Eric Rizen Lynch

Ask Rizen

I've still been playing lots of Pot Limit Omaha lately. I got off to a GREAT start for the month but have since gone on a downswing. Oddly, i've been having more success at 2/4 than 1/2 this month. All told I'm down like 4 buy ins, which in PLO isn't too significant. In fact several times yesterday I was actually back up to break even for the month. I've been doing a lot of end of day study, going back and looking at all my big pots and I think i've found and plugged a few leaks. I suppose we'll find out as time goes on :)

Q: I saw Phil Helmuth crying on TV about losing to ten-queen offsuit like its a bad hand that the person should not have ever called, but statistically, is ten-queen a good hand or not? It ranks higher than most of the cards in the deck, an 11/13 + 9/13 is the way I look at it for a total of 20/26 despite being unsuited, it still runs hard against 8 pocket pairs... sure its not the greatest, but it ranks pretty good, doesn't it? Why was he crying? Is Phil on drugs? Does he have emotional psychological issues? Or is he right about 10Q being bad?

A: I'm not a psychologist or even remotely qualified to talk about Phil's emotional issues or potential drug use :) That being said, QT can be a good or a bad hand, it's all pretty relative. If you played QTo from UTG in a full ring MTT, it's a pretty poor hand in a lot of situations. If you raise in early position with it the most likely hands you get action from are ahead of you and you'll be out of position most of the time, which in and of itself makes life difficult. In late position though, QT is a fine hand if it's folded to you, and most players I know would definitely play it. Like most poker questions, 'it depends' is the right answer here. In certain situations, QT is a great hand, in other situations, it might as well be 27o.

Q: Do you focus on Poker Equity (Call and Fold) situations for tournament play more than say other factors like agg/loose, pot odds, and stack sizes?

A: Hopefully I understand this question correctly. For tournament play there are many things I take into consideration. I'm not sure I could give a specific order to it. I mean obviously I focus on my relative hand strength, but I also focus on table dynamics, stack sizes, pot + implied odds, players already involved in the pot or yet to act, and probably other factors I'm leaving out. No one particular factor outweighs all others, but I personally focus a lot on table dynamics, stack sizes, and who is in the pot probably more than the rest (including relative hand strength).