Eric Rizen Lynch

A day late and a dollar short?

Well, my Wed post was close to being late and this one is officially a day late. A dollar short? Well, about $12,000 to be specific. I took 4th in the FTP $150 last night for $6k, but first was $18k and I had two horrendous beats put on me, the first one for about 90% of the chips in play. I'll spare everyone the bad beat story details, but it always leaves a sour taste in your mouth to get deep, play virtually perfect, and still fall short.

Aside from that not much happening. Been playing a bit more cash lately with fairly good results. I'm chaging my days off to Wed/Fri instead of Mon/Wed because I wanted a weekend night off so I can do social stuff. For the next 7-8 weeks I'm on a new sand volleyball team with my family, but after that I think I'll keep the schedule the same. That also allows me to play both $1k events during the week, and the only major thing I miss out on is the Wed $320 on Stars. Volleyball season will be over in about 8 weeks though and I may re-arrange things again to take Thurs/Fri off or something like that.

And I received a few angry e-mails about 'Ask Rizen' not being up yesterday. I apologize for that, and without further delay, here it is:

Q: Rizen - I have started to play some PLO and enjoy this game as I believe it is helping my post flop play (as everyone sees more flops) and reading the board and putting others on hands, etc.  My question is when you get 3 of a kind in your hole cards how do you play these or how high of these cards AAA, KKK, QQQ, etc. would you play versus mucking as it will be hard to catch the remaining card to hit three of a kind.

A: I wouldn't personally play any hand with 3 of a kind in it except AAA, and even that I would muck in a lot of situations. Having 3 of a kind in your hold cards really hurts your ability to improve your hand post flop, so you really have to hope your single pair holds up, and in Omaha that doesn't happen as often as in hold em by far. I'd play AAA first in the pot from middle/late position for a raise maybe, and if I was short stacked I might play it hoping I could get all the chips in pre, but in early position or behind a raise it's just not worth playing and deserves a muck most of the time.

Q: My question is concerning your recent post (When deep just isn't good enough).  Lately I've started getting deep into tournaments (top 18) with slightly above average stacks.  I just can't seem to get over the hump with all the stealing going on and just need a little advice on when do you take a stand for all your chips a few people from the final table?  Usually I end up doing so with AJ or better when somone who has been raising multiple pots comes in for a raise but after getting knocked out I'm always left with the feeling of would I had had enough chips to make the final table if I would regularly pass on opportunities like that.  Any advice that you could give to a fellow Johnson County resident I would appreciate it.

A: I think you may be thinking about this wrong. Short stack play is really only partially about getting your money in with the best hand, but about timely and opportunistic re-stealing and stealing using your stack as a weapon until you get a hand to make a stand with. Treading water and staying afloat to buy yourself some time is important. You also need a little luck. One thing I did a lot of to improve my short stack game is figure out what kinds of hands do well when called (even though they may be behind). Many people are surprised to figure out that you'd rather have JTs than A9o against most people's calling range to a standard push from most positions. By knowing what types of hands do the best when called and you're pushing as a steal short stacked you can buy yourself an extra 5-6% of equity, which may not seem like much, but over the long term it adds up to a lot of $$$. Remember when you're pushing as a short stack your cards never matter until you're called, so even though A9 may look like a better hand, I'd rather have JTs in the event that I do get called.

Q: If you are in the main event of the wsop and on the first hand you are dealt A K offsuit in the big blind. It folds around to the small blind who accidentally exposes his cards to you and you see he has Q J suited. He goes all in…… Do you call???

A: I don't know that this really comes up very often, but yes I would call. I personally don't think any player is good enough to pass up a 60% edge at any point in a tournament. I think you can pass on coin flips and some players are good enough to pass up potential 55% edges to look for better spots, but once you're 60% I just don't think it's possible to be good enough to pass it up.

Q: My question revolves around a good expectation per hour or session while playing NL cash games.  For instance, I play .50-1.00 NL full ring, usually 2 games at once.  What would you consider a good result per hour or session.  For example, 1/2 buy win or $20/hour etc.  I love to hear what you consider a good win at cash games?

A: Well, a lot of it depends on the limit. At lower stakes you can expect a larger rate of return in relation to the big blind, while at super high stakes people often eek out a fraction of a big blind per 100 hands but can turn a huge profit because the stakes are so high. For the most part, at the lower to mid limits I think you can expect to make around 10 BB per 100 hands if you're a good, winning player at that level. Depending on how fast the game moves you can move that out to an hourly rate. If you're making much more than that and your bankroll is good enough you should probably move up limits. If your bankroll isn't good enough you should probably move up once it is. If you're making significantly less than that you might consider trying to move down. I've found that at times you can make more money per hour playing a lower limit that you can beat very comfortably versus playing a higher limit where your win rate is a little less reliable. You also have less variance which can help. Once you gain more experience you can take shots at moving back up until you feel comfortable.

As always, please keep sending the questions. I have a decent backlog right now but it never hurts to have more, and I'll get to all the ones I can as time allows.

-Rizen