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Rush Poker by Full Tilt Poker
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

As I write this I'm playing Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker, which, if you don't already know, means it is very hard to write this.  Folks, I may be jumping the gun, but I think this is a game changer.  I'm absolutely amazed at the idea and very excited about the concept.  Whoever thought up this idea deserves a move out of the cubicle and a monster bonus/raise.

So for those that don't know, Rush Poker is a cash game where you are added to a queue of a ton of other players.  When you start play, you have one table of action.  When you fold, you are immediately moved to a new table in the same room to begin a new hand.  There could be upwards of 2000+ players in one room, so there are always new hands starting.  Also, there is an option to quick fold, which means even if the action has not gotten to you, you can quick fold and move on to the next hand.  So that's the gist of it...

Let's dig a little deeper, shall we?



The Good

Where do I start?!  Okay I'll give it a go...
  • It's hella fast paced.
  • You can start and stop whenever you want, but when you start, it is ON.
  • When you fold (or quick fold) a hand you immediately start a new hand (hence the difficulty in writing this post while playing).
  • There seems to be no jack assery in the chat since you immediately move on to a new table of players.  It would take a reall asshat to remember your screen name and come chase you down to talk shit.
  • You really get down to the nuts and bolts of the game.  There is no table selection and trying to keep tabs on a player becomes virtually impossible with how fast the action is.  You are really just playing pure poker.  you make the best play possible for the situation at hand and then you move on.  It will take a new software or a fast pen and pad to remember anything in a particular hand or table.
  • You can get in so many more hands in a session because the action never stops as long as you are in play.
  • You receive credit/points for any hand you play as long as there is a rake - this includes even if you fold or quick fold during a hand and move on to a new hand at a new table.
  • At least in my short experience, it seems players are more likely to fold to a raise more often because they feel empowered to move on to a new table and new hand.  It's as if the action manipulates players into folding more often.
  • You can get a monster amount of points if you multi-table, especially if you do so during happy hour for double points!


The Bad

Interestingly, much of The Good is also The Bad depending on your views and style of play.
  • It's hella fast paced.  If that's not your thing, lucky for you there are other tables to choose from.
  • There's no table talk, no interaction with other players and no chance to really connect with anyone.
  • There's no chance to have friends rail your table or chat at your table because you are always moving after every hand.  Girly chat will be hella difficult with Rush Poker.
  • There is no table selection and no real chance to peg a player for a particular style unless you had a previous note.
  • I'm grasping here folks...I need some peoples to add more of The Bad in my comments.  Really I've just stopped playing so I could actually type and I'm just ready to get back to the tables.


The Ugly

I've got nothing here.  So far I'm really digging this.  I'll at least add one...
  • I envision many people trying to poo poo this concept because it is so radical to the game.  Let us not forget the many radical changes to poker that many disliked in the beginning.  Some hated tournaments when they were introduced.  Some hated Texas Hold'em when it was introduced.  Some hated satellites when they were introduced.  All I gotta say is give this a chance.
I'd be very interested to hear as many comments as possible to this post as this new idea is very interesting to me.  It's right up my alley as I love innovation in the poker world.

Thanks Full Tilt Poker for not sitting on your hand until it falls asleep so you can feel like some other poker room is jackin' you off.  You are controlling your own destiny.  It makes sense for you to push as many tables and hands as possible and you created a game that will appeal to the masses and is in your best interest.  That's business 101 right there folks.  There is a reason why the Super Turbo SNGs are tearing it up and Full Tilt just took notice and progressed to the next best thing...

That's pimp.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 9:14 PM,

17 Comments:

At 10:18 PM, Blogger Katitude said...

i think I may love the rush games...that's the fastest I've tripled my buy in ever!

 
At 10:55 PM, Blogger I'm Freaking Wasted Man said...

I love it! It ties into my nut peddling ways and I've only been sucked out on once so far.
I can't wait to hear how more people think either.

Bad and prob not Ugly with the levels available, I would say the new blind situation. With it always being whoever it has been the longest for post the BB give the SB to a random player. I haven't analyzed this angle a ton yet but the more I think about it this could be a Good. Hmmmmm........or maybe I'm just high. :)

buddydank

 
At 1:13 AM, Blogger OhCaptain said...

I doubled my buy in in just a couple of minutes. I likey. Trapping was easy and fun!

 
At 9:21 AM, Blogger Littleacornman said...

I love the Rush too.Good post sir and I hope you don't mind me pinching your explanation of the game paragraph!

