Introduction to Zoom Poker
The Basics ZOOM Poker is a way of playing poker at PokerStars. It´s different, it´s fast and 🌈 it’s a whole lot of fun. Instead of playing one table with up to 10 players, you can play a 🌈 pool of up to 200 tables and 2000 players at the same time. This means an increase in your total 🌈 hands per hour of up to 400%. At first everything looks like a normal ring game, but as soon as 🌈 you fold your hand, you will get dealt a completely new hand at a completely new table. That’s right, you 🌈 don’t need to wait until the current hand is done, you instantly get a brand new hand. You don’t have 🌈 to fold another 72o on the button, just to wait for the next marginal hand and do it again. Hit 🌈 the Fast Fold button as many times as you like until you get a playable hand. Changes to the Game 🌈 What do these features mean for your strategy? A lot! Let’s start with the obvious changes to the game. There 🌈 is very little short- term history. While your opponents usually get curious when you raise your button the third time 🌈 in a row, they won´t be at ZOOM Poker. They simply don’t know if this is the first, second or 🌈 third time you did it. What is true for your opponents is also true for you. ZOOM Poker makes it 🌈 very hard to develop reads on your opponents. As soon as you play a new hand, you are basically up 🌈 against blank faces again (unless you hold the CTRL key when you click the fold button in order to watch 🌈 the end of a hand). Aspects like building an image, leveling, and other forms of player- dependent moves suddenly become 🌈 less relevant. You don´t have to wait anymore. With normal ring games you needed to play multiple tables in order 🌈 to get more action. Now all you have to do is fold. Despite all these changes, keep in mind, that 🌈 you still have to pay the blinds. Even though the Fast Fold option is very appealing, you can´t sit there 🌈 and wait for Aces. You still have to play in order to win. Don´t waste playable hands just because of 🌈 the Fast Fold option. These changes might seem obvious to you, but many players have difficulties understanding the consequences. For 🌈 example, players still think they have to slow play their Aces because they played them aggressively in earlier hands. But 🌈 it’s most likely that no one will notice!
Let´s get into the less obvious differences to regular NLHE poker. ZOOM Poker 🌈 will enable you to play more hands per hour than usual. This means you should play fewer tables, than you 🌈 are used to. Start with one table and add more tables only if you feel very comfortable in doing so. 🌈 Be aware of all information available. The table changes every hand, so make sure to check the number of players 🌈 at the table, your position and your opponents’ stack sizes before you decide to play a hand. The average play 🌈 is way tighter than in normal ring games due to the Fast Fold option. Your opponents in a full ring 🌈 cash game may play 25% of their hands preflop, but they will probably play 20% or less in a ZOOM 🌈 Poker game. Same thing goes for 6-max games. While you are used to 33% preflop hand ranges, this amount will 🌈 decrease to something like 26%. When a player from late position or the Small Blind plays back at your early 🌈 or mid-position raise, keep in mind that he waited to see, what the players in between did. He didn´t simply 🌈 hit the Fast Fold button to get rid of a bad or marginal hand. He liked his hand so much, 🌈 that he decided to wait and see what happens. His hand range will be stronger than in a usual ring 🌈 game. There is almost no table selection. Spotting the bad and good players at your table will be very tough. 🌈 Instead of beating certain players, with ZOOM Poker you have to beat the whole pool of players. Beat the average 🌈 style of play and you will beat the game. The swings to your bankroll are more intense due to the 🌈 high volume and action. You should think about a more conservative bankroll management strategy than you are used to. Play 🌈 with at least 45 buy-ins. About 70 buy-ins would be ideal. Remember, in poker you have to beat the variance 🌈 before you can beat the players. Special Position of the Big Blind The above points don’t always apply to the 🌈 player in the Big Blind. She doesn’t have the option to Fast Fold as long as nobody raises. Unlike the 🌈 Button or Small Blind position, she always has to wait. Because of that, many players might defend their Big Blind 🌈 more often to your late position steal attempts. This is in complete contrast to every other position in ZOOM Poker. 🌈 While everyone tends to play tighter, the Big Blind might be even looser than in a regular game. Benefits of 🌈 playing ZOOM Poker ZOOM Poker is another addition to the wide selection of poker variants that are offered on PokerStars. 🌈 You should play the games that have the most appeal for you. It should be fun! Everything else comes next. 🌈 To give you more input for you choice, here are some benefits of playing ZOOM Poker. ZOOM Poker makes it 🌈 easy to start a session. Table selection is not really an issue. You simply choose your game and your stakes, 🌈 and get dealt in. Less table management will give you more time to concentrate on playing rather than preparing. The 🌈 game of ZOOM Poker is new and not deeply understood. Your opponents might make more mistakes than they would normally 🌈 would. Because of the big action, players might go on tilt more easily. Take advantage of it! Not knowing your 🌈 opponents and vice versa can be a big advantage. Moves that might be wrong in normal ring games, might be 🌈 very profitable in ZOOM. For example, you could now start to reraise more often or bluff certain board textures. If 🌈 you happen to play against certain opponents more than once, taking notes will allow you to increase the amount of 🌈 information that you can use. On the downside, you have less time per decision, which not only gives you less 🌈 time to analyze situations, but also less time to learn from them. As soon as you fold, you can´t follow 🌈 the action anymore (unless you hold the CTRL key when you click the fold button in order to watch the 🌈 end of a hand). You won´t know how opponents play certain situations unless you play against them.