Eric Lynch is better known as "Rizen", professional poker player. He's a dedicated professional and student of the game. In May 2006, Eric won the PokerStars $1 million-guaranteed tournament. With a Million Dollar pot, Eric took home 1st place which awarded him $156,000. During the summer of 2006, he entered four events at the *World Series of Poker* and managed to cash in on two of them for more than $600,000. Eric placed 3rd for nearly $105,000 in pot-limit Hold'em event No. 3 and 24th place in another event for more than $497,000 in the main event. He has written numerous columns for PocketFives.com and has been a guest instructor on PokerXFactor.com.
Eric is grounded in life. He believes he is just another guy with a passion for poker, who has been able to parlay that into success, by spending a lot of time analyzing and thinking about the game. When he writes columns, makes instructional videos, or teaches students, his goal is always to get people to not only learn how to play various hands from various positions, but to truly learn how to think like a poker player.
In 2006 Eric cashed for over $1.5 million in tournaments. $600k of that was from last year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) while $900k was from online winnings. All of that was earned by only playing a grand total of 6 live tournaments (2 WPT events and 4 WSOP events).
Eric has a wife and two children. Corbin who is 2 years old, and Kira who is 5 months old. Eric credits his success largely in part because of his supportive family. Eric previously was a Software Engineer in Kansas City. He was at a point where his work was demanding 60-70 hours per week in 2006 but Eric found himself making more money playing online poker in his spare time. Eric's son Corbin was just over 1 years old at the time and he felt like he wasn't spending enough time with him. Eric never played poker till he went to sleep. He wasn't getting home from the office till 7-8 p.m. most nights. Eric and his wife had saved all of the money they made from 2004 through 2006 and had a few years worth of salary saved so he talked his wife into agreeing to let him quit his job. He gave her a two month period to prove that he could support their family on his poker earnings from online poker and tournaments. The first weekend after he quit, Eric won the Empire $200k (an online tournament) for $54k and at the end of the second month he had won the PokerStars $1M for over $156k and they haven't looked back since.
Eric brings his family with him on most trips to share his experience with his family and to spend quality time he would otherwise miss out on. Eric is able to spend more time with his children that most Dads do not have the opportunity to do.
Eric was ranked the #1 player in the world for online poker in 2006. In 2007 he is normally ranked around 6th in the world for online poker because of the tournaments that he attends physically. He is not able to spend as much time online. The bigger tournaments he needs to enter are at the Casino's. Bluff magazine's June 2007 issue listed Eric as one of the 6 players without a bracelet who could win one in 2007. The article includes the likes of John 'The Razor' Phan and Erick 'E-Dogg' Lindgren as well as some other pretty big names in poker.
Eric is often seen in Poker magazines, writing his own column, or on TV on the WPT and WSOP events. If you are interested in having Eric represent your Company by endorsing your products or by wearing your Company's name on his hat or shirt, please contact us.
In June 2007, Eric Lynch made his 2nd Final Table which was taped by ESPN. He went in short stacked in 9th and finished in 7th. Bluff Magazine named Eric Lynch as one of the six players that they feel will win a World Series of Poker Bracelets in 2007 that has yet to win one.