In early 2010, Full Tilt Pokerlaunched a new variant called Rush Poker, introducing players to the wild world of fast-fold poker. Since then, many sites have started their own versions of fast-fold poker games, all more or less the same as Rush. What looked to some people as initially just a gimmick has proven to be a very popular game with staying power.

For those of you who are new to online poker, let’s take a brief moment to review what fast fold poker is. At its core, it’s the same as regular poker with hole cards, flops, turns, and rivers. The big difference is that once you fold, you are whisked away to another table where a new hand is dealt immediately. There are no more boring waits while others are making their decisions. It’s an action-lover’s dream come true.

PokerScout.com, the leading online poker cash game traffic monitoring website, made some interesting observations about fast-fold games and their impact on cash game traffic in its recent weekly Scouting Report. Overall cash game traffic has been trending downward, evidenced in part by PokerStars’ sharp 11% decline from the same time last year.

PokerScout noted that players have been migrating from the standard cash game tables at the world’s largest online poker site to its Zoom Poker games. A year ago, Zoom Poker accounted for 21% of PokerStars’ cash game players. Now, that number is up to 29%, with the same decline manifesting itself in regular Hold’em and Omaha cash games.

PokerScout reminded us that hands are dealt much faster in Zoom Poker: two-and-a-half to three times as many hands per hour as regular cash games. Therefore, even though traditional cash game player traffic has decreased as PokerStars, the number of cash game hands dealt has stayed pretty much level because those players that have left the regular cash game tables are now seeing more hands over at the Zoom Poker tables.

Nothing much has changed for PokerStars as far as its standing in the industry. It is still top dog and, according to PokerScout, has a seven-day average of 21,500 cash game players with a peak of about 36,000 in the past 24 hours.

888 Poker, the site in second place, had 2,400 cash game players in the last week. PartyPoker and the iPoker Network are tied for third with 2,000 players, while Full Tilt Poker, which is owned by PokerStars’ parent company, Rational Group, is fifth with 1,900.

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