Jesse Lonis, the two-time WSOP bracelet winner with more than $31 million in career live tournament earnings, used a recent social media post to share something far removed from a hand history or a final table recap: a candid account of quitting cannabis after roughly 18 years of daily use, a habit that stretched from age 12 to 30.
A Habit Measured in Decades, Not Sessions
What made Lonis’s post stand out was the timeline attached to it. Beginning at age 12 and continuing through age 30, his use of cannabis was not framed as a poker-specific vice or a byproduct of tournament travel, but as a habit woven through nearly his entire adolescent and adult life before he made the decision to stop. That duration matters for how he described the process of quitting, which he characterized as fundamentally different from the more visible collapse associated with something like alcoholism.
“You won’t hit rock bottom like alcoholism, but one day you’ll wake up and entire parts of your life will be lost,” Lonis wrote, describing the slow, cumulative nature of long-term cannabis use rather than a single dramatic turning point. It is a distinction that separates his account from the more familiar addiction narratives that dominate public conversation, framing prolonged daily use as something that erodes quietly in the background rather than announcing itself with a crisis.
Family as the Deciding Factor
Lonis was direct about what finally pushed him to stop. Rather than pointing to a poker-specific motivation, tournament performance, focus at the table, or bankroll management, he framed the decision around his family, saying simply it was “for me and my children.” Lonis is a father of three daughters, and he described wanting to be fully present during family moments in a way he felt daily cannabis use was interfering with, even subtly. That kind of motivation, prioritizing presence with his kids over a habit that had been part of his daily routine for nearly two decades, gives the story a weight that extends well beyond the poker tables where Lonis built his reputation.
What Changed After Quitting
By around the 65-day mark of his cannabis-free stretch, Lonis reported a mix of benefits and lingering challenges. On the positive side, he described improved concentration during lengthy poker sessions and better decision-making clarity, exactly the kind of edge that matters over the course of a multi-day tournament where focus tends to erode as the field narrows and the stakes rise. He also reported greater success managing anxiety, a byproduct that carries obvious relevance for a player whose career depends on staying composed through the swings of high-stakes tournament poker.
The transition was not without friction. Lonis described increased nighttime sweating and vivid dreams during the withdrawal period, physical symptoms commonly associated with breaking a long-term cannabis habit. He also acknowledged ongoing challenges managing ADHD-related discipline without the substance that had, in some ways, become part of how he regulated his own focus for most of his life. That honesty about the parts of the process that have not gotten easier adds credibility to an account that could otherwise have read as a simple before-and-after success story.
A Rare Level of Openness From a Tournament Pro
Poker’s high-stakes tournament circuit is not typically a place where players discuss substance use candidly, let alone connect it to specific career-long performance effects. Lonis’s willingness to lay out both the upside, sharper focus and better emotional regulation at the table, and the more uncomfortable parts of quitting, physical withdrawal symptoms and ongoing discipline struggles, stands out precisely because most players keep those details private even when they are actively managing them.
For a player with Lonis’s resume, two WSOP bracelets and eight figures in career earnings, the story also carries a kind of credibility that a less accomplished player’s account might not. It suggests that even players who have already reached the top of the game continue adjusting the routines and habits behind their results, and that those adjustments are not always about strategy or study but about the basic physical and mental conditions that make strong decision-making possible in the first place.
Players thinking about their own preparation and mental game away from the technical side of poker can find a starting point in Poker Pro Academy’s how to play poker guidewhich covers the fundamentals that sit underneath the kind of sustained focus Lonis says he has been rebuilding since quitting.
