, and in some cases (especially late-onset or resistant depression), it may signal early/prodromal AD rather than "just" primary depression.
Research highlights that distinguishing them requires careful assessment, as misdiagnosis can occur—e.g., treating what seems like resistant depression but missing emerging AD, or vice versa. Tools like neuroimaging, cognitive testing, or monitoring response to depression treatment help clarify.If this relates to personal concerns (yours or a loved one's), consult a healthcare professional—such as a psychiatrist, neurologist, or geriatric specialist—for proper evaluation, as early detection and tailored management can make a big difference for both conditions.
Your current condition makes you “weaker” than your opponents. The most important part of winning in poker is playing against opponents who are weaker than you. So go down in stakes. Avoid complex situations. Play tighter than usual.
I know what you’re talking about—I’m bipolar and have ADHD, and I struggle a lot with emotional control, especially during depression. Adaptation is key in poker. Stress diminishes cognitive ability.
I work in telemarketing as my day job. When I feel good, I focus on quality over quantity—fewer calls, but longer and better ones. When I feel like ****, I make more calls, but they’re shorter and lower quality. That’s just how it is.
Right now, you can’t play high-quality poker. So again: go down in stakes and play more hands. Build yourself up step by step, based on your current mental state. You need to experience small wins at lower stakes to gain confidence before moving back up.
I agree that playing my best poker requires me to be emotionally balanced.
Understanding my opponents' motivations requires me to sense their emotional state, and if I am angry, sad, or flattened, I won't do this as well.
When I run cold or bad for a prolonged period of time, it's really hard for it not to affect how I feel and how I play. Poker becomes frustrating, and not fun, and I question why I am spending so much time in the cardroom.
My mood has been good for a few months now. However, poker continued to frustrate me. I have not run hot in forever. I continued to pay off too often on rivers, and just couldn't seem to fix that. I think I might be break-even over the past 6 months, despite a ton of hours. I don't even want to look at my graph right now. Prior to that, I had 2 yrs winning at 10BB/hr. In 2026, poker was no longer a net positive influence on my life, and I felt like I was playing compulsively. Anytime I was bored or had free time, I would go play.
I took a break for 2 weeks. When you've been regularly playing 50-70 hrs per month for a couple years, two weeks off is a long time. It was good. I got some perspective back. I've played a couple sessions since. I've dropped my previous goals, which were: develop into a better player and increase my win rate. For me, goal chasing engages a compulsive part of me. Now, I just want to play the best I can for the session, and only play if I enjoy it. Not trying to win more or reach a certain level of play, or reach any milestone. It should be purely recreation.
Does it help if you like the people you play with, and you engage with them as friends or social support?
I play at a big cardroom with a ton of regulars. The tables are quiet, and most players are wearing headphones. Super reg-heavy, almost no drinking. I've always been a pretty quiet, private person there. I suppose if I enjoyed the company of other players and actually liked being around them, I might handle the downswings a little better and keep a better mindset through them.
I have mixed feelings about the part of me that can get obsessive about poker, and I sometimes see the other regs as "degenerates", like me. (I'm using the term lightly.) Maybe that makes me more reluctant to engage with them. They play even more hours than me. I've seen them as my competition, not as people I want to know more deeply. But I don't judge them, I mean, I get it.
It's funny, because I don't mind having discussions here, and I think you guys are basically the same sort of cardroom people I never talk to at the tables. Or are we a cut above here? Lol.
Anyway, the last couple times I played, I was more chatty and friendly, and I think it made it a little more enjoyable. I might continue to try that.
Your current condition makes you “weaker” than your opponents. The most important part of winning in poker is playing against opponents who are weaker than you. So go down in stakes. Avoid complex situations. Play tighter than usual.I know what you’re talking about—I’m bipolar and have ADHD, and I struggle a lot with emotional control, especially during depression. Adaptation i
Acceptance is probably the strongest mindset you can develop in life or poker. Which doesn't mean you don't want a different result or a better result but resisting what is happening stirs up an internal conflict that makes it pretty impossible to play your A game or even B game
From acceptance you can either go down the positive path of....it's gonna get better from here or the negative path of it's gonna get worse from here and play the victim role. Obv one will garner a better experience and likely output but regardless of which one you go down you need to continue with accepting yourself for whatever experience you're having in the moment and then simply keep making shifts in the direction you want to go
I've had some epic run bads in my 20 years of playing poker. I def fell into the victim mindset on more than 1 occassion and I none the less came out of every one of them stronger and more optimistic going forward than previously. I've also had some epic run good and didn't even appreciate it or hardly acknowledge it at the time and let myself get overly cocky. If you can find a balance between these 2 states and accept whatever you're going thru at the time you'll be able to focus much better on making the right decisions and playing better and better poker as you go
