PartyPoker's FastForward already at Real Money Tables

PartyPoker's highly anticipated fast-fold format is here; FastForward, "the turbo-charged way to play cash games" is released to real money tables. As we reported a few days earlier [3], slowly but surely PartyPoker's fast-fold game arrived to the tables. As the debut went very well, without any hitches, PartyPoker already released the format to its real money cash game tables as well. Real Money games are currently at NL4-NL25 tables, and an NL50 heads-up table is also offered, but at the time of writing of this article nobody played there.

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FastForward does not seem to offer radically new features as the competitors' solutions. Players can connect to the very same table 4 times, and the Forward Fold button will instantly fold the players hand, even before their turn in the given hand.

The extra provided by FastForward is the heads-up part of the game, because no such tables exist in Zoom Poker or Rush Poker. The point of a game is to eliminate the so called 'bum-hunting' problem, namely that regular players occupy heads-up tables waiting for recreational players, and avoiding other regulars. Such heads-up tables are not too popular, and generate very little rake for the poker provider. All poker rooms intend to put an end to this phenomenon, however, success is not at all sure; Microgaming's similar 'blaze' tables are hardly even used.

FastForward heads-up tables would force regulars to play against each other, but it is highly unlikely players will choose to play on such tables, because it eliminates one of their important edges: table selection. Before Zoom Poker's introduction it was proposed that high stakes games will only be offered in the Zoom Poker format for the very same reason, but as many players expressed their disapproval of the idea, PokerStars left everything as is. Fast-fold tables are also very bad for railbirds, and it is nearly impossible to follow, which would diminish the advertisement value of the high stakes tables.

PartyPoker has lost many players during last year. Even though they became the second biggest online poker room on the planet after Black Friday. They havedropped to the 3rd place as iPoker took the second place from them. Hopefully FastForward will help PartyPoker to regain some if its lost players.