Zoom Poker Strategy - The Essential Guide [2024]

Zoom poker strategy in 2021

This is the only Zoom poker strategy guide available online that was written by a poker pro.

Ever since Pokerstars first launched Zoom Poker in May of 2012 it has grown to be immensely popular. Full Tilt (now owned by Pokerstars) technically did it first two years earlier with a similar variant of the game called Rush Poker.

However, with the trouble that this company had during it's final years under the old ownership, it never really took off in a huge way.

The Pokerstars marketing machine though, along with their crisp industry leading software, have taken this fast fold format of the game (also sometimes called Speed Poker) to the next level.

The games are extremely popular especially at the lower limits and I get questions on a regular basis from people asking specifically about Zoom poker strategy.

And due to the popularity of fast fold poker in general, it has now spread to other sites as well. Same concept as Zoom, just under a different name.

Examples:
  • Snap poker (888)
  • Zone poker (Bovada)
  • Fast Forward poker (Partypoker)
  • Speed Poker (iPoker)
  • Blaze Poker (Microgaming)

So that is why I wrote this essential guide to Zoom poker strategy.

I wanted to finally answer the question of how to crush these games. Because quite frankly, the educational material out there on Zoom poker is pretty weak.

This guide is going to teach you all of the most cutting edge Zoom poker strategies to finally start destroying these games.

So with all that said, let's go!


How to Play Zoom Poker


To begin with, how do you actually play Zoom poker?

Well, it is important to remember that there is nothing fundamentally different about fast fold poker (Zoom) from a regular poker game.

Zoom is still the same game of poker that you know and love. There are still two blinds, the button acts last and a flush still beats a straight.


There are 2 key differences in Zoom Poker though.

1. For every single Zoom poker hand you are moved to a random table and a random seat.

2. You also have the option of "fast folding" your hand before the action even gets to you (no more waiting).


These two things change not only the way that the game is played but there are several important strategic differences that you need to know about as well.


Is Zoom Poker Profitable?


First things first though, we should be asking ourselves is Zoom poker profitable? Well, in order to answer that question we need to know what a good Zoom poker winrate is.

As I am going to explain in this article, Zoom poker win rates (measured in big blinds won per 100 hands played) are typically lower than at the regular poker tables.

This isn't necessarily always a bad thing though because what you may lose in your  Zoom poker winrate you make up in volume, big time.

What I mean by that is that in Zoom poker you are able to play way more hands. And the biggest reason why is that fast fold button. It eliminates all that time spent waiting for other people to act.

You can just fold all your crappy hands right away and move on to the next one immediately!

So since you can play way more hands in Zoom, you can often make more money in the end even with a lower winrate.


Good Zoom Poker Winrates at the Micros [blinds - winrate]

  • 1c/2c - 10bb/100
  • 2c/5c - 7bb/100
  • 5c/10c - 6bb/100
  • 10c/25c - 5bb/100
  • 25c/50c - 4bb/100
  • 50c/1$ - 3bb/100

It is important to remember that winrates in poker generally decline as you move up the stakes because the competition gets harder.

Don't worry if you aren't achieving these Zoom poker winrates yet though. Because that is exactly what this guide is going to teach you how to do!

You can also refer to my free poker cheat sheet as well for a proven winning strategy to beat Zoom poker games.

And if you just want to know exactly what hands to play...

Check out my latest video: 9 PREFLOP Poker Tips For Beginners (Just Do This!)


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You are going to learn everything you need to know in this Zoom poker strategy guide below to start consistently winning big.

Let's jump into it!


The Zoom Poker Information Gap


"You cannot step in the same river twice" - Heraclitus (ancient Greek philosopher)

In Zoom poker you cannot sit at the same table twice. As mentioned, you are moved to a new table after every single hand and put into a random seat against a bunch of random people.

At the lowest stakes (NL2) the player pool in a Zoom game regularly exceeds 500 people even during non-peak hours on Pokerstars.

With a little bit of simple math this means that if you are playing at a full ring table you can expect to see a particular player only once every 55 hands (500/9=55) on average.

Given the same player pool size you are likely to see them only once every 83 hands on average at a 6max table (500/6=83).

So what this essentially means is that you are constantly playing against a bunch of unknown opponents.

With a player pool of this size it will take ages to build up any kind of statistically significant data on your HUD (heads up display) or to develop any reads.

By the way, if you don’t know what a HUD is, what the stats mean, or if you even need to use one in order to win at online poker, then I would suggest reading this article of mine.

So even just to get the most basic HUD stats on someone (VPIP and PFR) could take playing over 1k hands.

By comparison, at a regular table you would only have to wait a couple of orbits, or about 20 hands, in order to get information on these two stats.

