Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?
Lynch: Like most people, after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, everyone was playing. I got invited to a lot of home games and I stunk. I got tired of losing money, so I started learning the game and tried to figure out what to do. One of my friends pointed me towards Party Poker and I put $50 on there and got really lucky at first. I ran my bankroll up to $300 and then it fell back down to $50 before I realized that I wasn’t very good. I started studying and started to take poker fairly seriously. Eventually, I got into tournaments. When I first started playing online in 2004, there were mainly just cash games available. I won an $11 rebuy on PokerStars in 2005 and it snowballed from there. I can’t point to any one incident that made things click. I just started running well.
PND: How do you balance your family life and poker life?
Lynch: I make sure to take two days per week off when I try and do nothing poker-related. It’s like the weekend for me. I try and start around the same time every day and play five to eight hours per day for a 40 hour week. Sundays are a little longer. I try to force myself to spend the rest of the time away. Poker is a very addictive game when you can put an hourly rate on the time that you’re not sitting in front of the computer, which can make it difficult not to spend as much time as possible on it. I’ve gotten to experience a lot with my kids and they are so important to me. It’s one of the main benefits of playing poker as a career. I wouldn’t have been able to have so many experiences with my kids if I played 70-80 hours per week.
PND: Talk about deriving strength from your family.
Lynch: They keep me very balanced. A lot of players have problems with bankroll management. I have four mouths to feed, including mine, and that depends on not doing irresponsible things with my money.
PND: You’re an author as well. How did you get into that?
Lynch: I’ve always enjoyed writing. For a period of time, I wrote for PocketFives, CardPlayer Magazine, and Bluff Magazine. Even before poker, at my software engineering job, I wrote documents (which are really boring). It’s a way for me to give back. When I was coming up, I learned a lot of things from books, forums, and good players that were willing to take their thoughts and put them on paper. I enjoy doing the same thing. It also helps me. It forces me to take a lot of ideas, think them out, and then articulate them. It helps me understand the concepts better. There are a lot of basics that, especially at a high level, you get away from. Getting back to the basics can help a lot, especially during a downswing. Forcing myself to explain constantly what I’m doing has helped me a lot and has helped me keep my play solid.
PND: What books did you find helpful?
Lynch: I read all of the standard books such as Theory of Poker and Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players. I read just about anything that I could get my hands on. When I first started, there were only a few good books out there. I’ve done so much that it reinforces concepts that I have. If I can only pick up one thing from reading a book, it’s worth thousands of dollars, so it’s worth it.