Whoops, in the stupid belief that I could cope with 4 tabling rush poker I threw away $64!
My biggest mistakes were unfortunately while I was deep – I hit trips on a 727 board, both of us with 200bb stacks – the money went all in and he had 22 
It’s kinda difficult since clearly his shove screamed that he had a major hand, certainly better than my sevens, but the NL10 game at rush poker is full of crazy people – shoves like that are happening all the time. This is perhaps partly because NL10 is the lowest stakes so we have all the NL2 & NL5 people there, plus the speed induces people to play a bluffy reckless game.
So I took a step back and had a breather – during this time I figured out how to export my HEM stats into my Full Tilt player notes (since the HUD’s useless with rush). It didn’t help that much though as I don’t seem to have any history with the people I’m seeing on the rush tables. I guess that’s a consequence of NL10 being the lowest limits again.
So I restarted, and this time added another piece to my Rush strategy – ratholing! I switched down to 2 tables and whenever a stack gained more than 20bb I closed it and then joined another. Obviously not an optimal strategy for a strong player, but I lack the experience and self-discipline at playing deep, and if I don’t cap my game like that I stand to lose some big hands.
Anyway, it went better;
The improvement is mainly from going down to 2 tables, but I think the ratholing is probably a good thing for me to do, at least for now…
Update: It’s a good feeling when you lose an absolute bucketload of money, and then have the ability to win it back 
I almost posted this chart at the 1.6k hands mark but thought I’ll just make it a real profit – duh, that of course made everything spin out of control. Made it on the second attempt though 
For the prop bet I’d be negative still if it wasn’t for rakeback – I’d be at -$6 but with rakeback I’m +$38! That’s a lot of rakeback…
One of the advantages of rush poker is that no one really knows if you are ratholing. So without even the appearance of social stigma, it really becomes just good bankroll management.
4 tabling rush poker?!!?
If you haven’t already, have a look at the raise the river forum there are some interesting comments about rush poker
Sure, it’s not that bad – although obviously I was out of my depth a bit. I normally four table, but I reckon if someone’s used to 8 tabling then it’s just fine (although if you normally 8 table, why play rush poker?).
Have you got a link to that raisetheriver thread? I had a look round but couldn’t find it (didn’t try that hard I admit)
If you eight table 6max games, you’ll play around 650 hands per hour. If you four table rush at the same game, you’ll play at least 900 hands in the same amount of time. As far as pure volume goes, there’s nothing that will beat rush.
Also, I think there’s a general misconception that because the rush format is “so fast,” you have to play fast, and people fall into the trap of hearing all the marketing propoganda, seeing table names like “Warp Speed,” and assume they have to make split second decisions every single hand. If you play your normal pace and make only the simple change of open folding your rags in obvious spots ahead of your action, you’ll at least double your volume without any change in performance.
Certainly I’ve never played so many hands before – rakeback is excellent for this month (almost covers my losses!).
And the speed thing is true too. For certain decisions where you don’t need much thought (minraise steal on btn in particular), it’s worth doing it quickly to make sure their overrushed thought processes aren’t speed bumped (does that make sense? I’m not advocating playing fast, but being aware that your opponent may be in that mindset, and when you have an easy decision it’s worth making it a snap one so that they make their (hopefully) harder decision also a snap one)
wow, the dots on your blog background really make my brain hurt!