subject: Rush Poker: Changes Since Inception [print this page] Cream rises- It's an adage that has held true from the barnyard days to today; the cream rises to the top. As Rush Poker has become more and more popular, many casual players have taken a chance at playing Rush Poker, only to get crushed by the speed and quick thinking of the better players who have made rake grinding Rush a way of living, especially without fulltilt rakeback. In the higher stakes of Rush, expect the players in the game to be solid and knowledgeable of the nuances and tendencies of players in these games, and as such, keep the unprofitable players from coming back to the games. Unlike standard variants of poker, like a player being introduced to hold'em for the first time, Rush isn't as accommodating to the rank newcomer, and makes it harder to keep a player who is quickly burned out of their initial stake in Rush willing to invest more into the game. Rush Poker has gotten more difficult; this is true.
Position matters more- Constant players of Rush have learned that playing pots in the first two positions is akin to deliberately torturing yourself; players are looking for hands to play big pots with in Rush more often than normal, which means reraises preflop are far more likely, and make the prospect of playing AQo and 1010 that much more difficult; often, if you open with either of those hands UTG or UTG+1, you'll either get a series of quick folds, or a three bet, and very rarely will you ever simply get flat called. Therefore, in early positions, you may want to play tighter than you would in a typical cash game; my standards are open AA-KK/AKs and QQ, and occasionally open JJ/1010/AQs at looser tables. The button, meanwhile, gains a lot of power, and many players have been abusing this as much as possible. If folded to on the button, most players will auto-raise there with many marginal holdings, expecting two insta folds and the blinds. Be much more willing to three bet liberally from the blinds against a button raise now; many times, the holdings you'll be up against won't be worthy of standing up to a three bet, and may be hazardous to your texas holdem bankroll in the long run.
Notation is paramount- As tricky as it may seem to keep tabs on players that are part of a Rush Poker pool rather than centralized at your table, being an avid note taker on the players on your table is almost as critical as your play at the tables, and something players have been noticing and utilizing more as the game has evolved. If you notice scion4352 has been raising every time he gets the button, make a note of it; in Rush, that usual means he's robot betting the button regardless of his holdings. Notice a player get into a raising war preflop from UTG and show down 88 when all the chips get in the middle? Might be worth a note showing his lack of respect for position. Being a keen note taker will help you make snap decisions against the players in your pool, ones that are difficult to track via the nature of the game.
