So frustrated. You would think someone would develop a site very similar to PokerStars. eg. lobby layout, filter, tournaments, cash game tables, etc.

Sure the software may not be as good, but just duplicate that **** and start counting monies.

And not a site w/ 14 skins. (i guess skins are a way to bring more players in but c'mon) How many skins is PokerStars a part of?

Maybe someone can fill me in or please move/delete this thread if its already been discussed.

Okay, so someone makes a copy of stars. Now the players get to choose between PS with lots of players top notch CS etc. OR they can play the other site trying to be like it. Solid idea.

Stars' success is in large part due to historical conditions that cant be replicated. Even if you cloned the software exactly your site might not amount to much at this point in time.

Ugh, should have stated that I live in USA

Yeah it would be silly to have two exact sites to play from and one of them being "that other site"

If I have Stars available, im not asking for another competitive site. I think I would be happy as well as many other Americans.

Keep supporting shady sites and your going to continue to get shady sites.

Very good point. Did not consider the early and mid 2000's impact. And the unlimited marketing going on at the time.

More like Moneymaker winning the wsop in 2003 from a $35 super satellite he won on...

STARS.

Not sure what unlimited marketing you are talking about back then; there's much more now. You didn't have any sponsors (sites) basically until Chris bagged his deal.

That makes your OP even more ridiculous.

Just think about the alleged charges against Stars, and you can see just how much effort was made to keep American players happy. You're not going to find a Euro site willing to dig that deep for something that can vanish in a day. It's expensive to service American players.

It's not even just that. In poker you need players to get players. You want to play poker with other people, not by yourself - it takes a lot of players playing at all hours to keep those games running, and it takes a lot of players to have enough players for alot of players to keep them running. That sounds kind of strange but I'm sure you know what I mean.

This isn't even getting into trust issues. There's pretty much 0 reason to trust a new online poker site regardless of who they're 'regulated' by. The current regulators have shown they offer pretty much 0 security when push comes to shove. I certainly wouldn't deposit on a new site and if you can't even attract the regulars who are incredibly dissatisfied with the current system, how are they supposed to attract anybody?

The big hope is regulation. In a truly regulated market where you really know your money is safe I'd be insta depositing on whatever site offered the best deal or most intriguing offer, and I don't think I'm alone on that. That would encourage sites to compete as well as even incentivizing new companies to open up shop when they have an idea that's "outside the box" and could help them carve their own niche.

I said that in case pokeriguess thought i had an opportunity to play on pokerstars.

Thank you Jim and Do it Right for your insight on my question.