What is Rush Poker?
Rush Poker is the newest offering at Full Tilt Poker. Rush Poker isn’t different from regular Texas hold’em in terms of the basic rules. You still have two hole cards, a round of betting, a flop, a round of betting, a turn, a round of betting, a river, and a final round of betting. That is, you have all that, if you’re interested in staying in for all that action. If you fold, though, you don’t have to sit in on all of it. As soon as you fold, you don’t have to watch any more of the action. You just go to another table, get dealt in, and move on to your next hand.
What are the Advantages over Regular Poker?
The first and most obvious advantage of Rush Poker over regular Texas holdem games is that the action is much faster. For players who can’t effectively multi-table but find it boring to have to wait until the end of every hand even if they’ve folded, Rush Poker is a great solution. While a player could move to a different table in a regular holdem game, they’d have to pay the big blind each time, and the move would take time, and they’d have to wait for the next deal anyway. On Full Tilt’s Rush Poker, all of that has been taken care of. The player who hasn’t played big blind in the most hands is the big blind, and the move to a new table is instant. The new table is ready to begin a new hand immediately.
The second advantage for many players is the fact that players don’t get a chance to learn each other’s style. This is of particular advantage if you have a particular style and many of your regular opponents have figured out how to beat you. It is also a particular advantage if you want to try different play styles.
The Third advantage is the Rush Poker Bonus. Playing rush poker makes it quick and easy to earn points towards your Full Tilt Poker Bonus.
What are the Disadvantages of Rush Poker?
One large disadvantage of Rush Poker is that you don’t get to know your opponents. Since a substantial part of poker strategy is learning how to read your opponents, changing tables almost every hand takes that element out of the game entirely. Another disadvantage is that you get no social aspect to your poker game. You don’t get to chat with people and get to know them, but for many poker players this is less of a disadvantage. The other disadvantage is that strategy needs to be adjusted for the type of game, and then players who are used to Rush Poker will be at a disadvantage in tournaments or regular ring games where a different strategy is required.
How Does the Strategy Differ?
There is some disagreement as to how to play Rush Poker best. Some claim that a tight game is best, since any hole cards that don’t look great can be dumped instantly and you’ll be moved to another hand with different hole cards. Others claim that since most players play a very tight game, a loose game will take more pots. Almost all experts agree that an aggressive game is better than a passive game, since most players will fold to any raise unless they hold a very good hand.
While Rush Poker is an interesting twist on poker and is a blast to play, it won’t become the main game of online poker anytime soon.
