Basic Rush Poker Strategy: A First Look



Full Tilt Poker turned the online poker world on its head this week when it introduced a new poker variety called Rush Poker.  Many of you have probably already tried it out, but for those of you who have not, I'll give you the quick rundown. In Rush Poker, the game is exactly the same as regular poker (Full Tilt only has No Limit Hold'em Rush tables going right now) except that when you fold or the hand ends, whichever comes first, you are immediately whisked off to a new table where a new hand is dealt instantly.  Because of this constant table shuffling, you do not select your table to start.  You simply enter a lobby with everyone else at the same game and stakes and the system seats you automatically.  You will play against different opponents every hand, although you will encounter opponents you have seen in previous hands if you play enough.  After all, there is a limited number of players sitting at the tables. I have tried a few sessions of Rush Poker and, while I am certain the dynamic of the game will change over time, I have a come up with a few basic strategy points ...

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4 Comments

oats

Great, so you’ll win the blinds more often and you will know that when people stay in your weak hands are likely beat. Sounds like a great way to win a little money while losing even more. Please keep it up.


dofus kamas

I fully expect the game to change over time as people figure out how best to play Rush Poker, but for now, what I laid out here should give you a base from which to start……


desperad0oo7

is it worth waiting to steal the blinds when you can just keep folding to drag down a big pot with good holdings? I don’t think so. never mind the reverse implied odds when you’re called and hit top pair with your medium hand and lose to overpairs or better kickers. I think the idea of playing opposite of your opponents goes out of the window here. you can literally play only JJ+ AQ+ and set mine only and still get action.

If your opponents’ range is something like AJ+ 88+ then you can make your money playing with AQ+ and JJ+ facing raises. it’s a waste of time, and so money, to try and steal blinds with marginal holdings when you can find these situations by folding early. the reason stealing is important in normal NL is that you’re not giving up the chance to be dealt a better hand when you attempt to steal. here you are.


incendiary

The blinds are a bit tricky to distribute in Rushpoker as there are always new players at each table every hand. Fulltilt claims that the blinds are random with it going to the player who has gone the longest without being in the blind. Now I would guess that sometimes I would be in the blinds quite often and sometimes I would be in the blind not so often. I would also guess that it would even be possible to go more than 9 hands without being in the blinds as it would be possible to go 9 hands being in the blind every hand. My problem began when I started to notice that I was in the blinds way to often and began to count using the hand history option available on fulltilt. In fact I was in the blinds over 10,000 hands every 4th hand. I play primarily 0.5/0.10 stakes. Very simple math can show you the tax I was playing to play Rushpoker. This was even greater when I played rushpoker for higher stakes. Thus I was paying double (or more) the amount of blinds I would pay at a regular ring game of 9 players.

I wrote to Fulltilt on a number of occasions to inquire and I furnished them with my hand histories. After a few back and forths they said the matter was closed and they would no longer answer questions ion the matter. My guess is that in order for the rushpoker to function properly the software chooses a few unlucky saps to suck up the blinds (everytime they play). I am unfortunately one of them. Over the course of probably 100,000 hands I am in the blind at least every 4th hand. The fulltilt rep even had the nerve to write saying that one could be in the blinds every hand over 20,000 hands. In the language of the internet LOL. Please beware of the blinds in Rushpoker. I am curious if anyone else has experienced the same. PLease post if you have.

Thanks


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