General Discussion Poker Forums

The previous rush poker thread got to about 16 pages, so I thought I'd start a new one with a little different twist.

I wanted to comment on my thoughts after playing 25k hands at 50nl of rush poker. 50nl is a little smaller than my usual 100 and 200nl games on AP, but I wanted to try it since I'm over-rolled for it and I thought it was addicting =).

I'll skip the super obvious stuff like play tighter, bluff less, etc.

I wanted to discuss some of the things that I think are misconceptions about rush poker.

1) Reads? Of course there are!

Everyone seems to say that rush poker is just in a vacuum and you're essentially readless. I feel this is a HUGE mistake to believe this. First off, you're playing with about 150 different players if you play during a somewhat busy hour. Much of those players are on 2 or 4 tables. If you 4 table, and you're seeing a flop with so many opponents so often, you're going to play at least 1 pot with every 4-tabler during a 1 hour session. I found that there are usually between 12-20 4 tablers during a given time. Secondly, it didn't take long for PT or HEM to get stats working. And the fact that you still download HH's for hands that you quickfold, I can pick up so many hands on particular opponents so quickly. Also, you can so quickly identify what kind of opponents some people are because so many of them assume you don't know anything about them. If they're playing an exploitable game (unbalanced game), it won't take too many hands with them to figure out that they're playing in that fashion.


2) Make people think!

In rush, people want to cruise control and take standard lines and take the appropriate defense against your standard lines. So, its time to do the things that they don't want you to do. Do the things that make them think or consider having to play back at you to fight you off. Things such as donk betting, 4B bluffing, overbetting the pot are excellent things to do induce tons of folding. Basically you're putting your opponent in a spot where he has to ask himself "playback at this guy? or quickfold?"

3) Smaller edges.

I have to agree that edges are certainly smaller in rush poker than in regular games. However, don't think you can't crush rush poker the same way you crush regular games. There are some edges you can pick up that other people haven't picked up on yet.

Earlier, I mentioned that rush poker is certainly NOT readless. If you can pick up reads (and interpret stats) better than your opponents, you can get an edge. The same can be said about regular poker, but people aren't used to picking up reads in rush because they assume they won't find any. Work harder to pick up reads, get an edge =).

Fundamentals are magnified in rush poker. If you gain an edge in regular poker because of sound fundamentals, then your edge will be even bigger in rush.

What lines are more profitable in rush poker than they are in regular pokre? Well, I actually don't know. It would be really difficult for anyone to know. But that's where you can get your edge: answering the above question. If I had to guess, I'd say that 3B'ing out of the blinds isn't as great as you think because stealing 3 bb's at a time isn't wonderful where most of the money moves because of coolers and big pots. 3B your button more. Also, I'd have to say you have to make decisions preflop which will get you coolered less and you cooler people more. I know baluga whale talked about this in one of his videos. Play more suited aces, play less suited kings. Play less low pocket pairs that will get set-over-setted.

I need to get to class (lol), but respond with what you think or any other thoughts you might have about rush poker.

And of course, respond with your hilarious rush poker hands.

Could you explain a little better how you get the HH that you quickfold?

Could you explain a little better how you get the HH that you quickfold?

Ummm, i thought that was a basic feature of rush poker. HH's are still written.

I think that your post is spot on. I've played about 50k hands at Rush making just over 2BB/100 and am looking for like-minded individuals to start a Rush poker group. Check out the thread for details:

http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/28-Secret-HQ/104671-RUSH-NL-6-Max-Poker-Group

And one thing people should be thinking about when playing Rush poker is $/hour vs BB/100 hands and the correlation they may have.

Such as, should you wait in position with slightly positive EV hands PF or fold to get more hands? I've elected to fold most "close to zero" EV hands PF as quick folding to get more hands increases an overall hourly rate, yet it would have an inverse effect on your BB/100 rate as those are (slightly) positive EV spots that can be taken advantage of.

Or to put it simply, the same player can take either approach to Rush:

300 hands/hour = 2BB/100
250 hands/hour = 2.25BB/100

Obvious rough estimates, of course.

