Poker Networks

April 13, 2009

Poker Networks

The majority of poker rooms online today belong to a pokernetwork of sites.
This is because without this network of sites working together there would not be enough players online to have a lot of games running of all different stakes and types, at all hours of the day.
Without poker networks new poker rooms would never get off the ground because nobody wants to join a room where there are hardly any players and it is difficult to find a game.
The biggest poker rooms, namely PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, do not need to be a part of poker network because they have enough players playing at their site alone.
In fact both of these rooms have more players than the largest network of poker sites.

There are several different poker networks online with varying amounts of rooms and players.
The largest poker network online would be the iPoker network.
The iPoker network is a collection of 26 poker rooms, including two of the more popular online poker rooms Titan Poker and CD Poker. The iPoker network as a whole averages over 9,000 cash players online at a time.

The onGame poker network is the second biggest on the net with an average of over 4,000 cash game players online at a time.
The onGame network includes 30 online poker rooms, the biggest being bwin.com. The newly formed Cereus network, which includes only Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, is the third biggest network on the list.
The Cereus network averages about 15.000 cash game players online.
It is somewhat difficult to lump with Cereus poker network in with other online poker room networks because the other networks all have upwards of 20 poker rooms, whereas the Cereus network only has 2.

The Cake Pokernetwork and the Merge Gaming network are both relatively new poker networks that are growing quickly with many new poker rooms joining and a lot of new players signing up.
The cake poker network currently boasts 30 poker rooms, including the original Cake Poker skin, and some other quality rooms like Players Only Poker and Doyles Room.
The Cake Poker network averages about 5000 cash game players online at a time. The Merge network is still small with only 4000 cash game players online at a time, but this is a poker network that you should look to grow in the near future. Carbon Poker is the main site on the network, with the newly formed Aced right on their heels.
Aced recently signed Jamie Gold to play exclusively at Aced Poker, which is a big deal for the entire Merge network.

There are some exceptions to the rule that new sites need to start out on a poker network.
PKR for example, was launched a few years ago, but because of their unique 3D software they were able to become a competitor in the industry almost instantly without the need of a poker network.
PKR averages almost 10000 cash game players online at a time.
Some other sites that have chosen to go independently and not join a poker network include Party Poker, Pacific Poker, Bodog and Betfair Poker.

In general, poker networks allow poker rooms to share players so that they have enough traffic and a large enough player base to compete with the large independent poker rooms.
Poker networks are extremely important in the online poker industry because they maintain a healthy competition between poker rooms and also allow for new poker rooms to enter the business.

Poker Networks

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