BIG ACTION IS NOT JUST AT WSOP

4 July 2008

Major online wins reported


With all the big money prizes making the headlines at this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, it is perhaps easy to overlook regular online action at websites like Full Tilt and Pokerstars.

Putting events into perspective this week was an interesting article in Poker News, reporting on major happenings during the month of June 2008.

At Full Tilt, the distraction afforded by the land activities in Las Vegas did not diminish the interest in online games by many of the top pros, with the $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha tables as busy as ever and generating major money. Cases in point flagged by Poker News were a huge $449 656 pot won by Finnish pro Patrik Antonius (see the PokerListings.com Marketpulse biggest pots section) and a record June 25 win of $585 009 on the new $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em "RailHeaven" table.

Pokerlistings also flags the big June numbers for Doyle's Room.com in its Online Traffic Report, commenting that player traffic at DoylesRoom jumped 101 percent to 1 532 players on average over each 24-hour period, compared to 765 players on average in May.

Also showing traffic increases in June were Absolute Poker, with a 15 percent increase to 1 208 players despite its recent trials and tribulations over in-house cheating, and traffic volume leader, PokerStars, which grew 6 percent to a hard-to-beat daily average of 12 856 players.

Average pot sizes have also been on the rise: Mansion Poker jumped 83 percent in June, ending on an impressive $28.80 compared to $15.70 in May. Other sites with pot size increases were: UltimateBet, up 13 percent to an average of $32; and PartyPoker, up a more modest 1 percent to $21.50. The top 5 rooms overall for pot size in June were Pacific Poker, DoylesRoom, Full Tilt, UltimateBet and Mansion Poker.

The Pokerlistings MarketPulse overview is a website worth visiting for statistical information, with the data presented in three categories:

Traffic Today is a breakdown of player volume by poker room for the current day, including the number of players presently online; the average over the last 24 hours plus the high point and low point over the same period; there's also a graph plotting player traffic per hour for each room compared to the industry average.

Traffic by Month displays average player volume details for the current month, the two previous months plus six-month and 12-month traffic averages. Monthly volume is also charted against industry average.

The 2008 Highlights tab lists the figures for the busiest and quietest days/months for each room so far this year. All data is also updated hourly.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa