Fast-Fold Poker Explained: How Rush & Cash and Similar Pool Games Work

What fast-fold poker is

In a normal online cash game, you sit at one table and stay there. When you fold, you watch the rest of the hand play out, then wait for the next deal. At a full table that is a lot of sitting and not much playing. Fast-fold poker fixes that.

The idea is simple. The moment you fold, the software pulls you out of that hand and puts you into a new one at a new table, usually with a fresh set of opponents. You get dealt in immediately. If you fold again, you move again. A player who folds a lot of weak hands can see several times as many hands per hour as they would at a fixed table.

The format was popularized by Zone Poker, which Bovada launched in August 2013 as the first fast-fold product on a US online poker site. Since then most major rooms have built their own version, and the pool of players waiting to be matched is what makes it work: you are never waiting for one specific table to free up, because the system is always drawing from everyone else who is looking for a hand.

If you are new to the underlying game, the basics are worth a look first. Our guide to Texas Hold'em rules covers blinds, betting rounds and how the flop, turn and river work, and poker hand rankings shows what beats what.

How the fold button works: new table every hand

Folding is the same action it is in any poker game. You can fold on any betting round, including right after the deal, but you have to wait until the action reaches you. When you fold, you forfeit all the bets you have already put in that hand and you cannot bet any further on that round³.

What is different is what happens next. In a regular game you would stay seated and watch. In fast-fold, the software takes your fold as a signal to move you. You are removed from the hand, matched into a new one, and dealt in at a new table. The other players at your old table carry on without you.

A few practical consequences follow from that:

• You will rarely play two hands in a row against the same opponents.
• Reads and table image matter far less, because you are not building a history with the players around you.
• Your win rate depends more on the strength of your starting hands and your decisions in the hands you do play, since you are folding most of them.
• The pace is set by you. Fold quickly and you see more hands; play more hands and you see fewer.

The physical actions you would use at a live table do not apply here, but they are worth knowing if you ever play in person. Checking is a knock on the table with your fist, and folding is laying your cards face down across the line³. Online, both are a click.

Rush & Cash: the format on GGPoker

Rush & Cash is GGPoker's fast-fold cash game. It runs on the same principle: fold and you are moved straight into a new hand at a new table. The pool is shared across everyone playing the same game type and stakes, so there is almost always a seat available.

Each hand is played with one deck of 52 cards, reshuffled after every hand¹. That matters for fairness: there is no chance of a deck carrying over between hands or between tables, because every hand starts from a fresh shuffle.

Seating is handled for you. Players are seated randomly each hand, and the blinds are assigned to the players who have sat in the blinds least often. If two players are tied on that count, the system looks at who has posted the fewest small blinds, and if they are still tied it is decided randomly¹. The point is to spread the cost of the blinds evenly across the pool rather than letting the same players keep paying them.

One feature you will not find here is Running It Multiple Times. RIMT does not apply to Rush & Cash games¹. If you are used to running it twice when you are all in, that option is not available in this format. There is a community card squeeze feature, which applies to pots over 100 BB¹.

Game types and stakes: NLH and PLO from $0.01/$0.02

Rush & Cash covers no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha, and the stakes start very low. The lowest PLO level is $0.01/$0.02, where the default buy-in is $0.20². From there the levels step up in the usual way.

Rake: 5%

Those buy-in figures are the defaults shown for the lowest levels, and the rake is 5% across them². If you are new to Omaha, the rules differ from hold'em in one important way: you are dealt four hole cards and must use exactly two of them, along with three from the board. Our Omaha poker rules guide walks through pot-limit Omaha, PLO-5 and PLO-6.

The rake cap rises with the number of players in the hand. At $0.01/$0.02 the cap is $0.02 with two players, $0.03 with three, $0.05 with four and $0.06 with five or more. At $0.02/$0.05 it is $0.04, $0.08, $0.11 and $0.15. At $0.05/$0.10 it is $0.08, $0.15, $0.23 and $0.30. At $0.10/$0.25 it is $0.19, $0.38, $0.56 and $0.75². Higher levels follow the same pattern with larger caps.

If you want the wider picture on how sites charge, our poker rake explained page covers time fees and tournament fees as well.

Cash Drops: random prizes up to 600BB

Rush & Cash tables carry random red envelope drops worth up to 600BB¹. These are not tied to winning a hand or hitting a particular card combination. They land at random, and when one does, the bonus is credited immediately at the end of the hand¹. You do not have to claim anything or wait for a payout cycle; it shows up in your balance as soon as the hand is over.