The bottom line is that if you are only seeing a particular opponent once every 55 hands (or 83 hands in 6max), then it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that it is going to take an awfully long time to gather any kind of useful reads or data on them.


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Best zoom poker strategy
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Zoom Poker Strategy Versus the Great Unknown


So if you play Zoom poker at the lowest limits online, then you are more or less playing against a bunch of unknowns.

If you play regularly then you will build up some reasonable sample sizes on the regs. However, this will still take way longer than at the regular poker tables.

So there are both pros and cons to this.


The Benefits of Zoom Poker


1. Use the Lack of Information to Exploit Them Early On

While we lack information on our opponents it is important to remember that it goes both ways. They probably don't know much about us either.

You can take advantage of this by playing more aggressively than normal at first. This is something that I called “the first encounter theory” in my second book, Modern Small Stakes.


The main gist of it is this:

You can typically get away with a lot more versus someone early on in poker when there is no history involved.

Most people are taught to keep it tight when they first sit down at a poker table. Only play good cards and just observe the action they are told.

But since this is what most people expect you to do it can be wildly profitable to go ahead and do the exact opposite.

Nobody is going to expect you to 4Bet bluff them or raise the river on the very first hand for example. It is likely that unless they happen to have a monster they will just "let you have it" this time.

After all, they have no reason to believe that you would just decide to run some big bluff out of the blue. They expect you to be playing close to the vest instead.

So one of the first ways to start increasing your profits at the Zoom poker tables is to make a few more bluffs against people when you are both still relatively new to each other.

Daniel Negreanu actually even mentions this in his brand new advanced poker strategy course.

Because poker pros have long known that the best time to run a big bluff is when there is a large information gap and no playing history.


2. Being a Chameleon Can Be Very Profitable

The other benefit to the lack of information in Zoom poker is that your opponents have no idea what type of player you are.

You can easily fly under the radar and even radically switch your game up from session to session just to mess with their "reads."

Since you see so many different faces when playing Zoom it is effectively impossible to build up any kind of real history with anyone.

The only thing that your opponents will have to go on is the meager HUD data that they have on you. This is if they are even using a HUD at all. Many will not be using one at the lowest stakes.


Me mixing it up at NL5 Zoom:


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But if they are, you could play like a Nit (very tight passive player) one session and then a LAG (very aggressive loose player) the next and it would take them a long time to figure that out and adjust their play versus you.

This can cause them to make all kinds of mistakes such as giving you too much credit or paying you off too much.

So another way to get ahead in Zoom is to constantly mix up your game versus the regulars. If you have been playing tight against them the last couple sessions, try ramping up the aggression and playing a few more hands this session.

You might get away with a few more bluffs than normal because they expect you to be playing a different way.

This is why it is extremely important to be using a good quality poker HUD if you play Zoom. 

You need to start getting the reads you need to pull big bluffs, on not only the weak players, but also the good ones. 

While it will take longer to gather these reads in Zoom compared to regular poker games, this information is still crucial nonetheless.


The Drawbacks of Zoom Poker


1. The "Why" is Often Missing

Now of course this information gap brings some disadvantages as well.

In online poker where physical tells don't exist and the action moves fast (speed of light fast in Zoom) we often rely on our HUD to provide us with information about our opponent's statistical tendencies.

When you remove this information though it it very difficult to have a reason to make any specific play beyond "because it is standard."

If you can't physically interact with your opponent, and you have a meaningless sample size on your HUD, then there is no way that you can really know what their 3Bet, flop raise or river bet really means.

Sure, there are timing and betting pattern tells that exist in online poker. But these are not as reliable as looking your opponent in the face or having a bunch of solid statistical data on your screen.

Therefore, in Zoom poker decisions can often just boil down to your best guess within the framework of playing a solid TAG (tight and aggressive) strategy. It is difficult to really get ahead under these conditions.

Some will argue that this is good because it takes the game back to it's roots. But without clear reasons to make any particular play, you remove a huge part of the skill edge in the game.

This is especially the case in a day and age where everybody more or less plays "solid" to varying degrees.

The information gap is one of the main reasons why you should expect to have a lower winrate when playing Zoom compared to the regular tables.


2. Can’t Focus on the Fish

The other main reason why you should expect a lower winrate in Zoom is due to the inability to table select.

As we talked about above, in Zoom you are tossed into a player pool with hundreds of others players and you are given a random seat every hand.

This lack of ability to know where the fish are and to get the right seat against them takes away a huge skill edge.

On the regular tables by comparison you can make sure that there is always a fish at your table and furthermore you can try to get the seat on their left in order to isolate them every hand as well.