 
At 9:52 AM, Blogger Mike Heffner said...

yeah, it's fun, but watch it turn into a nitfest once people realize how to play optimally with no real reads on players.

It is nice how it make datamining and HUDs virtually worthless, though

 
At 10:35 AM, Blogger Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

Taking away the ability to read players or make any decisions based on what you put together about their play has got to be bad for the more skilled players out there. I will check it out but my sense is that it does not take off well. We'll see.

 
At 10:35 AM, Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

I think it is a cockswill abomination of Poker. I will try it though. I think it makes HUD and Datamining MORE important not less so Heffmike. Only way you can get reads on anyone is to datamine the fuck out of everyone.

 
At 10:47 AM, Blogger matt tag said...

HUDs are worthless, SirFWALGMan.

Even if you datamined and had a million hands for everyone in the game, your HUD won't be showing the correct stats for the players at your table, it will be showing the stats for the players at the table from one hand ago, which are all different players.

I disagree that it will become a nitfest. People started off nitty last night, so I stole blinds with abandon. They I started threebetting from the blinds with any two cards to prevent people from stealing my blinds. This worked really well - I 3bet at 12% for a 1000 hand session (this is an insane number for a normal ring game session, esp for a nit like me). I expect that adjustments will be made to counter the 3betting (trapping, 4betting light, etc), and then adjustments will be made to counter these adjustments, and some sort of equilibrium will be reached, but I can't tell you what that equilibrium will be.

 
At 11:08 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

It's not poker, just the new flavor of the week. It's not Hold Em 2.0 either...how some people can claim that it's revolutionary or game changing is crazy to me. The fact that you can't come up with any concrete negatives is rather surprising too.

Don't get me wrong. It's a lot of fun...and I have put in over 1500+ hands of rush poker, but it's level one thinking, high-volume rake back, poker.

If it brings more casual players over to Full Tilt, I'm all about the innovation, but to pretend this is the new Coca-Cola is foolish. Anonymous tables? Maybe. But this goofy format? No way.

 
At 11:09 AM, Blogger Schaubs said...

I made $15 in 15 minutes at the lowest level last night. ABC poker plus a few extra gears post flop seemed to work. Post flop is where you can out play most of the weak tights.

Good post dude.

 
At 11:33 AM, Blogger Sean G said...

My first impression is not as positive as everyone elses, as I can't play my usual game. However, when it comes to poker overall, I think this is a great innovation. There's no question that it should appeal to the casual player, or the goof who wants to gamble it up. Perfect game for that, and for action junkies. I also really appreciate that it eliminates the advantage of HUDs and datamining.

However, in my limited experience, all I saw was that it tightened the game way the F up. Admittedly, I didn't put in near the volume as the others here, but I played 100 hands or so of .05/.10 and didn't see one flop with more than two players involved. It was just one .70 pot after another. Of course, these were only pots where I was involved, since I obviously didn't stick around to see the others.

I'll give it another try, but I am not too optimistic for myself... but like I said, I think it's a great idea for FTP and I am happy they introduced it.

One change that I really noticed... I went to play .05/.10 PLO last night, and there wasn't one full-ring game going. Not one, not even a .02/.05. Usually, I can find two or three, sometimes five. I assumed that everyone was too busy playing Rush Poker, but I kind of wonder if eliminating the short stacks (a move I've advocated) has dried up a bit of the action. I'll be real curious to see if I can round up some micro PLO full ring action next Monday...

 
At 12:28 PM, Anonymous BJ Nemeth said...

Excellent summary, TripJax. We'll likely be discussing Rush Poker on The Poker Beat tomorrow afternoon.

 
At 4:55 PM, Blogger BWoP said...

It's perfect if you want to play for a short period of time just to get your poker fix.

On the other hand, I don't play a lot of cash games online because it takes away from some of my strengths, and RP exacerbates that even more. (Table image, reads, etc.)

 
At 6:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't love that if I fold a hand on the turn or river, I don't see the conclusion to know if I made the right play.

 
At 5:03 PM, Anonymous fuel said...

if anyone thinks playing like a nit in rushpoker is correct they are a nutcase

 
At 2:24 PM, Anonymous theboylaz said...

That is the best poker innovation in a very long time. Loved every second of my first session

 
At 9:45 AM, Anonymous uk bingo said...

then how long did it take for you to finish writing? that's quite amazing, writing while playing, and take note "RUSH" poker, wow.... wow! I can't even imagine how many words or sentence could you write after or while shifting tables.

 

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