That is different from how most poker bonuses work. A progressive jackpot, for example, pays out on specific hand results, with a royal flush taking the fixed prize or the whole jackpot pool, whichever is higher, and a straight flush taking the fixed prize or 10% of the pool⁴. Cash Drops have no such condition. They are simply random, which is why they are described as a drop rather than a jackpot.

Rake: 5% capped at 3BB, none below full tables

Rake in Rush & Cash is 5%, and the cap depends on how many players are in the hand, as the table above shows². The headline rule to remember is the one about short tables: if fewer than six players are at the table, there is no rake at all¹.

That is unusual. At a normal cash table you pay rake on every raked pot regardless of how many seats are filled. Here, a table that has thinned out costs you nothing in rake, which softens the effect of playing short-handed.

For comparison, rake at a live card room is often around 10% of the pot per hand⁵, and Macau's Texas hold'em rules allow the house to take 3% to 5% of each pot as commission, capped at five times the big blind⁶. Online rake is generally lower and capped in big blinds rather than as a flat percentage of everything.

Seating, blinds and fairness rules

The seating system is the part that takes most getting used to. You do not choose a seat and you do not keep one. Every hand you are placed randomly, and the blinds go to whoever has paid them least often¹. Over a session that evens out: you will not be hit with the big blind three hands in a row while someone else dodges it.

The blind structure itself is standard. The player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind, generally half the big blind, and the next player posts the big blind⁷. In fast-fold the button and blinds are assigned fresh each hand along with your seat.

A few other rules keep the pool fair:

• One deck of 52 cards, reshuffled after every hand¹.
• Players are seated randomly each hand rather than choosing positions¹.
• Blind assignment favors players who have sat in the blinds least often, then fewest small blinds, then random¹.
• If two or more players end up with identical hands, the pot is split equally, with any indivisible remainder going to the first active player to the dealer's left⁶.

That last rule is the standard tied-pot rule in poker, and it applies here just as it does anywhere else.

Table limits: 6-max, 4 tables, no RIMT

Rush & Cash tables hold a maximum of six players¹. That makes it a 6-max game, which means you will be in the blinds more often relative to a nine-handed table and you will play more hands from late position. If you are adjusting from full-ring, our guide to poker table positions explains how button, blinds and the various seats change at 6-max.

You can play up to four tables at the same time, but they must all be at the same blind level¹. You cannot mix a $0.05/$0.10 table with a $0.10/$0.25 table in the same session. If you want to change stakes, you leave the level and rejoin at the new one.

Two other limits are worth knowing:

• Running It Multiple Times is not available in Rush & Cash games¹.
• The community card squeeze applies to pots over 100 BB¹.

If you are used to other online features like all-in insurance or EV cashout, our online poker features page covers what sites offer and how the terms work.

Leaving, rejoining and buy-in rules

Because you are in a pool rather than at a fixed table, leaving and coming back works differently. If you leave a table with winnings and want to rejoin within one hour, you must buy in for at least the chip amount you held when you left¹. The condition resets after an hour, at which point you can buy in for the minimum again¹.

The rule exists to stop a player from winning a big pot, leaving with the profit, and immediately returning with a short stack to limit their exposure. It applies to the same stakes you left.

Buy-ins scale with the level. At the lowest PLO level of $0.01/$0.02 the default buy-in is $0.20, at $0.02/$0.05 it is $0.50, at $0.05/$0.10 it is $1 and at $0.10/$0.25 it is $2.50². Check the lobby for the exact minimum and maximum before you sit, since these can differ from the default shown.

Other fast-fold rooms: Zone Poker and PokerPlanets

Rush & Cash is not the only fast-fold product. Zone Poker, launched by Bovada in August 2013, was the first on a US online poker site. PokerPlanets launched in 2025 with cash games, scheduled tournaments, Spin&Win and a fast-fold format called Teleport.

The mechanics are broadly the same across rooms: fold, move, get dealt in. What differs is the pool size, the stakes offered, the rake and the bonus features. A smaller pool means longer waits between hands at quiet times, which undercuts the whole point of the format. If you are choosing where to play, the size of the player pool at your stakes matters more than the branding.

If you play from Asia, the practical questions are usually about access and accounts rather than the game itself. Our guide to playing poker as a visitor or expat in Asia covers entry, ID, currency and online account issues, and live vs online poker compares pace, costs and legal status.