The inability to do this in Zoom poker is simply going to lead to lower winrates because bad poker players are where the money is at in this game.

They are the ones making the big fundamental mistakes such as playing way too many hands, chasing every draw and so on. They simply lose their money far faster than everybody else.

However, it isn’t all bad!

As I will discuss below, there are several benefits to playing Zoom as well that can potentially make up for and even exceed these drawbacks.

So much so that Zoom can actually be even more profitable than the regular tables for some people like me who like to put in huge amounts of volume and "grind" hard.

There are also a few more Zoom strategy tips that can help you in these tighter games that I am going to discuss next.


Zoom Poker is a Nitfest These Days

Best zoom poker strategy
It is pretty well known at this point that Zoom games simply play tighter on average. Some have called the games “reg infested”, a “nitfest” and so on.

Zoom naturally attracts multi-tabling tight regs. And this is all due to the fast fold button which really is the most innovative thing about Zoom poker.

The fast fold button allows people to throw away hand after hand at lightning pace until they get something that they think is playable. They do not have to wait for the entire hand to be played out like at a traditional poker table.

This is simply going to lead to people playing tighter overall. And due to the information gap Nits can much more easily fly under the radar waiting for the nuts without everyone knowing.

The introduction of the fast fold button is arguably an even bigger coup for the recreational players though. This is because it inadvertently helps them play quite a bit better.

What is the biggest reason why the fish lose so much? Easy, they play terrible hands that wind up being second best and they can't find the fold button. Why do they play these terrible hands? Easy again, because they were "bored."

Now with the introduction of the fast fold button nobody has to ever get bored again though.

Recreational players are still going to play all sorts of bad aces out of position and overvalue trap hands like KJ and QJ but they will remove all of the total nonsense from their range such as 85o, J7o, T3s and so on (because they can just “fast fold” it away).

The fact that they will often fold a lot of these complete trash hands now will have a big impact on their lossrate.

They will still be big losing players in the long run but they won't lose their money at the frantic pace that they do on the regular tables.

The regs also aren't able to isolate and tilt them anywhere near as much. This plays into their favor in a big way as well. So basically, Zoom indirectly helps bad players hang on to their money longer.

This is why I suggest that you enroll in an advanced poker training program if you really want to crush Zoom games.

Because you need to know the poker math, game theory and exploitative strategy in order to consistently beat good players.


How to Exploit Tight Zoom Games


It isn't all bad though!

Yes the Zoom games often play ridiculously tight these days even at the very lowest stakes (NL2, NL5 and NL10). And the fish play a bit better and you can’t isolate them or pound on them like you can at the regular tables either.

However, extremely nitty games can still easily be exploited. It just requires a bit different strategy.

The great thing about the lowest stakes is that most of the regs are relative beginners who play ABC poker. By this I mean that they play very much by the book and rarely get out of line or make “plays.”

They are often playing on too many tables at once as well. Therefore, they do not adjust very well to loose and aggressive players.

They tend to just play their cards until it is painfully obvious that someone is clearly out of line against them. Then, and only then, might they adjust.

The recreational players of course are always going to play bad no matter the stakes, even if they play a bit tighter like in Zoom.

So the key to exploiting tight Zoom games is simple: Play LAG.

A loose and aggressive (LAG) strategy is already insanely profitable at the micros these days on the regular tables. In Zoom games it is even MORE effective. It simply wrecks these games.

By the way, you can find my complete guide to transitioning from TAG to LAG, right here.

So what does "Play LAG" actually mean in practice though?


1. Steal The Blinds More


If your opponents are going to play too tight then stealing the blinds will become even more wildly profitable.

So it is a good idea to widen your opening range from all positions when playing low limit Zoom poker. Essentially, this also means, just play more hands.

It is also a good idea to adopt a smaller opening raise size of 2.5x or even just a mini-raise. This allows you to risk less with all of the speculative hands that you will be opening with.

Here is a complete training video where I discuss optimal blind stealing strategy:




2. Re-Raise More Preflop


You can take the same approach with 3Betting and 4Betting as well. If most players are just going to lay it down unless they have the nuts, then you should fight harder for more pots preflop by re-raising.

If you use a HUD, check the Fold to 3Bet% and Fold to 4Bet% stats first to be sure.

Also, the other thing about Zoom is that you are given less time to act compared to a regular table. And all Nits know this.

So therefore, since they often have several other tables requiring their attention, they will often just let it go when you re-raise them and “wait for a better spot” unless they happen to have a monster hand.

Here again is another video tutorial where I show you exactly how to do it:




3. Flat More Preflop and Take the Pot Away Postflop


You don't want to just start 3Betting and 4Betting the regs all the time with weak hands though.

