Rush Poker

Rush Poker is the latest innovation to online poker and is exclusive to Full Tilt Poker. They are patenting it, so we may not see anything quite like it for a long while. Rush Poker puts players into a giant pool of players rather than segregating them by table. So rather than selecting from 100 tables of $.5/1 Hold ‘em, you instead join a pool of 1,000 players at that stake. You are taken to a table and a hand is dealt normally. Once you fold a hand, or the hand otherwise ends you are moved to a new table and a new hand immediately begins. If you use the auto-fold option things move even quicker as you won’t even need to wait for the action to reach you.

This is all well and good, more hands per hour seems like a good thing. But, skilled players all want to know: Does Rush Poker increase bottom line?

Rush Poker Rakeback

It does in one obvious aspect; it increases your rakeback exponentially. When you are playing Rush Poker, you double or triple the number of hands you play per hour. You will often see 200 or 300 hands per hour while playing Rush Poker. Some players may see even more! Full Tilt Poker’s rake is determined by the dealt method so you are not punished at all for folding and seeing hands quicker. So basically you can throw away trash hands as quickly as possible, see more hands instantly and still get tons of rakeback. By playing Rush Poker, players will more than double their rakeback payments over a traditional game of online poker.

There are also schools of fish flocking to Rush Poker. Fish love gimmicks, and Rush Poker is the hottest gimmick of the moment. However, Rush Poker is more than a gimmick. It is the first time an online poker site has really taken advantage of the fact that we are playing on virtual tables. Rather than just speeding up dealing, chip movement or rebuying, Rush Poker cuts out all of the down time in poker. It allows you to play hand after hand after hand rather than waiting for a hand to finish. It eliminates the annoyances of someone taking too long on an easy pre-flop decision, someone timing out after a disconnect or waiting to fold 7-2.

Rush Poker Strategy

Strategy: Rush Poker plays like traditional Texas Hold ‘em, and the tight aggressive play style remains the best way to exploit the weak players trying out Rush Poker. However, some meta game changes occur.

Weak players play too many hands and go too far with their hands for two reasons. First, they don’t understand hand values, and overvalue weak hands. Second, they are playing for fun and folding continually is no fun. Rush Poker eliminates some of the boredom of folding too often. A new hand is always just a fold away, so expect weak players to play utter trash less often. They will still play far too many hands, but do not expect to see the bottom tier of holdings. Likewise, after the flop expect slightly fewer calls with absolutely nothing. But, post flop play should change minimally.

One problem that emerges is it is more difficult to identify weak players. You are no longer sitting at one table for an extended period of time, so you cannot observe play styles over time. Instead, you will have to rely more on tracking software, HUDs, and traditional hand reading skills from hand to hand.

Stealing presents even more opportunities in Rush Poker. Since players are given an incentive to use the auto fold option, there will be less resistance to steals. Likewise, continuation betting should be more effective post flop. The nature of Rush Poker also serves to disguise your play. Even a weak player can see it is odd that a player has open raised several hands in a row, but in Rush Poker you will be stealing from different groups of players each hand.

But, in theory Rush Poker should play the same as any other Hold ‘em game with the exception that stealing should be easier and reads are slightly more difficult without software. With all of that in mind, if you are sick of waiting around in between hands and like the idea of earning more rakeback, give Rush Poker a try. Not a member of Full Tilt Poker? Click here to sign up for 27% rakeback.