Eric Rizen Lynch

Ask Rizen

Sorry I didn't post this Friday. To be perfectly honstly I only had one question as of Friday, but I got a bunch this weekend so I'm going to do this slightly 'late' and do 3 of the questions I received and save the rest for this Friday.

Q: I am looking for individuals to complete a 5 minute survey on luck and gambling for my doctorate. I hope you can help. I would be sincerely grateful.

A: Not exactly a traditional question, but I think supporting academic research on poker only bolsters the position that it is a skill game. If you are interested in helping Helen complete her doctorate study on luck and control in gambling you can e-mail her at Helen.soteriou@ntu.ac.uk and she can send you a link to the survey she is running.

Q: What has worked for you when playing small pocket pairs. (77-22) Relative to internet poker? In the past I have always called the BB or even a reasonable raise to see a flop. If I hit a set on the flop I bet the pot or better, sometimes I put all of my chips in. I tend to fold if I don't hit a set on the flop unless there are little or no bets... then I may check or call a blind for a shot at the turn. Occasionally I will deviate if I hit a set on the flop, and check  to trap. If I see a big bet on the flop I usually always fold the small pair. I figure that most internet players are playing premium cards AA, AK, QQ, A 10, AQ etc. Without a set I figure the small pair is for the most part useless.

A: Well, there are a lot of things I think about regarding small pocket pairs before deciding if I want to play them. The first is how likely I am to get paid off if I hit my set. This often has to do with where the original raiser raised from (if they raise in late position they are less likely to have a hand than in early position. When you are playing for set value you want them to have a hand that can pay you off when you hit). It has a lot to do with the player too. Tighter players tend to have more legitimate hands in their range, and better players tend not to stack off as frequently with overpairs while some weaker players will go broke with top pair type hands. Overall I just try and assess how likely I am to get paid off when I hit. The other major question I ask myself is if I can ever win the pot without hitting a set. Is the player the type who will fire once and give up if he misses? Is there some other read I have that would allow me to win the pot? I think about all of these factors then decide if it is worth it to call with the effective stacks. I often want to be calling off no more than 5% of effective stacks with a small pair just for set value. That being said, if I know the player is poor or is very likely to have a big hand, I will call as much as 10% of my stack at times, and even more than that if I think I can win the pot without a set. My general rule of thumb is about 5% of effective stacks though.

Q: Do you already know your WSOP schedule(the events you are going to enter) or do you wait to see until how you feel from day to day?

A: I haven't ever really planned my WSOP schedule in advance. I'm targetting 12-15 events this year and I have a pretty rough outline for the events I want to enter, but a lot of my schedule depends on how many day 2s I make and how I'm feeling from day to day. I'm not renting a house for the entire series this year and am flying back and forth from Kansas a few times, so my schedule will be lighter than the last few years, but I should still get in a fair amount of events.

-Rizen