Bodog joins growing list of fast/fold poker providers

This week Bodog announced the launch of Zone Poker, a fast/fold poker game modeled on Full Tilt Poker’s highly successful Rush Poker, which was launched back in 2011. The game is currently available at the low limit, No Limit Holdem, tables at the site, and like all Bodog poker games, Zone Poker is played on anonymous tables.

Since the advent of Rush Poker a number of other poker sites have added fast/fold games to their repertoire. At first Full Tilt Poker threatened to sue any company developing a fast/fold game, claiming the game was patent pending, but when the site ran afoul after Black Friday other online poker operators seized the opportunity and launched their own versions of Rush Poker.

Here is a quick look at some of the major players in the online poker world and their version of fast/fold poker:

• OnGame Network = Strobe Poker
• Full Tilt Poker = Rush Poker
• PokerStars = Zoom Poker
• Party Poker = FastForward Poker
• Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) = Blaze Poker
• iPoker Network = Sprint Poker
• Bodog = Zone Poker

This week’s announcement by Bodog that they have joined the ranks of Fast/Fold poker providers may not seem like a very big deal on the surface (considering most major online poker operators have their own versions of fast/fold poker) but it’s definitely a bigger deal than you may first think.

If you take a good look at the above list you’ll notice that one of these things is not like the others, considering Bodog is the only US-facing online poker site that offers fast/fold poker, which could put even more space between themselves and the pack (the Revolution Poker Network, the Merge Gaming Network, and the Winning Poker Network) in the US traffic rankings.

Bodog’s Zone Poker works in the same way as the multitude of other online poker sites, with players joining a player pool and instantly taken to a new table (for the start of a new hand) once their cards are folded.

Since players always have a live hand in front of them (once you fold you are immediately brought to a new table for the start of a new hand), Fast/fold poker eliminates any boredom that players may experience at an online poker table, which makes it extremely popular among casual poker players.

Fast/Fold poker also allows players to triple or even quadruple the number of hands per table they can play, which has made the game very popular among online grinders as well.