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Merge Network Traffic Explosion

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:15:59 +0000

The big news in the online poker world is the pending move to the Merge network of four Cake poker skins.

These poker sites include SportsBook Poker and PlayersOnly Poker. The resultant increase in traffic on the Merge Network is expected to be huge – possibly up to six times the current level – and is predicted to propel the Merge Network into the top 10 of online poker sites by next year.

Currently Merge is ranked 20th in the list of poker rooms by player numbers, with Cake being 10th on the same list. The loss to the Cake network of these rooms will probably be as significant as the gain Merge expects.

Both Cake and Merge take American players, so all else being equal the transition should go smoothly for most existing players.

In order to ensure the success of the transition, there are a number of excellent promotions being offered by Merge skins right now, and these should be taken advantage of by all smart players.

Poker Host is one room on the Merge network that hopes to benefit by the increased players at the network, and they have a number of promotions right now that are geared to make them stand out from competing skins.

Aside from their larger than usual poker deposit bonus of up to $2,000 at 200% deposit match, Poker Host players can also cash in on the current freeroll extravaganza being run as part of the change over preparations.

Free Poker Cash

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:39:51 +0000

There are a whole lot of free poker cash bonuses available on the internet right now.

The last few years have seen this poker bonus model become more and more popular with poker rooms and independent third party operators.

Of course, they have always been popular with players.

Players that are not familiar with free poker cash bonuses sometimes think that there must be something dodgy about them. That they must be some time of scam. After all, why would anyone want to give away money?!

That is a fair point, and you really can’t be too careful when it comes to the internet.

Well, to begin with, these bonuses come with certain terms and conditions that restrict players from simply withdrawing the free money and walking away with it. Players who claim this type of bonus will be required to actually play poker with the money. That is what it is for after all.

So, you get the free poker cash and you play poker. And the poker room takes a small percentage of every pot in rake. The more you play, the more pots the poker room gets to rake, and the more money they make back.

Many, many players will get a small amount of free cash and blow it all in one or two hands. This is bad. Bad for the player, and bad for the poker room. But a small percentage of the players that get these bonuses will go on to play a whole lot of poker, and become loyal players at the room that gave them the money. And go on to rake a whole lot of money for that poker room.

That is the theory anyway.

Sometimes poker rooms use these bonuses to get a lot of new players. They run the bonus promotion for a while to increase their player base, and then stop for a while.

Like the ten dollars free bonus at Poker Time. They ran their free $10 bonus for a while a couple of years ago, then they stopped for about a year. Then they started up again but only on a limited basis. The finally they made the free $10 available to all new players again.

Check it out here.

Everleaf and UPN merge

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:46:22 +0000

In a continuing trend that began last year, the two small networks Everleaf Gaming and the Universal Poker Network announced that they would merge this month (January 2010).

The new larger network is still called Everleaf so I guess you could say that the UPN was taken over by Everleaf. The details don’t matter too much. No players, or their bankrolls, were hurt in the making of that merger, so all is good.

The new larger network is still very small compared to the top ten poker sites, with still only a couple of hundred players at peak times. Hopefully the increased player base and assumed cost savings will be enough to keep Everleaf Gamings doors open for another while.

In the current economic climate smaller poker rooms and networks are coming under a lot of financial pressure and the economies of scale that a larger player base can bring must be most welcome.

Everleaf Gaming sites accept American players which should be a big boost, but the software is still being reported as quite buggy by a number of dissatisfied players and, until that gets sorted out, the network will most likely not flourish.