Monday, March 22, 2010

Rush Poker revisited

To kill some time a few weeks ago, I decided to give Rush Poker at FullTilt another try. I figured it would be a quick way to get in a bunch of hands, and maybe I could get lucky and hit and run for a few cents.

I logged into the $0.02-0.05 NLHE game late on a Friday night. An hour later, I quit up by $11.20. A profit of 224 big blinds! I folded a lot but still probably played more hands than I should have. What happened? I caught AA and KK a few times, and got paid off big on a couple of them by second-best hands. I was amazed that my opponents were willing to go broke with the hands they played. Yeah, it's only $0.02-0.05, but surely you have to give the other players some credit when they don't back down.

The very next night I thought I would try again to see if variance would catch up with me. Same stakes; played for about an hour again. Result: profit of $15.26 or over 300 BBs. Again, premium hands got paid off. Wow, I'm thinking, this is the easiest money anywhere. So, I squeezed in short Rush sessions wherever I could: lunch breaks, after work, before bedtime, etc. I have not yet had winning sessions as large as the two above, but I have made a profit more times than not. I also earned enough FTPs to clear a small bonus (which paid for my entry into Bloody P's charity tourney).

Mainly, I am just folding almost everything and only playing premium hands or stealing the occasional pot with position. Having that Quick Fold button makes it a lot easier to throw away marginal starting cards that I might talk myself into playing if I had time to think about it before my turn to act. I think the next thing I need to do is make some basic notes about the other players. I see the same names flash by all the time, so I should be at least noting whether they fold most of the time or play more hands than the average Rusher. If someone is a habitual folder, then seeing them get into a pot should be a sign that they pr0bably have something and I'd better watch out.

So, I suppose that I will play some more Rush Poker. I don't expect to get rich from it, especially since I plan to stay at the micro limits, but if I can keep quitting ahead more often than behind, it could help build my bankroll a bit.