Urinurine :: Count-down to March.. and RUSH poker

 Well...43 days til I'm officially full-time poker player. It's kind of like that feeling you got around mid-April back in the old-school days; summer is right around the corner - but you gotta stick it out until then, enduring those grueling class-room lectures, stuck inside staring out at some lovely summer day. I'm obviously not complaining- just eager.. almost giddy at this point. 

Poker has been really slow lately - part of my situation that I've always had to deal with is my days off being Wednesdays and Thursdays - when I finally have a good amount of time to just sit down and put in some volume, I sit around waiting for action. Wednesday I ended up getting in ONE game in THREE hours at the 200 level. I'll definitely be adjusting my schedule to work around the high-tides and low-tides of action. I'm also going to have to spread my roll ideally out over three or so sites. I haven't played any husngs on FTP lately - just having fun with "Rush" atm there.

There's no lack of action at the RUSH tables - playing two tables of rush while waiting for action on UB keeps me thinking poker at least. At first I was skeptical and even a little worried at this new format - I knew the fish would flock - and the idea that fish could just fast-click their way to premium starting hands rather than getting bored and spewing off chips with atc didn't seem too good from my perspective. But the more I thought about it the more I realized how super-exploitable it could be if everyone was going in with their generic "game-plans".

I honestly don't want to give too much away about the strategy I've adopted, but it basically is just having not only the knowledge/understanding of how the fish will be approaching the game, but also recognizing how the regulars will be trying to take advantage and exploit the fish. As has always been the case in poker, there's many different player-types that we can categorize players into, and with Rush Poker, there's certain trends/frequencies to pick up on that aren't as prevalent or exploitable in normal ring games. My advice would be to actually sit down and think about what Rush Poker is; its format, what it allows for, what tendencies/lines your opponents will be looking to exploit - and how you can stay one step ahead of them. 

HEM doesn't have the capability to refresh the HUD stats in time for every table-change in Rush. While waiting for them to work it out, I've made a decent alternative using a HUD layout that basically just tells you who at your table is a regular. The people you note as Rush-regs should be studied after each session or before sessions to note on how they are playing and how (if at all) they are playing back at you. If you can stay on top of the "good players" while exploiting the fish, and if you can pay close and careful attention to when a situation is "in a vacuum" or actually has some game-flow/history behind it, if you can hand-read well, and make accurate assessments of your opponents, I think Rush Poker could be a gold-mine for some time...

If anyone is interested in my HUD layout or wants to talk strat- specifically related to the Rush Poker format- hit me up. 

-Mike