I'm not going to claim to be some kind of poker expert because I've only been playing for cash for 4 1/2 months and have been treading water ever since. That is until rush poker came along.
After an initial deposit of $100 and playing 2NL and $1.20 SnGs, with the help of $30 matching bonus money and $25 for multi-tabling back in Sept, my balance was at $113 about three weeks ago. Not great, but I never blew out my
bankroll and I was getting better. Especially in the last month or so.
But I was getting bored. Playing one table is stupefyingly boring and multi-tabling is just, well, weird. I don't multi-task well, but I concentrate on one thing extremely well. It's just the way I'm wired.
So because of boredom and just to try it, I moved up in stakes and tried 10NL and $5 SnGs. In a couple of weeks I was down to $66. It didn't bother me too much because being a professional poker player is not something I've got my heart set on. Now I don't like failure any more than anyone else. I had worked hard on my game. But at some point you have to ask yourself,
Is this fun and am I spending my time well? Maybe I should be playing more with my kids, reading a book or talking to my wife.
So I was resigned to whatever happened.
online poker was just not that fun.
Then Rush Poker happened. In three days my bankroll is over $135. All I'm doing is playing tight and looking for opportunities. If I don't have at least top pair, or two overcards with a min-call, I'm out of there.
Why are my results so much better? Mainly I think it's just fits me better. Rush poker basically compresses time, rather than you trying to artificially compress it by multi-tabling. I know some players multi-table rush, and more power to them if they can do it. But to me that's like tying a team of horses to an automobile. Overkill. My strength is focusing on one thing, and rush lets me do that.
There are other advantages to rush:
- No folder's remorse. You never see that you would have gotten trips or two pair, etc, so the "Arrrgh" factor is greatly minimized. This greatly reduces the wear and tear on your psyche, especially when little is going right for you.
- No saving face. When you do something stupid you don't have to wear it around your neck like a scarlett letter. This reduces the chance of trying to get back at someone.
- No table image. Outside of stack size there is little else you know about the players. If you can keep track of 700 players in a rush pool my hat's off to you. (It's easy to think that all the players are still at the table through the end, but they're not. If it's heads up, its just you and him. No one is there learning and observing your moves.
- No time for jerks to hurl insults and rant in the chat box. Aah, sweet silence. That alone is worth the price of rush.
- Because of the above psychological advantages and others, you can be more objective about play.
So does that mean it's all about the cards? Well, it's more about the cards, but there is still
bluffing and semi-bluffing in rush. The play of the
hands themselves is not that much different. Just most of the psychological baggage is gone.
Anyway, that's my story for now. Enjoy.