So one of my favorite ways to take more pots away from them is to flat with a wider range preflop, especially in position, and then attack any weakness postflop.


What are some specific ways to do this?
  • Float the flop if you have any equity at all and then bet the turn every time they check to you
  • Raise the flop more often with draws, pairs and even just two overs
  • Bluff more rivers especially on scare cards (this means broadways and flush/straight draw completer cards)

Don't worry, there will be specific example hands below showing you exactly how to use these strategies.

And if you want even more I released a huge blog post literally last week showing you even more ways to float the flop and take the pot away. You can find that here.

But these are three relatively cheap ways to take the pot away against weak micro stakes Zoom regs. None of them require you to stick a significant portion of your stack in the middle and they put a lot of pressure on your opponent.

You will get looked up from time to time of course. But against the hordes of weak mass multi-tabling regs at these stakes you will find that many more times they will just lay it down and let you have it.

Easy money.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new BlackRain79 Elite Poker University training program. This includes the most advanced Zoom poker training lessons available today.

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Zoom Poker Tournament Strategy


What about Zoom poker tournaments though. How does that change your strategy if at all?

The thing about poker tournaments (Zoom or regular) is that it is all about the stack sizes and the ever increasing blinds.

The only fundamental thing that you need to be aware of in a Zoom poker tournament is how to play differently in the early, middle and late stages.

The main thing that you need to know is that as the tournament gets to the later stages, and the stacks become more shallow (less big blinds), you need to:
  • Be more selective in the hands you choose to play
  • Be more aggressive with the hands you choose to play

If you are short-stacked (less than 10 big blinds) then this often means simply shoving all-in before the flop.

I don't want to get too deep into Zoom poker tournament strategy here though. Because I have already written the ultimate guide to micro stakes poker tournament strategy.

It includes everything you need to know about Zoom poker tournaments.

And you can find it right here.


Why You SHOULD Play Zoom


Ok, so far I have painted a fairly bleak picture of Zoom poker. Sure, there are ways to exploit these nitty games like I just mentioned but the bottom line is that winrates will always be lower than at the regular tables.

So why should anyone play on these tables then?

I also talk about this in a brand new video by the way, if you prefer.


Make sure you are subscribed to my poker YouTube channel by the way for tons more advanced zoom poker strategy videos.

Well, I am here to tell you that there are several reasons why they are worth playing and their continued popularity supports this as well.


1. Zoom Poker is Convenient


The first reason why you should play Zoom poker is that it is simply way more convenient than the regular tables. While it is easier to find the fish, get the right seat and chase them around on the regular tables, all of this takes time and work.

Many people just play poker part time as a hobby or as a small side income. They don’t want to waste their time with all of this.

They just want to sit down and play!

Me recently playing some Zoom poker by the beach:

Zoom Poker Strategy

In fact with Zoom you don’t even need to wait for the blinds to come to you before getting dealt in. You just sit down and start playing immediately.

This ease of access is going to attract plenty of regs but it is also going to ensure that plenty of fish continue to flock to these games as well. This is because fish have even less time.

They play after work and on the weekends to relax. They don’t want to sit around waiting for seats to become available. They just want to start playing immediately so Zoom poker is perfect for them.


2. Zoom Poker is a Grinder’s Dream


The other awesome thing about Zoom poker is that it makes it very easy to play massive amounts of hands.

On a typical Zoom table you will see about 3.5 times as many hands per hour as on a regular table. And of course many people will play 2, 4 or even 8 Zoom tables at once.

This makes Zoom an absolute dream for the true sicko grinders out there. It allows you to play an absolute ton of hands in a short period of time and this can be good for a few reasons.

Firstly, it simply allows you to reach the long run faster. What this means is that you will get to see your “true” long term results faster. You get to move past all that nasty variance quicker.

This allows you to truly assess how your game is progressing and what adjustments might need to be made. You don’t have to wait around for weeks or months. You get direct feedback on exactly how good (or bad) you are doing.


3. Zoom Poker is Ideal for Collecting Rakeback


The other great thing about the ability to play massive amounts of hands is that you can earn a lot more in rakeback as well. Rakeback is a percentage of the rake that nearly all online poker rooms give back to you as an incentive to play there.

Now even though rakeback programs have been declining recently on a number of poker sites that spread fast fold games like Zoom (including Pokerstars), there is still some decent money to be made overall.

From my experience mass multi-tabling, if you are playing at NL25, then you should be able to earn hundreds of dollars per month (and thousands of dollars per month at higher limits) on top of what you already make at the tables.

