Eric Rizen Lynch

Ask Rizen - special Saturday edition

Real quick, I just want to address a comment someone made on the blog. To paraphrase, they basically said that they were tired of me making 'empty promises' to update more often, or specifically in this case that I would post an 'Ask Rizen' yesterday, also going on to say that my blog has been a 'disappointment' lately.

First off, I'm not posting this to jump down that person's throat. I think there is both some fair and some unfair criticism being made there. I think the fair part is that I do often say I will 'try to update more often' and that I will 'post such and such tomorrow' and it is more frequent than I'd like that I don't get a chance to do it. So, he's correct that I shouldn't make promises that I can't keep. With that in mind, I'm still keeping the M/W/F schedule with the 'Ask Rizen' set for Fridays, but it's a very 'unofficial' schedule, and just a rough guideline for when I'm going to try and update. So please, no more hate mail and hate posts if I don't post on a given day.

The unfair part of the criticism is saying that I don't update often enough. There are dead periods sure, but the last 3-4 weeks, especially with the live events, there have been tons of updates. As far as higher profile poker players go, I keep my blog far more updated than most. In addition, if you haven't noticed the blog is ad free and does not require a subscription either. I have a professional life, and a family life, and then my personal life. The blog is something I do not to make money, but because I enjoy it and because I like to share with people. It's also an easy way to keep my friends and family updated when I'm on the road. But with the blog actually costing me money out of my pocket to run (hosting fees, the fees I pay to get my phone updates trascribed, etc) and not really contributing to either my professional or family life, it lies a distant third in terms of priorities in my life, so when things come up (in this particular instance I'm a day late because my daughter was very sick yesterday, and that kept me very busy and distracted me enough I never got around to posting) the blog is one of the first things I put on the back burner.

With all that in mind, I will do my best to manage expectations and not make promises that I may or may not be able to deliver on. In turn, I ask that you be understanding that this is as of right now something I do for fun and to try and communicate with my fans and fellow poker players. I'm flattered that me missing one post could cause enough of a disruption in people's lives to warrant some of the mail I receive when I miss one, but please be respectful of my time and effort and realize that there are many circumstances that could cause me to miss a post, and pretty much all of them are much more important to me.

I apologize for the introductory rant, here's this week's Q&A:

Q: I recently read an article about a guy who played in WSOP, did well, placed like 41st, but more importantly said he followed your methodology in a pokerstars millions tourney that you won  He said somehow he was able to track the strategy and thought process you used during the final table(s) of the tourney.  Not sure if it was on a repeat that pokerstars had on their site or on a blog somewhere, but I'm interested to follow/read it as well.  The man in the article said you thought about things at a different level and I'm interested in some of the things he was talking about.  Don't worry, I have a steady job and play maybe once a month, so I'm certainly not any sort of threat.  Just an interested fellow poker player.  If you can steer me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.  Thank you much.

A: This is in regards of the final table commentary I did on PokerStars after my $1 million final table win. This was actually done using PokerStars software to replay the final table with hole cards exposed as I typed out my thoughts and commentated on the play. I know of a few sites where you can find it, unfortunately all the places I know of where it exists are also sites that carry pirated/copyrighted material so I don't feel super comfortable mentioning it here. A good googler could probably come up with the answer, or a post over on 2+2 or something might steer you in the right direction.

Q: Eric, if you lost your bankroll and you had to start with $50.00 again what
limits would you play and where?

A: Honestly I have no clue. I was blissfully ignorant of actual bankroll guidelines and requirements when I first started out. I just deposited $50 and played the lowest limits at the time, and fortunately never went broke. If I for some reason really had to start over again I'd probably grind micro sit and goes until my bankroll got high enough to do the 4/180s on Stars and then build those up to the 20/180s on Stars. Once I got up over $1000 or so I'd probably start playing some $25 buy in no limit as well. The really really micro stakes cash games are almost like play money, and I feel like sit and goes gets rid of a lot of the variance in those by capping your losses.

Q: What is the best resource to learn how to play MTT's like a pro?

Also, is it possible to implement this successfully in the micro stakes tourneys at Stars, in light of the huge fields of "donkeys" playing these tournaments?

A: I don't know that there is any one 'best' resource. There are just lots of really good resources available. Obviously I'm going to point you towards www.pokerxfactor.com where I am a guest pro and make both MTT and cash videos. I think that's as good as place as any to get started but really you need to gather information from a variety of sources and incorporate them into your game wherever it fits.

As far as strategy and micro stakes goes, you have to 'dumb things down' a little and play only second and maybe third level poker and really just play super straight forward and let them make mistakes to donk off their chips. A big part of poker is making less mistakes than your opponents do. At lower stakes that often just means waiting for them to make mistakes and then hoping they don't get lucky. At higher stakes it involves deeper thinking and doing things to encourage your opponents to make mistakes they won't naturally make on their own. The micro stakes don't require any of this deeper thinking, but that's not to say that you can't use advanced strategy on them, you just can't use any that requires your opponent to need to think, like multi-street bluffs etc.

Q: In a table with a mix of LAG, TAG, and weak/tight, players.... where is your ideal seat? And does this change depending on if it's a cash game or a MTT?

A: I'm going to go kind of backwards on this question. It doesn't matter if it's a cash game or MTT to me. I want the LAG players to my right to act before me, the TAG players on my left so I can raise fairly unobstructed. I don't really care where the weak/tight players are that much, although it's probably a little better when they're on my right so that I can isolate them and exploit their weaknesses heads up.

-Rizen