How is Rush Poker Different?

So like many Full Tilt Players, I have switched over to Rush Poker. The reasons are fairly obviously; but I'll go over a few in a little bit.

So instead of posting hands like I did for many months, I am going to instead post on general concepts/ideas in hopes of getting a little discussion going. I'm sure that I will throw in some hand histories as well to prove my point. Plus, if you want hand histories, you can always go over to Poker Meister as he posts good stuff daily.

So first. Why do I play Rush? There is really only one main reason for me. Time. With two little ones, I am somewhat limited to the time that I can play poker. The ability to play so many more hands makes it an ideal situation for me. Or does it? I'm not winning. I am more or less break even in all months except for April 2010 where it just all went bad. With Rakeback and Bonus, I am at even; but that certainly isn't the goal now is it?

So why the difference? What are the differences between Rush and Normal Full Ring Poker?

I'll name a few and hopefully hear back from others on what they think the differences are.

1. Overall Tightness. I think overall, players are tighter. It is not uncommon to see people playing at 8/5/2.0 level. That is not to say that there aren't LAGtards playing because their are. Over about 162K hands of Rush Poker, I am playing at a 14.5/11.0/2.69 clip. that is a little bit tighter than I was playing. This year playing non-Rush Poker, I was playing at 16/12/2.8.
2. Button Steals. I think you see more of these and consequently because of this I think you are seeing more 3 bets out of the blinds. So the question here is to try to steal more or less playing Rush Poker? Let's say 30% is a good median. My first thought is to play more; but with the in flux of greater 3 betting from blinds, maybe that is not the best. Of course, with enough stats on a guy, you are able to 4 bet lighter; although the first time I did this with T8o was a little worrisome. He folded so it was all ok; but probably not a good habit to get into.
3. 3 Betting. It seems to me that with Rush, you definitely see a lot of late position raising so similar to point #2 above, I think you can 3 bet lighter. I will be looking into this in more detail in future posts so I won't spend too much time here.
4. Continuation betting. My general thought here is that you can probably C-Bet less here. You are playing more hands and there is really no real need to go crazy with CBetting every flop. I'm right around the 57% spot (I was at 67% at non Rush Poker for this year) and I'm ok with that; but truthfully, I am trying to get that number a bit to the low to mid 60% range.

Hmmm. That should do it for now. More thoughts on Rush Poker coming in the upcoming weeks.

Have a nice day!!!

If I had a dime.....

If I had a dime for every blog that said that they would start posting more, I could probably retire. Having said that, I am going to try posting more again.

Why, you ask?

Because I need to. Blogging has always forced me to look at my game more.

I have been playing exclusively Rush Poker and well, not too successfully. One of the things I miss the most is the ability to immediately mark a hand for review after the session.

So, I am going to need to take a different approach. Instead of posting just hand histories like I had been doing for a while, I'm going to try to put more situations into focus and see where that gets me. I will be trying some other things which I will be explaining later.

That's it for now.

Have a good weekend!!!