Charlie Carrel Opens Up About Drug Use & Poker!

“I’m pretty public about poker, and I’m pretty public about drugs,” is how high-roller pro Charlie Carrel starts his latest ‘confessional’ – the Englishman describing himself as a ‘veteran’ of both subjects, and although not advocating the use of drugs while playing, his take on the matter is an extremely interesting one…

Psychedelics

“Don’t play poker on psychedelics unless it’s a micro-dose…” says Charlie, revealing how he and an unnamed ‘OG poker player’ once took shots of synthetic mushrooms during a private poker game.

Carrel explains that on the way ‘up’ on the drug he had to rely less on GTO-style play and more on intuition, adding:

“Once I was at maximum ‘highness’ I had to completely avoid rational thought like the plague!”

Londoner Carrel, who has over $6million in tournament winnings to his name, is far from shy about sharing his innermost thoughts and secrets, last year regaling his fans, followers and many others with tales of selling and taking drugs, multiple lovers, autism and bullying.

Weed

Although one of the most popular recreational drugs, and much in the news recently in Nevada and among WSOP players, Carrel thinks this one should be avoided when playing – especially long-term where he has never seen it produce good effects, citing dependency problems even in those who can ‘handle’ their smoking.

Stimulants

“The crux of this video really”, says a bare-chested Charlie, sporting his typically garish pants and floppy hair – a ‘public schoolboy-hippy’ being the kindest – or most accurate - way to describe the 24-year old.

PokerTube investigated the issue of possible drug-testing for poker games a while back, for those interested in the effects of a whole range of substances, and stimulants were high among them.

Carrel believes “pretty much all stimulants have the potential to be good in poker”, but his list of caveats is almost as long as the list of drugs themselves, and follows up with a short expose on which are good and which are bad in general;

Cocaine is a big no-no – “pretty high rake if you’re playing with coke” summing it up;

Speed gets a firm yes in general – in very small doses - for Carrel’s intellectual tasks, the young man citing mathematics genius Paul Erdős’ massive creative output on the drug;

Nootropics, which Carrel seems to be very well-versed in, are the most-modern drugs which poker players have been experimenting with for a number of years.

Modafinil, Adderall and Ritalin are perhaps the best-known to the public, and one of Carrel’s hand-histories explains the problems inherent in using them during poker: “I really fucking want to win this hand cos I’m on fucking Adderall” - adding that Adderall tilt-rage is a thing among player-users!

Carrel is a lovely, interesting and unusual young guy –his thoughts and stories well worth 15 minutes of your time, even if you are, ahem, as abstinent as I am.