Full Tilt Poker is again leading the way in the online poker world with their new Rush Poker feature, and after playing a few hands it becomes obvious that this is going to be a game changer for online poker. Love it or hate it, Rush Poker is already very popular and grinders who learn how to beat these games stand to make some real money.

If you haven't played Rush Poker yet, here are the basics:

When you join a Rush game, you don't sit at a specific table, you join a large pool of players. Immediately you find yourself seated at a table and cards are being dealt. Seating is random, and the big blind is on the player who has gone the longest without paying it. As soon as you see your cards there is an advance action button labeled Quick Fold. If you have 94o in middle position, you can just hit the quick fold button and the table disappears and you are seated at another table and the cards are being dealt. Some hands take less than a second to play. The software waits for your turn and folds your hand, but you're already gone so what do you care?
If you choose to play the hand, everything happens normally, and as soon as your involvement in the hand ends you are seated at a new table receiving cards. The pace is fast, but it doesn't feel rushed because you have the same amount of time to make your decision as if you were playing a single table. The time that is eliminated is all the wasted time you would have spent waiting for the next hand, and you definitely won't miss it.

Of importance to many grinders is the minimum 40 big blind buy-in for the Rush tables. This is imperative because these tables would be the prefect place for short stackers. If the 20 big blind buy-in minimum from the regular cash tables were allowed at these tables, the short stackers would run roughshod over these tables.

While Rush Poker does offer a huge quantity of hands per hour, with some multi-tablers reporting as many as 1,000 hands per hour, it also poses some problems for those of us who are used to multi-tabling these games. Some strategy adjustments will be necessary to achieve the best win rates, and I've compiled a few of my ideas about how to beat these games as well as some predictions about how this new game will affect the poker world.

The biggest difference between multi-tabling the old games and playing Rush Poker is that tracking software like PokerTracker and Holdem Manager is currently useless at these tables. These programs require at least one hand to be played at a table before they are able to show the player stats in a heads up display, and since each hand is at a new table, the stats that display are from the previous hand and are irrelevant. The creators of these programs are smart people and they will probably figure out a way around this at some point, but for now the grinders are stuck trying to make reads on opponents that they have no numbers on.

The lack of a useful HUD makes notes very valuable, especially if you have color coded your notes. I expect that color coded notes files will be for sale from one of the hand history resellers before long, and they will provide a huge advantage for those who purchase them. Until that happens and the ethical issues involved with it are figured out there is another solution. Each of the aforementioned programs have a players tab where you can see a list of all the players you have in your database. If you have this open, you can look up a player within a few seconds if you have a tough decision to make. It's not as easy as a good HUD, but it's a lot better than flying completely blind. Taking your own notes and using Full Tilt's color coding system will also be helpful.

Because most players won't use this sort of thing, playing solid poker is the best choice right now, and the players who make the most money in these games will probably be those who play a very formulaic style. When your opponents don't have a HUD, and most of them aren't taking the time to take notes because they want to move on to the next hand, there is no reason to worry about playing an overly predictable style.

There will be an abundance of players trying out crazy styles on these tables, especially over the first few weeks, and making sure to take notes on players who are hyper aggressive, very loose, or frequent three-bettors, will be important.

Rakeback is going to be very important at these tables. A player playing 800 hands per hour at a $100NL 6max Rush table can expect to pay around $100 an hour in rake, so a 27% rakeback deal would give this player an extra $27 an hour in rakeback. I expect you'll see "rakeback grinders" become more common in these games, players who are close to break even in winnings who make their money from rakeback.

If we make the same assumption of 800 hands per hour for a multi-tabler playing Full Tilt Poker Rush games, we can make some assumptions about possible win rates. Four big blinds per 100 hands shouldn't be too tough to achieve in these games, and that win rate would yield 32 big blinds per hour, and when added to rakeback this offers a typical solid player around $60 per hour. That's a pretty good win rate for a small game and much higher win rates will certainly be possible for the best players.

Simple strategy adjustments might increase win rates as well. Many players in these games are impatient to get to the next hand, so opening for a minimum raise may win the blinds more often because so many players are using the quick fold buttons. Small blind surrenders will also be more common, and the fact that a player in the small blind has any interest in the hand may be a tell in and of itself because most players are quick folding the small blind unless they have a big hand. Otherwise they have to wait for the whole table before they find out whether they can attempt to steal from the big blind.

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes from these games and how it affects the world of online poker. I expect other sites to offer something similar soon, the number of players at these tables has already proven how many people are interested in fast paced poker.

Join Fox at the tables at pokerprosnetwork.net/chriswallace.html

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