Hence the term “rakeback grinder” that has been tossed around a lot in recent years.

This refers to people who don’t actually win very much at the poker tables or even at all. They might even be small losers. But they play so many hands that they actually end up turning a reasonable profit in the end just because of rakeback.

And of course if you can learn to both turn a profit at the poker tables AND collect lots of rakeback, then you will absolutely have it made. Fast fold poker games like Zoom are by far the best way to do this.

This is why Zoom style games can actually be significantly MORE profitable than regular games for some hardcore grinders who are also good poker players.

Alright, let’s finally get into some specific Zoom poker strategy hands now!


A Couple Quick Notes

Assume starting stacks of 100 big blinds in all hands
  • Hero = Us
  • Villain = Our opponent

Player types: Nit, TAG, TAGfish etc. If you don't know what these mean, check out this article of mine.

HUD Stats: If you want to know more about the HUD stats that I use below, what they all mean, and even download my own custom HUD for free, then check out this article of mine.


Zoom Poker Example Hand #1


Nit villain opens from the button

Hero is in the big blind with:

Best zoom poker strategy

Hero Should 3Bet

Here is a spot where we can take advantage of the weak/tight play that we talked about above in Zoom by opening up our 3Betting range. We can also use the information gap to our advantage.

When a Nit like this opens on the button his range will be pretty wide. Often 30% of hands or even more in some cases. Therefore, he can’t stand a 3Bet very often.

Nits are also one of the player types that tends to fold too much to 3Bets. You can find this out for sure by checking the Fold to 3Bet% stat on your HUD.

So when we pick up a reasonably decent hand like this in the big blind we can either call or put in the re-raise. Calling is totally fine and you should definitely do that plenty of the time.

But in Zoom we can exploit the tendencies of the weak/tight players like this by getting more aggressive.

Remember that they are often just playing a very tight ABC game on many tables at once. Furthermore, they probably don’t have much information on us to suggest that we might be bluffing.

So by making plays like this more often in Zoom we can simply take down a lot more easy pots. This is especially effective against the weaker bad regs like this.

Let’s look at another preflop example.


Zoom Poker Example Hand #2


Hero opens from the cutoff with:

zoom poker strategy 3-bet

TAG villain 3Bets from the button

Hero should 4Bet


This is an excellent example of a spot where you should be 4Betting frequently in Zoom.

This is especially the case if the hand takes place in the early going when we don’t know very much about our opponent and he doesn’t know much about us either.

As we discussed above, in Zoom poker the information gap means that you can get away with more bluffs like this because most people are expecting you to play straightforward and not get out of line.

A small suited ace is an excellent hand to 4Bet bluff with because it blocks other aces, meaning that it is less likely that our opponent has one.

It can also make a few monster hands like the wheel straight and the nut flush. And lastly, it some some decent equity against big pairs like KK, QQ, JJ or TT (~30%).

Finally, an aggressive TAG is also the perfect player to run a bluff like this against. In a late position battle like this his 3Bet range is likely going to be very wide.

I discuss this in much greater detail by the way in Modern Small Stakes.

So instead of just folding and giving up (or making a pretty iffy call out of position with a hand like this), we can simply put in the 4Bet and force him to lay it down.

From time to time of course, certainly not every time.

A play like this creates an immediate and easy profit for us. Making simple but well timed bluffs like this are a very powerful weapon to get ahead in fast fold style games like Zoom.


Zoom Poker Example Hand #3


TAGfish villain raises from MP

Hero calls on the button with:

crush zoom poker 6max

Flop:

best zoom poker strategy 6max

Villain CBets

Hero should CALL


Here is another excellent example of a spot where we can exploit the weaker regs in Zoom games. We do this by flatting with a wider range preflop and then taking away the pot after the flop.

In this hand we called on the button preflop with a suited ace versus a TAGfish. We don’t want to be 3Betting them every time. And this is especially the case when they open from EP or MP. We need to respect their range more from these seats.

Now one of the common weaknesses of many bad regs like this (TAGfish and Nits) at the lower limits is betting the flop a lot but not following it up on the turn very often.

You can find this out very quickly on your HUD by comparing their Flop CBet% to their Turn CBet%.

Often with these player types you will find a huge gap. For example, they might bet the flop 70% of the time but only 40% of the time on the turn.

So this gives us a great opportunity to simply float the flop and then take the pot away on the turn with a simple bet when they check to us.

This is why I included several videos in the Zoom section of my Elite Poker University dedicated specifically to taking away the pot from these players with a bluff.

This play should be an absolute staple of your game in Zoom. This is because there are tons of weak mass multi-tabling regs like this who are just robotically clicking buttons.

