by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Mar 8, 2012 | Updated on Mar 8, 2012PokerStars appears nearly ready to begin real money play in their Zoom Poker format, a fast-based version of normal poker games that many players have speculated would be coming to the poker giant for some time now.For most online poker players, the basics of Zoom Poker will sound eerily familiar. In Zoom Poker, players will not join a specific table, but will instead be placed into a larger pool of players from which tables will be drawn on the fly. Any time a player folds or finishes a hand, they will immediately be moved to a new table that is ready to begin play, where they will receive new cards and once again begin playing.It’s likely that you recognize this as being very similar to Rush Poker, the fast-paced variant first introduced by Full Tilt Poker. Ever since FTP ceased operations last year, players around the world have been looking for a replacement for Rush Poker, and PokerStars seemed a likely creator for the next incarnation of this play style.Zoom Poker is already publically available for testing through testpokerstars.com, where players have been experimenting with the new game type for some time. In fact, player feedback has led to two new features that will be available on the official launch of Zoom Poker: the ability to fold but still watch the remainder of a hand if a player so desires, and a “sit out next BB” button that will allow players to plan to stop their session the next time they are assigned to the big blind.From the perspective of most players, the advantage of Zoom Poker comes from the speed at which players can play hands. At maximum speed – utilizing a “fast fold” feature that allows players to move to a new table the instant they click the fold button, even if it is not their turn to act – players may be able to play well over 200 hands an hour at a single table.According to PokerStars, Zoom Poker is expected to launch for real-money play sometime in mid-March.
