Eric Rizen Lynch

Ask Rizen

First off a couple of quick updates, then off to the questions. Someone had asked in my previous post how many tables I was playing to have the > 4 PTBB/100 win rate. The answer is 4 tables at a time at most. It's usually 4, but sometimes less. Also, the sample size is still pretty small. Almost immediately after that post I went on a downswing. I'm not up to 25k hands yet (and being in Vegas for the Poker Bowl I probably won't for a bit) but will post an update then. I really prefer to play fewer tables and take better notes and concentrate harder rather than playing more tables and being more robotic.

The rooms here at the Palms are very nice. It's by far one of the nicer rooms I've stayed at. The plane ride down here was a little rough, especially during takeoff from Denver, but I'm becoming a much better traveller than I used to be.

Q: I'm actually going to attempt to paraphrase here so I can make this cover 2-3 questions I've gotten that are all really too long for the blog. But basically it boils down to being among the chip leaders, having pocket Aces, and if they could have folded them post flop on dry boards (like 8-6-3 off suit).

A: Obviously everyone who sent in these hands lost their hand. Some of them because they ran into sets and some because they ran into bad hands like A-6 that sucked out on them. At the end of the day folding a big hand like AA post flop on a dry board really comes down to how deep the stacks are in relation to the pot. If the stacks are shallow in relation to the pot (2-3 times the size of the pot) you're probably going broke with your AA there no matter what. If the stacks are deeper (more than 3-4 times the size of the pot) you should be able to play in such a way that you can figure out if your AA is good or not. The truth is though a lot of it just comes from experience and knowing how to figure out if you're beat or not. Most of the time online though you can't get away from AA very easily, and more often than not going broke with it is a pretty small mistake in relation to the big mistakes you'll make folding it when you're ahead.

Q: Do you have any thoughts on how the new e-check payment opportunities
may affect things? Is the game at Stars going to get bigger and/or
softer?

A: I actually don't know anything about the new e-check stuff on Stars, although this question was from a few months ago. I may look into it. In my experience so far the Stars games are about the same as they were six months or so ago though.

Q: Firing at the board, When there is  3 to a suit on the flop or big pair how often do you attemt to represent a hand, especially late in the tournament, and your the opening raiser.  What is your thought process when considering your bet. How often do you re pop when someone else represents the board.

A: This is completely player dependant, although I will say that it is much easier to 'represent a hand' in these situations in position. It's really tough to bluff monotone (3 to a suit) boards out of position unless you hold the Ace of that suit.

Q: I was hoping you could talk about what you know about how a professional player will sponsor or bankroll a person that is just getting started.  I have always wondered how this comes to happen.  When you watch the tournaments on TV they will sometimes show a pro in the stands and say that they are a mentor to one of the players.  Do the pro’s find rough talent while in cash games or tourneys that they have played against someone and see promise?  Do novice players pay a pro for personal tutoring?  Does the pro bankroll a player and receive a cut of winnings?  Maybe a combination of all the above?

A: I really don't know a whole lot about the process since I haven't been involved in either side of it. My best guess is that most professional players that sponsor/bankroll other players are either friends with those players from something other than poker, or are doing it as an invesment (i.e. they think the player is good and spending time/money on them is a profitable investment). So the short answer is that I don't really know :)

Q: do you feel that pokertracker with the HUD is worth installing for a lot of poker players. I mean for a guy that plays $0.5/$1.00 no limit cash games 4-6 hours/week, how much value does this product provide? Can you give examples of how the data/information it gives has helped you in specific hands/situations?  What specific statistic do you find most helpful about it.

A: I feel that Poker Tracker is a must have for any serious player, no matter what the level of play. The HUD is nice, but sometimes it's more of a hinderance than a help too. I know many very successful players that play without a hud, but very few that play without Poker Tracker or some similar databasing software for their hands. Being able to review hands you played, track win rates at different levels, and track your stats by position, hand, etc is all very helpful. Obviously you only get out of it what you put into it, but basically it's just a huge database of every hand you've ever played against every player and you can sort and view things almost however you want to.

That's it for this week, next week should be back to Fridays since I'll be back in town, but shortly after that I'm heading out to Foxwoods so the schedule might get kinda weird again for a while.

-Rizen