Rush Poker

I was already looking forward to the big Full Tilt update on Jan 19, 2010, because they were finally going to be raising the minimum buy-in for cash games in order to thwart the plague of online abusers known as shortstackers. Before I could even finish downloading the update, a friend was already talking my ear off about an even bigger change to the Full Tilt software; an entirely new and unexpected poker mode known as "rush poker". My buddy, low stakes poker pro Michael Louie, described it as "poker on crack", and as I was soon to find out, this somewhat juvenile aphorism was actually fairly apt.

After installing the new update and logging onto Full Tilt, the rush poker games were clearly marked with a big red "new" tag, to catch the eye in the lobby. Within the rush poker lobby, I found several rush poker games ranging in small stakes, such as $10 buy-ins (5cent/10cent blinds) up through larger stakes, such as $100 buy-ins (50cents/1 dollar blinds). Most of the games were being played as No Limit Hold'em, with the option to play either six handed or nine handed tables for each stake. However, unlike regular ring games, the lobby entry for each different stake consists of the entire pool of players currently playing that stake, instead of separate entries for individual tables. This forms the basis of what Full Tilt's rush poker is: instead of playing against a discrete table of opponents, you are automatically moved to a new table and into a new position (and therefore face entirely new opponents) every time you fold your hand. This effectively pits you randomly against the entire pool of players for your stake. Also, the action is sped up even further by the addition of a "quick fold" button, which allows a player to effectively fold out of turn so that they can get onto the next hand as soon as they know they don’t wish to contest the current pot (of course, nobody else at the table gets to see that you have folded until the action is upon you).

Full Tilt dubbed their newest creation "rush" poker because it allows you to rush through hand after hand, and I have to say that it lives up to its name. The hands per hour at rush poker are roughly four times as fast as a standard ring game, which means that if you four-table it, you are able to play just over a thousand hands an hour. The experience of not having to wait to watch hands play out, and instantly being dealt a new hand as soon as your interest in the last one has waned, is entirely new to the world of poker. Rush poker keeps the action at as much of a lightning quick pace as pretty much anyone could want. The fact that you are constantly being reseated with all new opponents from hand to hand means that you are essentially playing each hand in a vacuum, as you cannot form reads on opponents or try to adjust your play due to any kind of table dynamics. In addition, heads up displays (HUDs) that come with poker tracking programs are rendered useless because they aren't able to load fast enough with constantly changing tables. This makes it ideal for a player who is looking for some quick poker action, without delving too much into the nuance and complexity of a traditional poker game.

I really have to applaud Full Tilt's creativity and ingenuity at producing this product, which I consider to be probably the biggest innovation in online poker I've ever seen. As I played my first session of rush poker, it became apparent that this is truly a whole new poker-type game, and really stimulated my senses in a way that regular ring games don't. Because the action was just so completely relentless (and I say this as someone who has 10-tabled ring games for years) there was virtually no downtime at all, and it almost had the gamblability of playing a game like blackjack or slots, where it's just non-stop action-action-action. I had meant only to try it out for maybe a half hour, but it was just so fun and addicting that I kept telling myself "a few more hands", and pretty soon it had been over two hours (and two thousand hands) before I was finally able to tear myself away. Luckily, I ran okay and came up a couple of buy-ins. Maybe it was partly due to the novelty of it, but I must say that it actually was quite an enjoyable "rush" to play, and I'm looking forward to trying it again the next time I have a little time to kill for a short and not-too-serious poker session.

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