You can take so many pots away from them with a simple float and bet the turn play like this.

Lastly, it should be noted that you should always have at least some equity when using this strategy. You don’t want to just float them with any two cards because eventually they will recognize that you are doing it too much.

So that is why in this example we choose to float the flop with a backdoor flush draw and an overcard. It’s not a huge amount of equity, but we aren’t just randomly clicking buttons here either. We have outs.

This allows us to win the pot by simply “getting lucky” sometimes as well. Since they aren’t going to fold every single time we float, it is always nice to have a little bit of equity like this in our back pocket.


Zoom Poker Example Hand #4


Hero raises from the button with:

how to crush zoom poker on pokerstars

Nit villain calls from the big blind


Flop:

zoom poker strategy 6max

Villain checks

Hero CBets

Villain calls


Turn:

zoom poker profitable

Villain checks

Hero bets

Villain calls


River:

Best zoom poker strategy 6max nl2 nl5 nl10

Villain checks

Hero should BLUFF


In this final example we have another spot where you should be applying some big-time pressure more often in Zoom games.

Preflop we raised with a suited connector from the button and got called by another weak reg in the blinds.

When he checks and the flop brings us a gutshot straight draw, backdoor flush draw and two overs, we have a very easy CBet.

On the turn when we pick up more equity (4 to the flush) we go ahead and make the double barrel after he checks to us.

Double barreling like this when you pick up additional equity on the turn should be an integral part of your strategy in Zoom games.

When he checks to us again on the river we have a decision to make. Checking behind means that we pretty much give up on the hand and always take a guaranteed loss. We are extremely unlikely to win the hand with jack high.

However, as I discussed above we can often take down the pot in Zoom by bluffing the river against the weaker regs like this.

And this is the absolute perfect scare card to do it on. All of his mid pairs are absolutely going to HATE seeing this ace.

Running big bluffs like this at Zoom, especially against the weaker regs, is one of the absolute main ways to start getting ahead in these games.

You absolutely have to beat the regs in these nit infested games if you want to get ahead. And you aren’t going to beat them by sitting around all day waiting for the nuts.

So running well timed bluffs like this against the right opponents on the right board runouts is something that you want to be doing more frequently in Zoom.

Lastly, before you pull the trigger on a bluff like this make sure that you check their WTSD% (went to showdown) on your HUD.

If it is in the mid 20’s or higher, then you don’t want to be bluffing them. This type of player calls too much.

You want to bluff the weaker regs instead who only go to showdown with a really strong hand. Look for the players with a WTSD% in the low 20’s or less. These are the players who you want to bluff.


How Can You Get Better at Zoom Poker?


Lastly, what are some of the best ways to get better at Zoom poker these days? Unfortunately I could only really scratch the surface in a short little blog post like this.

However, there are two resources in particular that I would recommend for getting better at Zoom poker.


1. BlackRain79 Elite Poker University


This is the #1 advanced poker training program available right now because it was just released and includes an entire section dedicated solely to Zoom poker strategy.

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Good zoom poker strategy

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2. The Micro Stakes Playbook


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It is one of the only poker books ever written with Zoom poker games specifically in mind.

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There are dozens of strategies to beat these games and over 50 highly detailed example hands to guide you through as well.

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Final Thoughts


Zoom poker is still a relatively new game. And so therefore, many pros are still trying to figure out the optimal poker strategy for Zoom.

I believe the popularity of Zoom poker will no doubt continue to soar. This is because the greatest thing about Zoom is the ease with which you can sit down and just start playing within seconds.

And it is brilliant really.

This will continue to attract the recreational players in droves and also the regulars who want to grind out tons of hands and collect rakeback.

But this ease of access is also a fairly big drawback. These games tend to attract legions of nitty mass multi-tabling regs and fish who play a little bit “less bad” and can't be easily isolated.

And this is why it is important that you start learning some advanced poker strategy to consistently confuse the good players and outplay them.

However, no matter how many “moves” you make you are never going to turn a huge profit off of all the nits. They simply don’t make enough big mistakes.

And since you can’t isolate, tilt and chase the fish around like at the regular tables, your winrate against the players who ARE making massive mistakes will also be reduced.

So this is why I am personally not the biggest fan of Zoom poker in the world.

Now with all of that said though, it is important to remember that there is a big difference between your winrate and your overall winnings.

They are not the same...at all.

Even though your winrate (measured in big blinds/100 hands) will be lower in Zoom, you can potentially make more money overall simply because Zoom allows you to play so many more hands than a regular table.

So Zoom poker is absolutely perfect for somebody who likes to put in big time volume and "grind" like me.

