Online poker traffic numbers begin to hold steady

It’s hard to believe that nearly a month has passed since Black Friday turned the online poker world on its head on April 15^th, and after a turbulent few weeks that saw some sites make huge gains, while other online poker rooms tumbled, it seems that player traffic at the numerous online poker sites and networks has finally leveled off judging by the most recent traffic report by pokerscout.com.

The traffic report released on May 9^th shows only a single network showing a double digit loss -the Cereus Poker Network continued its shedding of players amidst rumors of bankruptcy and the laying-off of its entire roster of sponsored poker players-while Party Poker showed the largest increase of 10%, although this likely has little to do with Black Friday and more to do with the site’s current promotions.

Another network that has continued its upward climb is the Merge Gaming Network, which has picked up the bulk of the disillusioned US market that is still willing to deposit at an online Poker Room. With another 9% increase this past week, the Merge Gaming Network is now ranked #9 in terms of overall traffic, and if you exclude country specific sites like PokerStars.it and PokerStars.fr, the Merge Gaming Network vaults all the way up to the #6 spot; an almost implausible thought just over four weeks ago when the network was clinging to the #20 spot on pokerscout.com’s rankings!

In addition to the week-over-week numbers, pokerscout.com also did a year-over-year comparison which shows a major shift in the never-ending online poker power struggle:

Biggest Year-Over-Year Gain:

• Merge Gaming Network 157%
• 888poker 69%

Biggest Year-Over-Year Decline:

• Cereus Network 75%
• Everest Poker 63%
• Cake Poker Network 45%*
• International Poker Network (IPN) 39%
• Microgaming Network 31%
• PokerStars 26%
• Full Tilt Poker 19%

Small but Interesting Changes:

• Yatahay Network +207%**
• WSEX -21%
• Action Poker Network -21%

*Remarkably, even with a 28% increase since Black Friday, the Cake Poker Network has still shed 45% of its player base.

**In addition to Black Friday gains the Yatahay Network was mostly impacted by the addition of Doyles Room Poker early in 2011.

With Merge Gaming cruising into the Top 10 it will be interesting to see if more and more players join the network if, and when, their funds are released by Full Tilt Poker and UB/Absolute Poker. Perhaps an even more relevant question will be: How will the Department of Justice react to other online poker rooms picking up where Full Tilt PokerStars and the Cereus Poker Network left off?