If this we were talking about geology in relation to poker, I’d say that the online poker world is undergoing a great tectonic shift. Everything seemed to be going smoothly – PokerStars making friends with Wynn, Full Tilt with Station, Senators supporting online poker regulation – until one day, the US Justice system suddenly decided to smite the founders of the three major poker sites: Full Tilt, PokerStars, and UB.com/Absolute Poker. This caused a massive exodus of poker sites from the US market, leaving millions of poker-playing Americans out in the cold. As a result, traffic on the online poker scene has shifted dramatically and it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen from here on out.

The Background

PokerStars and Full Tilt used to be the almighty poker sites in the net. Absolute Poker and UB.com, despite having experienced setbacks way before with the Superuser Scandal, were also quite a force to be reckoned with. But now that these sites have practically been chased out of the United States, their domains seized and their names slandered, the online poker world saw one of the darkest developments in its short history. I’m sure all the international poker players are missing their American friends right now, and the American players, in turn, are scrambling about for a place to play, even if that means settling for less. The poker sites are no less chaotic, though they admittedly managed quite well to keep operations afloat despite all the difficulties. Play has more or less continued normally in other parts of the world, except that the tables are far less lively now that the American players are gone.

Traffic Shifts

The biggest evidence of the impact of this recent development, however, is in the traffic statistics of the sites. PokerStars traffic is down by 30%. But in all fairness, PokerStars has fared much better than Full Tilt. Full Tilt experienced a decrease in traffic of 44%, that’s nearly half of the site’s population. The sites on CEREUS network, namely UB.com and Absolute Poker, have experienced a 39% drop in traffic. Victory Poker experienced a small increase in traffic, but that’s expected to lessen now that they’ve pulled out of the US market as well. As a result of the extreme changes in traffic, the sites have lowered the guaranteed prizes of some of their tournaments, as evident in last Sunday’s tournaments. Hopefully, the whole matter will be cleared up soon so that the world of online poker may go back to the way it previously was – alive and bustling.

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