When Full Tilt Poker first introduced Rush Poker, many believed that the game of real money online poker had changed forever. With lightening-fast speeds and the unique feature of changing the position of every player, every hand, Rush Poker immediately caught on and became one of the more popular games on Full Tilt.
After Black Friday, Rush Poker fans were left with few alternatives. Fast forward a year, however, and competitors are finally starting to step up with their own full-fledged versions of the format.
Chief among them: Online poker king PokerStars with Zoom Poker. After months of speculation and beta testing, PokerStars finally moved Zoom Poker from a sideline project to a mainstream feature this month. Word has it that the company is thinking of taking the format even further than Full Tilt dared by making Zoom Poker the only format available for high stakes cash games at the site. While this is still a rumor, it seems like a policy the room is seriously considering.
Not to be outdone, Party Poker has also announced plans for their own take on Rush Poker. While Zoom Poker is a working product, there are fewer details available about the development timeline for Party Poker’s version – in fact, it was mentioned only briefly in a recent conference call by Party CEO Jim Ryan. We’d expect a pretty similar set up, but Party better act fast, as viable names for Rush Poker games are being claimed quickly.
For example, Fast Poker is now off the table, as Unibet has claimed the name for their new Rush Poker type tables. If you liked Rush, chances are you’ll like Fast Poker, where you are dealt hands at breakneck speed and multiple table play is allowed.
What about the original? With rumors circulating that a relaunch of Full Tilt Poker may be only weeks away, there’s a very real chance that the granddaddy of speed poker may be back in action sooner than anyone expected. Better still for players, Full Tilt will be pressed to add new features and innovations to Rush in order to compete with all of the players in the suddenly crowded cloud poker field.
