Strategy Adjustments for Rush
Poker
I've already expounded on the virtues of
Rush Poker in my complete
Full Tilt Poker review, which details
exactly what is so special about this form of online poker. In my
opinion, Rush Poker is the most significant evolution of online
poker since the Sit and Go tournament. Interestingly, Rush Poker
changes the game mechanics enough to warrant an entire subset of
play guidelines. This article will be entirely dedicated to Rush
Poker strategy and simple ways to adjust your comfortable ring
game routines to maximize your Rush Poker winnings.
Rush Poker has been called online poker
for the ADD population. While I suppose it would suit that purpose
it's simply a more engaging way to play online poker for those who
prefer to play 2 or more tables at once rather than stagnate and
"observe" the action at a single table. Unless you're new to online
poker, playing at high stakes, or recklessly playing with your
entire bankroll it's simply not incredibly entertaining to play a
single table at a hand per minute and wait for good starting hands.
Rush Poker at Full Tilt Poker is a tidy
alternative to playing multiple tables for players who already know
generally sound by-the-book poker strategy. Rush Poker largely takes
away those distracting emotional elements, whether they be
tilt-induced revenge on a player who sucked out on you or playing a
hand you know you shouldn't simply out of boredom. Rush Poker
strategy is largely that good old tight-aggressive cliché, although
from my thousands of Rush hands have picked up some adjustments that
should be used specifically for this variation.
Keep reading for simple Rush Poker
strategy tips that you can easily incorporate into your next playing
session to maximize your profits.
♠ Bookmark This Page ♠
More US poker information:
•
Why
Online Poker Isn't Illegal
•
US
Poker Reviews
•
Where to Play Poker from the US
1. Greatly Increase Your Blind Steals
in Rush Poker
It's virtually impossible to pick up
specific reads and tendencies of other players in Rush Poker. The
fact that your opponents change with every hand and that you have no
time to jot down player notes prevents players familiarity. Use this
anonymity to your advantage whenever you're in late position. The
other players have no idea that you've stolen the blinds with 6-2
for 5 consecutive hands on the blinds. At a traditional cash game
table your opponents will easily see through your blind-stealing
attempts and come back over the top of you after a while.
In Rush Poker, even if the blinds
suspect you're on a pure steal just about everyone's Rush Poker
strategy is to wait for quality hands in proper position. With
another hand (or 5) just split seconds away why bother to contest
the blinds? In Rush Poker it is unusually easy to rob the blinds.
With the blinds hitting you so much faster and you likely folding
almost all of your hands it's essential to recoup that cost. My Rush
Poker strategy is to raise 80-90% of the time from the last 2-3
positions when no one has entered the pot. Conversely, you can
increase your re-steals of raised pots from the button or blinds to
pick up some extra bets against other players trying the same thing.
2. Don't Waste Your Energy on
Advanced Plays
The majority of Rush Poker strategy
centers around the relative anonymity inherent to making decisions
in split seconds and being whisked away to a new table full of
different players. Strategy for standard cash games dictates that
you should mix up your betting patterns, throw in the occasional
bluff, trap aggressive players with check-raises or reraises, and
make other creative plays to keep your opponents from predicting
your game. Your Rush Poker strategy can toss these opponent-specific
strategy out the window.
Hands go by too quickly and your
opponents change so frequently that no one is going to know that you
always raise 3x the big blind with pocket Aces from early position.
You won't know who has been trying to run over the table and no one
will notice that you haven't pulled off a big bluff since 2007. With
Rush Poker strategy you can only base decisions off of your
position, starting hand, number of players in the pot, your
opponents' positions, and their betting patterns. With Rush Poker
largely removing the human element from play the necessity of
advanced plays is also removed. Focus on making good decisions based
on the limited information available rather than worrying about
mixing up your game.
3. Gain Information from Opponents
Using Quick-Fold
Rush Poker strategy is all about seeing
as many profitable hands as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Full Tilt
Poker accomplishes this by the quick-fold button, which tells
the software to automatically fold your hand when it's your turn
while you're immediately whisked away to a new table. Perceptive
players can also use this tidbit to gain additional pre-flop
information. If you raise a hand in early position and a subsequent
player has to take time to call or reraise you already know he has a
hand he intended to act upon otherwise he would have used the
quick-fold. While late position and small-blind players may have
simply been waiting to see if everyone folded so they could attempt
a blind steal once they do stay in a pot (especially if it's raised)
it's much more clear-cut that they have a legitimate starting hand
themselves.
