Rush Poker Strategy

January 22nd, 2010

Rush Poker Strategy

Full Tilt Poker this week released a new innovative form of poker known as Rush Poker. In Rush Poker, when you fold a hand, you are instantly moved to another table and dealt a new hand. The results is a constant stream of poker hands, resulting in hand per hour rates as high as 300 hands per hour for a single table of poker.

At present, Rush Poker is only offered at low stakes and the most action is currently at the low stakes NL Holdem games up to $1 – $2 NL. For as little as $4, you can take part in this new wave in poker. The big question on a lot of players minds is how that one should play this new style of poker.

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First, realize that you are going to have a hard time picking up reads on a person’s play due to the fact that you might see the player only a couple of times an hour. That is assuming you or they play that long. You will see many more hit and run players in this game. Also, you will see a lot of short stacks play this game.

While poker is indeed situational, the style that you will want to employ with the most frequency is a tight-aggressive strategy. Using this strategy means that you are going to stick with mainly the top 10 to 20 hands, taking position into account as needed.

First, I’m going to work backwards in talking about Rush Poker as opposed to most strategy guides. Aces, kings, and even queens are pretty simple to figure out how you are going to play them. However, small pairs and even late position can be tricky. Let’s first start with late position. In late position, I am going to be looking to raise with small pairs, big aces A-10 through A-K , and two big suited cards. I may take a flyer on a suited ace or two big unsuited cards. Otherwise, I am going to muck many more hands than some would recommend in this position. I am looking to give myself the best advantage when I am in a hand. Unlike many cash games where you are waiting sometime up for an hour to get a playable hand, the speed of this game allows you to be more selective in your hands.

In middle position, I am going to stay away from probably any hand less than A-9 suited if there hasn’t been a raise. If there has been a raise, I am first going to look at the size of the raise and how many players are in the hand. If noone has called the raise before it reaches me, if the raise is less or equal than 10% of my stack, I am going to probably call it with a small pair. I am wanting to hit my 12% for a set in order to stay in the hand in many cases. A-K and A-Q suited I am going to probably see a flop with and hope to hit hard. A-J and less I am going to get out of the way. Obviously, I am probably re-popping with aces, kings, and even queens.

I am opening with A-J suited and up in early position. Other hands I am just calling here. If I am re-popped after my opening raise, depending on the size, I am probably just calling with 10’s and jacks. I will probably push back with higher. A-K and A-Q are going to depend on the raise amount.

Let’s talk a bit about raising. I am going to give the short stack with just $3 or $4 in his stack more credit for his raise than I am Mr. $42.34. Also, beware the min-raise, especially in early position. Don’t play back at him unless you have a hand, and if you take a flyer on a hand to the flop, you need to hit to stay in. Granted, this isn’t always the case, but you will get a feel for when it is.

I personally love playing these games short stacked. It cuts down on the amount of decisions you have to make and players will either play one of two ways against you. In many cases they will A. give you credit since you are short, or B. they will try and buy more pots from you when you are short. Big stacks will tend to push against you when you are short. This allows you to get paid off nicely when you have hit your hand.
The old saying of “tight is right” is the best rule to apply at many levels of this game due to the sheer speed of the game. It is highly addictive due to the speed and you will find that grinding will become less of a grind. This very possibly will be the future of many cash games online and if so, it is a welcome change to the norm.