POKERSTARS STILL TOPS

11 April 2008

Independent online poker company still streets ahead of its nearet rivals


Latest stats at the Pokerscout information website show that PokerStars.com still has a commanding lead over its nearest rivals.

Pokerstars is currently pulling in 14 923 cash players with a daily peak of 22 505 concurrently online and a 7 day average of 15 400.

Its nearest rival, Full Tilt Poker.com has recorded respectively 8 236, 9 732 and 7 000.

Closely pursuing Full Tilt and now in the number three slot is Playtech's iPoker Network on 1 739, 9 408 and 5 400.

Party Poker is now at position four with 2 417, 9 129 and 5 200, whilst the fifth slot is occupied by Ongame with 1 164, 8 886 and a seven day average count of 4 600.

Up-and-coming Everest Poker has moved up to the sixth slot on 783, 5 960 and 3 000, now ahead of the Swedish government monopoly Svenske Spel, in seventh spot on 332, 4 239 and 1 480.

Boss Media's International Poker Network is in position 8 on 327, 3 005 and 1 480, ahead of the troubled UltimateBet with a ninth placing on 2 254, 2 773 and 1 360.

The last poker room in the Top Ten is currently Cake Poker on 1 114, 1 764 and 1 180.

Absolute Poker, possibly still feeling the effects of its insider cheating scandal, now sits at number 11 in the list.

Other poker groupings of interest, ranked by 7 day average action are Bodog, now in 12th position; Microgaming Poker Network in 13th; Pacific Poker at 14 and the recently re-branded Entraction network (formerly 24hPoker) at 15.

Cryptologic, Ladbrokes, the 3D site PKR Poker, Betfair and Merge networks occupy the remaining positions in that order in the Top Twenty sites.

Giving the lie to the poker pessimists, growing average pot sizes are being reported, with seven of the top online poker rooms showing increases over the last four months, reports the MarketPulse section of the PokerListings.com information website.

This site analyses 20 million online poker hands each month to give a real-time statistical snapshot of online poker, and the numbers currently look good for skilled players. As a general rule, the larger the average pot size, the looser the games tend to be, and the picture is an encouraging one.

Four poker rooms in particular are showing strong upward trends, with Pacific Poker leading the way with an average pot size of $44.80 - up from $41.30 last December. Other strong increases over the past quarter include Full Tilt Poker, up 5 percent to $36.50; Titan Poker, up 15 percent and growing from $26.10 to $31.70 overall this year and Everest Poker, up a remarkable 22 percent to $24.70 - double what it was in December of last year.

UltimateBet, Mansion Poker, Party Poker and Absolute Poker are all showing smaller increases but still positive growth.

Cash game traffic at market leader PokerStars was up again in March, averaging 14 599 players over each 24-hour period, showcasing an overall increase of close to 6 000 players since last March. Peak concurrent traffic at PokerStars has reached an outstanding 23 395 players, giving the independent a serious 32 percent market share of all cash-game traffic.

PokerListings reports that the top action hours across the Web are between 2pm and 7pm EST, with traffic across the top poker websites peaking at around 70 000 concurrent players every day around 5 p.m. EST.

Biggest Hold'em pots won online last month were fairly steady, varying between $50 000 and $150 000. The biggest pot overall in March was a $163 997 pot between high-stakes regulars Di "Urindanger" Dang and "guaranteed376" - paling in comparison to the record $385 000 pot Phil Ivey won in February.

Most popular game variation in recent months was unsurprisingly Texas Hold'em, with all variations of Hold'em still capturing 90.9 percent of all online action. Next most popular genre is Omaha at 5.4 percent, Omaha Hi-Lo at 3.4 percent and Stud at 1.1 percent.

51.1 percent of players currently prefer short-handed tables and 48.8 percent full-ring games. Heads-up games account for just 2.3 percent of the action.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa