Earlier this week, a member of the PokerStars management team, going by ‘PokerStars Stefan,’ posted a very interesting announcement on the 2+2 forums. According to Stefan, “PokerStars is developing a fast moving ring games product. We expect it to be available for public beta testing in a few months.” Remember Full Tilt Poker? Of course you do! This sounds essentially like a spin-off of Rush Poker. That PokerStars is investing in this game variant is unsurprising. The only surprise here is how long it took them to get here.
Full Tilt released Rush Poker early in 2010. In Rush Poker, players do not remain at a table but are instantly transferred to a new table and new hand as soon as they fold or win a pot. Rush Poker was extremely popular, and even spawned a number of poker tournaments run exclusively in the Rush Poker format. Until Black Friday, that is.
Full Tilt’s financials were never disclosed, but assuming that the company reaped extreme profits from Rush Poker is fair on all accounts. PokerStars entering the market simply makes sense. They will easily fill the industry hole left by Full Tilt.