The same could be said for standard cash
games but players tend to be much tighter with their Rush Poker
strategy due to the fact that they might only have to wait a minute
or two for a quality starting hand as opposed to 10 or 20 in a
standard game. Be especially wary of being cold-called or reraised
by the small-blind. Most players will wait in the small-blind for a
steal attempt but alarms should be going off when a player is
willing to invest several big blinds while being out of position the
entire hand.
4.
Adjust to the Increasing Tightness of
Rush Poker
As much as we don't care to admit it
frustration, boredom, and revenge (really, tilt, in other words)
contributes to the looseness of standard cash games. While you
certainly can get lucky in Rush Poker and run into a tilted player
it's much more common to run into the same tight-aggressive players
as yourself. Inherent Rush Poker strategy allows you sit back and
fold hand after hand until you pick up one in optimal position
that's worth playing. You can afford to be extremely picky when you
might see 10 hands in 30 seconds. This also means that you need to
make some adjustments to playing against such a tight field.
To start with, understand that the
average starting hand value goes up. Everyone knows that another
hand is just a second away so they wait until they
have a better hand, on average, than they might at a standard cash
game. Additionally, if you're used to just betting and betting with
pot-sized bets when you have a strong hand post-flop you might wish
to alter that for your Rush Poker strategy. Online poker is filled
with more apprehensive timid players these days and big bets can
easily scare them off when you want them to stick around. Try
decreasing your usual bet size to 1/2 or 2/3 of the pot and still
build a sizable pot over multiple streets. Other Rush Poker strategy
tidbits for tight games include increasing your continuation bet and
blind-steal frequency.
5. Position and Starting Hands Become
Even More Crucial
Just about every poker player
understands the massive value position and starting hand strength
have in No-Limit Hold'em. Combined with knowledge of your opponents'
tendencies, your image at the table, and the flow of the game you
can make reasonably well-informed decisions at standard tables. You
can throw out that last sentence in Rush Poker strategy where you
can't establish a player image or stick with the same players long
enough to learn their habits.
In Rush Poker position and starting hand
strength are some of the only keys you can use to gain an advantage.
In standard games you might be a bit more lax on playing out of
position or waiting for premium cards if you know you'll outplay the
rest of the table post-flop. If your Rush Poker strategy includes
habitually playing poor starting hands out of position you're simply
putting yourself at a disadvantage for the rest of the hand against
unknown opponents. You'll also be faced with difficult decisions
that slow down your game.
In closing, Rush Poker at
Full Tilt
Poker is a lot of fun
and can be extremely profitable. After all, you're cramming in 4-5
times as many hands into the same block of time so, in theory, you
can increase your hourly win rate by the same factor. While a solid
base in cash game strategy may be all you need to carry over to be a
winning Rush player by refining your game using some of these Rush
Poker strategy tips you can increase that hourly rate even further
and be prepared for the subtle changes you'll encounter. Below
you'll find a quick checklist summarizing the tips covered.
Quick Rush Poker Strategy Tips
Try stealing the blinds 80-90% of the time from late position if no
one has entered the pot. Rush players are extremely tight and
non-combative overall.
Play a straightforward game and don't waste your time on tricky
plays. There's no point disguising your game when no one has time to
pay attention to it.
Understand that there must be a reason players didn't use the
quick-fold once you raised.
Compensate for the increasingly tight games by stealing pots, making
continuation bets, and lowering your bet amounts when you want
action.
When you have so little external information to go on strengthen
what you can control: starting hand strength and position. Facing a
group of unknown players you want to gain as much of an advantage as
possible and being selective is the easiest way to do that.
•
Back to
Poker Strategy
•
Visit
our
US credit card page for a
selection of poker rooms that offer
block-free deposits from all US
cards.
If you enjoyed this, you might also like:
 ♥
Poker Rooms Accepting US Players
♥
Texas Hold'em Hand Strength
♥
Poker Rooms with Low Minimum Deposits
♥
Understanding Implied Odds
|
