Rush Poker is an interesting new spin for our beloved game from Full Tilt Poker. Basically it is the same as a regular poker game; except that as soon as you fold your hand, you are immediately dealt into a new hand, at a new table, with all new opponents.

What this means is that the speed of poker is greatly increased. It is a “rush”. This might is good if you are a winning player, because it means that you will get to see many more hands per hour. What is more important, however, is to focus in on the unique aspects of this game and make some strategic adjustments.

It’s Virtually Anonymous

This is a plus and a minus. If you are good at getting a handle and reading your opponents then your advantage is almost wiped out in Rush Poker. On the other hand they will not get a read on you either.

Every hand that you play, you are against a table of new opponents. They have no idea how you play, and you have no idea how they play. What this means is that you generally want to play a solid plain vanilla poker game. It doesn’t matter if you’ve folded your last 30 hands in a row; when you open with AA, no one will know how tight you’re playing and won’t fear your bet any more than they would fear anyone else’s. No one can use hand tracking software to determine your playing style.

You won’t be able to tell the sharks from the fish, but most of your money will as usual likely come from the fish who play sub-optimally. They’ll play cards out of position, overpay to draw cards, and call even when they’re beat. Pay close attention to your position!

Some Important Considerations

It’s important to remember that players have the option of folding even before the action gets to them. If they are dealt a poor hand it is unlikely that they are going to sit through a round of betting just to try to make a move to try to win the pot. If you raise from early position and the small blind or a late position player calls, watch out. They probably have something.

It may make sense to call a raise in late position if someone right in front of you raised as many are doing this with no cards to pick up the blinds. It depends, but that late position player will often just click the fold button so they can get the next hand immediately dealt to him.

This doesn’t apply to the big blind. The big blind doesn’t have the option to instant-fold because he already has a stake in the hand.

The Strategy

So far, I have said that the best strategy in this game is to play tight fundamental poker and to raise in late position with a wider range to pick up the blinds. While this strategy is good and will allow you to win small amounts somewhat consistently, there may be a few adjustments you make to increase your profit even more.

From playing a few thousand hands at these tables, it seems as if the vast majority of players play like a very tight nit. This means that you are able to loosen up your raising hands preflop. (NOT your calling hands, except for obvious steal attempts). If your raise gets called, you should be able to get away from your hand as the typical player in Rush Poker will have a real hand in this spot. The nice thing about blind stealing in Rush Poker is you get a new table of players every hand. So you don’t have to worry about the other players getting sick and tired of your constant stealing and calling or raising you.

Rush Poker is a unique and innovative game that those folks over at Full Tilt have developed. It may not be for everyone. I would say it benefits the Full Tilt Poker site the most since the more hands that are played the more of a rake they collect. That said, if you are an online poker fan, this is one game you definitely need to at least check out.