Also, some people have a limited amount of time to play poker. They have a job, school, family etc. They don't want to chase the fish around all day and constantly hop from one table to another.

They just want to sit down and play. I get that and I totally understand that as well. Zoom is also the perfect game for somebody like this.

Ultimately it is up to you.

What I hope though is that this guide helped provide you with some strategies to start improving your results in these games.

You should always lean on the more loose and aggressive side in Zoom games especially against the weak mass multi-tabling regs and when the information gap is large (you don’t know each other).

Lastly, if you want to learn how to make $2000+ consistently from Zoom poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.


Let me know in the comments below what Zoom poker strategies you use.

Best zoom poker strategy

39 comments:

  1. Awesome article nathan! I tried some light 3bets and ran into some trouble. Can you please suggest hands you routinely 3bet/4bet with?

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    1. Thanks Ahmad! In my article last week on 3Bet pots I list all of the hands that I typically 3Bet light with versus these types of players. You can check it out here.

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  2. Nice article Nathan. I'm a fan of Zoom poker mostly due to all of the reasons you said on this post, but the games have been way too nitty lately and I wasn't able to really win a session. I decided just to listen to you (finally) and move back to the regular tables (better late than never). My volume has been pretty low but using some of your tips about table selection I've been able to get some decent profit on the last couple of sessions I've played. Gonna keep hunting the fish, thanks for all of the work! Take care!

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    1. Thanks Jorge and glad to hear that you are seeing success!

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  3. Hahaha! So this is why I was destroying NL2 and NL5 Zoom: they were way too nitty and ABC poker was enough.

    I moved back to regular tables, however. You're right: too much of a nitfest in Zoom.

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    1. Glad to hear that you are doing well!

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  4. My 3bet is 15, WWSF is 55 but they don't care - exploit them all day long

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  5. Nathan I really respect you knowledge and I learnt a lot with you. Not only in poker but in my personal life.
    After read your articles I started won in cash game. Some time after I began play Zoom using yours tips. Man I am going very well. Today I started with 2 bucks and after 300 Hands My stack was 10 bucks. This is only one example.
    Sometime I have to quit playing because I get nervous playing with stacks like 6, 8 or 10 bucks.
    I always play N2 (0.01/0.02) cents in one table.
    What is happening man, do you think is only a question of luck.

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    1. Glad my articles have helped Junior. I can't say whether it is luck or not. It requires a huge sample size to say for sure.

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    2. I am a winning low-stakes Zoom player at pokerstars (7.02 bb/100 @ over 300,000 hands). While much of what you say is true, the biggest thing to do is play LAG. A devastating tool against nits.

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    3. Awesome winrate MD! Totally agree about the playing LAG part as well.

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  6. Thanks for writing this article. Great tips for Zoom!

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  7. Great article man! I was wondering, what do you do if your 4bet on the button against a SB 3-bet with a hand such as A4s gets called, and the flop is something like K93 rainbow? Do you continue your story, or do you just give up immediately (assuming you're 100BBs deep at the beginning of the hand).

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    1. Thanks! Really depends on the player type and any history.

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  8. There is almost o way to know what type of player villain is. At fastforward on PP for exemple, there are no hud's, every habd it's in a different table. Ignition looks worst: villain it's Player 1,2, etc. So, till now i figure that good and profitable play maybe will be against possition strategy. Of course, we got stack info, bet ammount info, time info, but no much more. What do you think?

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  9. I think, Zoom poker is fine as a learning tool, especially for practicing your default lines against unknowns or regs without obvious weaknesses. And its fine for the convenience, if you just want to sit down and play some poker hands recreationally for a short period of time.

    However the simple fact is, that a Zoom table play significantly tougher than the similar stake regular tables with for instance much less open limping going on. Sure there are ways, you can still beat tables, where people play to tight. But you are not going to see anywhere near the winrate, which you can on a table, where someone is playing 70% of their hands.

    And this whole “trade winrate for volume” idea, which Zoom advocates talk about, completely ignore the influence of rake. If you are running a somewhat LAG style, you are paying around 6 BB / 100 in rake at full ring micro stakes tables and even more at 6-max. So unless you are a huge winner, a small drop in your actual winrate will mean a huge drop in your after rake winrate or even turn you into a losing player.

    For this reason I suggest people trying to build a bankroll to avoid Zoom games from 10 NL and up and focus on serious table selection. If there are no bad players at the table, leave. If you cant find good tables at all, stop playing. Multi tabling or Zooming 100.000`s of hands against a bunch of other regs will lead to nothing but you being burned out while generating a ton of rake for the poker site.