Value betting, Value Betting, Value Betting... and Value betting at RP Good post Muchu

Fundamentals are magnified in rush poker. If you gain an edge in regular poker because of sound fundamentals, then your edge will be even bigger in rush.

i really think this. which is in stark contrast to point #2 where you say to adjust through 4bet more, donk bet more, overbet, etc.

but these all falls into bluffing more.

but ppl who start bluffing too much or stop bluffing enough w/o good reason are straying from sound fundamentals.

keep a solid base, and stay there. let other ppl employ fancy strategies like frequent donk betting which turn into frequent db's. and a lot of ppl are adjusting like this, so i think one ok adjustment is to slowplay big hands more, given board's not super wet.

i've seen more super crazy multi-street bluffs in 10k hands of rush than in the previous 100k hands normal cash.

Another quick thing to add:

4) TILT CONTROL!

What can be more tilting than huge swings, constant draw outs, constant AA vs KK, and constant set over set. Or at least it seems constant to all the people who can't handle their tilt. I believe that tilt control is also magnified in rush poker because swings are bigger and coolers occur more frequently. If you tilt control better than your opponents, your edge is bigger in rush poker.

Another quick thing to add:

4) TILT CONTROL!

What can be more tilting than huge swings, constant draw outs, constant AA vs KK, and constant set over set. Or at least it seems constant to all the people who can't handle their tilt. I believe that tilt control is also magnified in rush poker because swings are bigger and coolers occur more frequently. If you tilt control better than your opponents, your edge is bigger in rush poker.

You are so right The thing with RP is to be able to handle few coolers in a row

TPTK is useless to action most of the time. If you make a turn bet and get called, you are behind. If you get raised on the flop, you're probably behind.

Set over set is going to happen to you, so get used to it. So is running KK into AA, etc..

TPTK is useless to action most of the time. If you make a turn bet and get called, you are behind. If you get raised on the flop, you're probably behind.

Set over set is going to happen to you, so get used to it. So is running KK into AA, etc..

i don't like broad generalizations like this. it depends.

just because of some coolers, it's incorrect to just turn into a rock.

not tilting is also not playing scared and incorrectly folding winners cause you're losing.

it's also incorrect to never fold TPTK cause you think you're being coolered.

just play poker.

i don't like broad generalizations like this. it depends.

just because of some coolers, it's incorrect to just turn into a rock.

not tilting is also not playing scared and incorrectly folding winners cause you're losing.

it's also incorrect to never fold TPTK cause you think you're being coolered.

just play poker.

Very very few people will continue on the turn if they can't beat TPTK. Some short stackers sometimes, that's about it. It has nothing to do with coolers, though I've had my (and a few others') share. It's how the game is going. Are you loading into HEM? Check how many times you've won with TP on the turn or river. I bet you'll find it as rare as I have.

HEM loaded for last 30 days of sessions (from 25NL-100Nl rush, 9200 hands). i don't play too many hands so sample size sucks.

filter value river: overpair, TPTK, TPGK
28 hands. 347 bb.
c/fold 1 time to 4 flush board.

filter value turn: overpair, TPTK, TPGK
68 hands. 861 bb.
i folded 8 times before river.

filter value flop: overpair, TPTK, TPGK
128 hands. 968 bb.
i folded 5 times.


maybe i just run good. i think i should be folding even more on turn. maybe this isn't even good stats. i dunno.

Very very few people will continue on the turn if they can't beat TPTK. Some short stackers sometimes, that's about it. It has nothing to do with coolers, though I've had my (and a few others') share. It's how the game is going. Are you loading into HEM? Check how many times you've won with TP on the turn or river. I bet you'll find it as rare as I have.

You are playing a different rush to me if you think the majority of villians are folding everything that cant beat TPTK on the turn to a bet.

We could just raise pre then double barrel every board and make insane amounts of money, unfortunately poker isnt that easy. Making hands that beat TPTK is hard.

I still have a few examples of getting 3 streets of value out of TPTK in rush.

very true about reads. now that huds are out its not really as big of a deal as it used to be but there's still a lot of unknowns and there a billion ways to get a quick read that i discuss in my next rush video. take notes unless you are 4+ tabling, it helps for sure. color coding is nice too.

i mean just play solid and u will make money. IM + like 1k so far. But i think that rush PLO takes a ton more skill than NLH.