In the aftermath of Black Friday, when three of the largest online poker sites (which were all still accepting US players) were effectively shut down by the US Department of Justice, the poker landscape has been slowly changing and adjusting.
Obviously, the loss of US players on these sites (plus a few more since that the DoJ has diligently put out of business) has resulted in significant losses of online poker players. Most estimates put current overall traffic down about 25% to what it was pre-Black Friday. In reality, given that most people associate the game of poker with the US (at least historically) it is surprising that the numbers are not worse. What this really seems to indicate is that online poker is alive and well around the globe, and except for some ill-conceived legislation which (in the minds of US poker players) has been grossly misinterpreted and enforced, keeps increasing in popularity.
Given that non-US players do not seem to have been dissuaded by the calamity that was Black Friday, it will not be surprising to hear that PokerStars has retained its crown as the largest online poker site…. by far. While its next nearest competitor (we’ll just call them FTP for short) still sits on the sidelines awaiting a slew of court challenges, PokerStars is now bigger than just about the rest of the poker community combined. We won’t spend any more time on them except to say – if you don’t have an account at PokerStars, get one. They’ve always got games going so even if it’s not your preferred site, having a PS account as a backup is just plain good sense if you are trying to make money playing poker. Just make sure you use our exclusive PokerStars poker bonus link, and thank us later.
What’s more interesting is that there is a massive amount of competition between the other rooms and networks to become the next best thing, at least in terms of market share.
The iPoker network, featuring many of our best sign-up bonus offers, is quickly establishing itself as a favourite. With some of the best clearance rates, its poker bonus deals are second to none, and with a bevy of sites to choose from (Winner.com, Titan Poker, Sun Poker, Noble Poker, ChiliPoker, Betfred, etc.) you can open accounts at each one and take advantage of each and every one of our offers. There are no fewer than 10 iPoker rooms on our site to chose from.
Next up on the largest online poker sites list is an old favourite, Party Poker. A victim (albeit willingly) of the original Black Friday, when the US legislation went into place in 2004 and they were the biggest site by far… they chose to reject US players rather than risk what happened to PS and FTP eventually. Now sitting in the #3 spot, they have the advantage of time-tested software and a squeaky-clean reputation. The only down side is they run their own network and don’t have any partners, so one account is all you get here.
The 888 Poker network (featuring 888Poker, Littlewoods and LuckyAce poker rooms) is quickly gaining ground as an alternative. With promotions aimed at getting new players on board, they have established a niche market in some countries (Canada in particular). With 3 skins available, that’s 3 more sign-up opportunities to take advantage of.
OnGame is also well-established network that has benefited from the new world order of poker. Having never accepted US players, they have a good following of loyal players, which creates a lot of cash game and tournament activity. It also helps that they have several prestigious affiliations with big name poker sites including Hollywood Poker, bwin, Betfair, Betsafe, Betsson, and more.
Worth mentioning on the biggest online poker sites list is the Merge network, mostly because some of their sites still accept US players (which naturally implies that the Merge network is encouraging them to). Carbon Poker is the flagship, and they are keeping volumes up, while the addition of sites like Poker Host, RPM and Overbet and others give you more options for sign-up bonuses.