A Simple Yet Effective Move

OK, time to get some fireworks going on this blog. And how best to do it than with a move that will certainly show a profit in the long run. Note that this has been tested and applied at the $50NL 6-max rush poker on Full Tilt. It has an extremely high success rate, and it shows a nice profit in the long run.

From which position(s) should this move be executed? The move should be executed from the first 2 positions, UTG and UTG+1.

With what starting range should this move be executed? Actually, what you hold doesn’t matter much, since the pot is won preflop (I will explain this later). So just pick 2 cards, and that is good enough. I would not recommend making this move with very strong holdings, such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs, since the likelihood this hand will actually see a flop is infinitesimal. How those hands should be played will be explained in later posts.

How does it work? Well, it is all actually very simple. You start by limping from UTG or UTG+1, the earliest 2 positions, and then 3-bet if someone raises, under certain conditions. These are the possible situations and the action that you should take:

1. One player raises (usually to 2.25 or 2.5, ocassionally 3), all the other players fold and the action is back to you. In this case, you should reraise to $7.50, and in the vast majority of cases you win the pot. You will show a profit of at least 2.25 + 0.25 + 0.50 = $3
2. One player raises, another player calls, the rest fold. In this case, you should raise to $9.50, and in the majority of cases the pot is yours preflop. You will show a profit of at least 2.25 + 2.25 +0.25 +0.50 = $5.25 (provided the raise is not called by one of the blinds, in which case you should substract the blind amount from my calculation)
3. One player raises, and at least one other player before you reraises. This is a clear fold, if you followed my guidelines for the starting range.

Why does this move work? The reason why this move works is 2-fold. First of all, you are showing tremendous strength before the flop, since you first limp and then 3-bet. Most players will put you on AA, KK, and sometimes QQ. Besides, you are doing this from early position. Limping in early position will encourage the players in later positions to raise with more marginal holdings, since they have position on you all during the hand and you have shown weakness, and thus they are trying to make you pay. Since most often they do this with marginal holdings, very few of them will be prepared to call a 3-bet.

Should one caller after the raiser scare me? Nope! By calling the raise, the caller is actually also showing weakness. They might do this with high (suited) connectors or small pocket pairs. Or, from what I have seen, even worse hands a fair amount of time. So don’t let that scare you, on the contrary, this should encourage you to 3bet and take the pot down for a nice amount.

What if more than 2 people at the table call the initial raise? Hmmm, that is a tough spot. This situation will not occur often, but when it does, I suggest it is better to fold if your starting hand is very weak. With speculative hands that have value in multiway pots you might consider calling. I would definetely not advice 3-betting to take the pot preflop, since the odds of this succeeding are significantly lower than in the other situations, and since more players are involved you are risking a high amount with your 3-bet.

Following these guidelines at the 0.25/0.50 rush poker tables will show that you take down a very high amount of the pots, and show a nice profit in the long run. So don’t be afraid, try it! And let me know how this worked for you. I am very interested in the opinions of players playing at different limits, higher or lower, and whether this move also works at those limits. So don’t hesitate and drop me a message or leave a comment behind for everybody to learn. And let’s think of it as open source poker

See you in the player pool!

Introduction

Not a lot of material (if any) is available on the Rush Poker offered by Full Tilt. I started playing Rush Poker from the beginning of this wonderful variant of poker, and I intend to use this blog for discussing the unique strategy specific to this kind of poker.

I won’t mention whether I am a winning player or not, this is up to you to decide based on the contents of my posts. One thing is for sure, I enjoy Rush Poker more than any other variant of poker, and as I will discuss in future posts, I think this form of poker poses new challenges and requires different strategies than the ones used in any other form of poker.

So what will be the contents of my blog? Well, I will discuss the type of players one might encounter on the Rush Poker tables, pre-flop and post-flop strategy, meta-game and interesting hands that I have played. Nothing compares to the understanding that an example might provide.

What do I hope to reach? I hope to fuel interesting discussions on the ideas that I will put forward, discussions that will improve your skill as well as mine in facing the Rush Poker crowd and their craving for action.

See you in the player pool!