Written by Sadonna | Friday, April 29th, 2011

Since April 15^th 2011, known now as Black Friday to the online poker community, the online poker landscape has seen a major dip in player traffic. With the indictments handed down to the top poker rooms in the industry, Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker, players have been shut out to their favorite online poker rooms. However one network has seen an increase in traffic as they are still available to US players.

Merge Gaming has come out on top in the poker industry as US players have clamored to sign up at such poker rooms as Carbon Poker and Lock Poker. Merge has seen an increase of 23% in the few days since the top poker room’s domain names were seized by the DOJ. This is a major increase and if you look at the reputable resource site PokerScout.com you will be able to see that Merge is now listed as the number ten poker site/network according to online poker traffic.

Merge is also listed as the only site/network that is available to US players out of all the other sites/networks listed. Merge has not been in the top ten previously as it was dominated by PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and other top poker sites. So essentially, players are heading over the Merge Gaming networks in large numbers, most likely those who had been playing at Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute.

All three of the online poker rooms affected by the indictments have seen large drops in poker traffic though they are still in the top ten according to player traffic sites like PokerScout.

Many in the poker industry feel as though it is unfair that these sites have suffered yet others have gained i.e. Merge Gaming. Some have suggested that the US government decided to go against Full Tilt and PokerStars because they remained in the US after other sites like Party Poker withdrew a few years ago.

 

Sorry comments are closed on this article.