Rush Poker strategy

A couple of months ago, Rush Poker’s introduction by Full Tilt caused some serious waves in the online poker industry. Some hailed the innovation as the biggest change poker had ever seen since going online, others were fast to write it off as a failed attempt to innovate, made at the expense of the very factors that make poker a game of skill rather than one of luck. I happen to agree with both points of view, but one has to admit that good or bad, successful or not so much (I suppose it is rather successful though), Rush Poker is here to stay. Due to the modifications made to some of the core concepts of the game, optimal strategy for the Rush Poker tables has changed quite a bit too.

First of all: let’s take a quick look at the changes brought about by Rush Poker. Spawned by an insatiable thirst for action on the part of the online poker player, Rush Poker is a game which managed to eliminate downtimes completely. Players who join the Rush Poker action do not actually join a given table. Rather, they join a room with thousands of players, who play at hundreds of different tables. Once a Rush Poker player folds his hand, he’s automatically taken to another table where he’s dealt into another hand immediately. The quick fold option allows players to tick the fold button and to be taken to another table, before the action gets around to them.

What this means is that you can toss your player reading skills right out the window. The very essence of the game, that based on psychology and on individual ability to pick up on various reads, has pretty much been done away with. You won’t stick around long enough at a table to develop a history with those playing there and thus to make any sort of reads. That leaves you with the mathematical side of the game: play good old ABC (tight aggressive) poker and hope for the best. That’s your best shot really and here’s why: at a regular table, most of the money you make comes from fish, who constantly make bad choices. Even if you manage to score a few lucky hands against your skilled peers, your profits will still come from the fish. At the Rush Poker table though, there’s no way you can tell who’s a fish and who’s not. The only way to make sure you milk the opportunities offered by the fish is to play radically tight-aggressive, ABC poker, kind of like back in the days at the micro limits.

Tightening up and raising your starting hand requirements makes sense from a whole bunch of angles. Because players won’t have to wait around for anything, they can just hit that quick-fold button 10 times in a row and play only the starting hand they like. This means you’ll need a really good starting hand to compete against those who decide to commit chips on the same hand on which you make the move.

Pay extra attention to the BB. The BB is the only position which doesn’t have the quick-fold option displayed from the get go. What that means is that the guy in the BB is most likely to attempt a defense on rags. None of the other players have any kind of motivation to venture into light three-bet territory at all.

Another major difference between regular poker and Rush Poker is linked to rakeback and the poker rake. Because Rush Poker is so dazzlingly fast, you’ll end up generating much more poker rake per hour than at any of the regular cash tables. That means it’s quite imperative that you sign up for a rakeback or a poker prop deal, otherwise you’ll end up bleeding away too much of your profits.

Steve Larson, an online poker player from Canada, visit his rakeback web site for more useful information.

http://www.rakemeback.com

 Sng strategy – busting the short stack

SNG’s provide one of the best ways to build up a fledgling bankroll: score a win in a freeroll and take the small change you pick up to the SNG tables – this is what many thrifty people do, and this is how they start up a bankroll from naught. SNGs are great for this purpose because they offer much better individual odds for players than Mtts (even though the potential winnings/initial investment ratio of SNGs is much smaller than that of MTTs). In a SNG, you have a very limited number of opponents you have to best in order to make it to the money. Most of the time, you’ll only have about 7-5 players to dispose of and therefore each and every one at your table becomes your deadly enemy while remaining a potential ally in the same time.

There are few things more annoying in poker than watching the short stack at your SNG table bounce back time after time on the money bubble. What’s interesting though is the wolf-pack mentality involved in the whole setup. The player who finds himself the short-stack, will soon have the other people ganging up on him. The other players will often call a short-stack’s all-in on all sorts of subpar hands, just to school up on him and to further cripple his all-in odds. It always pays to be aggressive in poker and SNGs are no exceptions from this rule. Sometimes however, aggression is not going to get you anywhere. Imagine the following scenario: you’re in the BB on the money bubble of a SNG and the short-stack in early position goes all-in. The hand is folded around to you: what do you do? Aggression is not going to be of any help here. You either call or you fold, there’s no other option. I know what you’re tempted to do… if that guy considers it worthwhile to put his tournament life onto the line from that early a position, he much have something, right? Since all you have is rags, you’re better off folding. You could afford to call him, but you do not want to chip him up any more than strictly necessary, so you fold.

This approach is flawed. First of all, by gifting him your BB, you still chip the guy up. Secondly: your “rags” may not even be as big a dog as you think they are. Thirdly: you need to keep in mind that short-stacks are always somewhat desperate. The fact that your opponent pushes all-in doesn’t mean he’s got AA, or KK in that pocket… He might have a much wider range of hands there, and since no two unpaired cards are really that much better than another two, your odds there may in fact be much better than you think.

Another reason for you to make the call comes from Sklansky himself. Remember the section where he details starting hand selection based on the pot odds? You know, where he says that if your pot odds are really-really good, it makes sense to commit on any two cards?

Well, that’s almost the case here. Take a look at the pot odds you get and if they’re at least 2-1 (or better) you should make that call.

On most random hands, you are about 40% to win, and that coupled with 2-1 pot odds simply screams for a call.

As a SNG player, you should never take to the green felt without securing a good rakeback or poker prop deal. The tournament fees that you pay on every SNG you register for is a pretty large long-term burden. A rakeback or prop deal will help you get some (or all) of that burden off your shoulders.

Poker Strategy - Online Poker Games

Poker has become the most popular casino card game, both offline and on the Internet. Each day we see more and more players from across the globe playing online poker games and tournaments at online poker rooms. There are several different variations of poker that you can play at most of these online poker sites. For example, the most commonly played poker games are Texas Holde'm, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha Hold'em, Seven Card Stud, and Five Card Draw. Out of these poker variants, the popular poker game is texas holdem.

Playing poker online can be fun and exciting. However, to master these games, and develop what is known as the ‘poker confidence’, one is required to amass knowledge on the rules of each poker game, how it is played and different strategies required for each poker variant.

Among some other popular poker games, are California Lowball, Caribbean Stud Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker.

California Lowball is a classic game of draw poker, where the high hand is the A-5 hand. California lowball is played with a joker in the deck.

Caribbean stud poker is a  variant of the poker game that is played against the house instead of players playing against each other. Two major aspects of poker missing in Caribbean Stud are bluffing and tells.

The other cool variants include Follow the Queen, High Chicago/Low Chicago, Billabong, 2 to 7 Stud and 7’s take all.