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  10. Nathan great work you are doing and providing so much free content. I have been really able to stop the bleeding with your advice. It is hard to find soft games these days online especially on pokerstars.eu which I think is most likely the toughest site to play on an should be avoided by all beginners. Zoom has really allowed me to put in a lot of volume in a short time which I think every part time poker player should do at some time to find out where his game stands.

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    1. Thank you I am glad my poker advice helps!

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  11. These games are still laughably soft, Nathan. I'll let you know if that ever changes. Don't hold your breath... :)

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    1. Haha I agree HellNative, glad you are still grinding and stacking the fish!

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    2. Haha, yeah man, they're still out there, and still attracted to me like flies around shit! 😁

      I justed started to stream on Twitch, first one was last night. It's gonna take a while before it's of any quality but your subscribers are welcome to pop in anytime. At the moment I'm mixing it up with 2nl FR and 5nl 6max. Only the 2nl Zoom games seem to run at full ring, you get like 1k+ at peak times and like 5 at 5nl, haha, not sure why.

      I'm still figuring out how to best do this, I messed up the audio levels last night and played the whole session with my voice barely audible, lol.

      Anyway, things are going decently at the tables (16-17bbs/100 - meh sample) so it might be educational to some of your audience. If I ever get more than one viewer who drops in for longer than 20 seconds, I'll recommend your site. 👍

      I plan to stream most days, probably mostly in the early hours (GMT), but also some daytime streams here and there.

      That was a very good article BTW.


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    3. Hey HN,

      That's awesome that you started streaming on Twitch. I am sure there will be plenty of people interested in watching a top micro stakes player like yourself.

      If you want, go ahead and drop your Twitch name here in the comments so that I and others can find you on there.

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    4. Thanks man! Didn't want to spam with a plug to my channel but it's Hellnative, as on here. Got some free time next month so for anyone interested, look out from the beginning of March for a fun micro grind.

      I imagine you're playing higher these days, Nathan? What site/s are you on? Stars obviously screwing over regs pretty hard these days with RB and the recent timebank BS. If I was back grinding like before I'd probably look elsewhere. You still in Thailand BTW?

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    5. Hey HN,

      No problem you are welcome to give your channel a bit of free promo here. I am sure a lot of people could learn from you.

      Yes I live in Thailand still, Bangkok. Currently on an island vacation though. I am on Instagram where I post everything:

      https://www.instagram.com/nathan79williams

      I only play poker part time these days cuz this blog and my YouTube channel are a ton of work. But when I do it's usually stakes like NL25, NL50 and NL100 on sites like Party or 888.

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    6. Cool man, I heard PP was full of bots and regs these days, tough field by all accounts. Glad you're out of micros, you deserve it after the kind of volume you used to put in, I'm still not sure how you managed that. I know you played some higher stakes during that time also, but grinding out volume at micros these days is tough with such poor rb, slightly tougher fields etc, better off out of it. I'm not on Instagram but I'll keep a look out for you.

      Look after yourself!

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  12. Hey Nathan I read and enjoy all your excellent articles...quite a few of the newer sites don't allow HUDs such as GG and RIO; do you think you might ever do a brief post on playing poker
    and fast poker without huds and picking up reads? Appreciate you don't play on those sites though (I presume) so you may not wish to. Just wondering. Obviously even with no HUDs it is important to pick up reads about how players behave and your insight would be brilliant. Either way thanks and good luck on the tables

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    1. Thanks Thomas glad my articles help! I have actually written about playing on poker sites where you can't use a HUD before:

      https://www.blackrain79.com/2018/05/poker-hud-banned.html

      I would always prefer to play on sites that allow a HUD but as long as the games are good, I will play there.

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  13. Props on the Heraclitus quote.

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    1. Haha thanks! I love that quote :)

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  14. About zoom hand example #4 my thoughts is that the Ace on river is not a scare card because you already bet 2 streets on a raggy board so its unlikely Ace is in your range. If I was the bb Id be more suspicious for you betting that card. You were unlikely to be betting 2 streets with AK/AQ etc so unless you made 2 pairs with Ax then why would the Ace on river make any difference?

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  15. Nitfest... You must be kidding.

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  16. Thank you, Nathan!
    It is very useful all in all.

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  17. Hey, on the first example (Ah3h), what if the btn 5bets us (all in probably) should we call with this hand?

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  18. Is there anyway to beat zoom nl10? I mean they all make minimum mistakes and they only bet when they have something..They also have large 3bet ranges so even with stats you cant read them that well.So how can we
    exploit that?

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  19. Thanks Nathan, never played zoom myself but may give it a try after reading this. What sites would you recommend to play on for good rakeback?

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    1. Glad this article helped! Sorry but I just teach strategy, I don't recommend poker sites.

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