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.
What do these features
mean for your strategy? A lot! Let’s 🛡 start with the obvious changes to the game.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Which style should you play in order to be a
winner at ZOOM 🛡 Poker? Similar to most questions in poker, the answer is: It depends! In
ring games, you know it’s best to 🛡 adjust to your opponents. For example, when an
opponent plays too tight, you can loosen up a bit to take 🛡 advantage. This remains true
in ZOOM Poker, but you now have to adjust to the whole player pool. Play tighter 🛡 or
looser than the average player and make further adjustments whenever possible. For
example, if you are playing in a 🛡 loose pool, tighten up. But if your opponent realizes
you’re tight, try to widen your range.
Of course, this article doesn’t 🛡 cover every
aspect of ZOOM Poker strategy. There are many refinements that can turn a slight edge
into a massive 🛡 one. Always be aware of what happens to the player pool, consider
position, adjust your play to certain opponents, and 🛡 most importantly, have fun with
ZOOM Poker!
