*Stats provided by http://www.pokerscout.com/

Merge is suddenly the biggest player in the United States, although they are still less than 5% of the size of Stars prior to "Black Friday". There is an enormous void to be filled and many challenges to fill this void. Time will only tell if the mistakes from Pokerstars, Fulltilt, Cereus, can be avoided while still running a pokersite.

I am sure new sites will pop up in the next few months and the ones listed above will continue to grow.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

i'm guessing bodog would be the greatest beneficiary of this whole fiasco

Nice website, when did you start it? Links from 2+2 are great for traffic, good thinking.

Merge more attractive by far. Better software dosen't crash constantly and 35 percent rakeback. Bodog is no rakeback and stunningly high rake.

what is the deal with the redirected URL?

I agree with Zecko. Bodog also still has the whole sports betting wire act target on their back as well.

Weekly gains are comparing peak cash players Saturday&Sunday totals from week to week.

All sites from Sunday to Sunday are up between 22%-26%. So gains are definitely starting to accelerate. UB/Cereus are no longer US friendly.

FYI- pokerscout.com is not my site, but has wonderful information.

I will post the chart later this evening for Monday vs. Monday, but Merge and Bodog seem to be the early leaders and picking up steam with 31% and 27% Monday over Monday gains, while Cake and Everleaf are slowly fading with only 8% and -2% Monday vs. Monday weekly gains.

most merge skins offer casino games and some offer sports books as well, fwiw

you're pretty much going to be ridin dirty no matter where you play at this point

lol pokerscout are you serious... has been around forever since pre-uigea

Do people really think that if any site grows to a significant size (or if it doesn't, come to that), the same people who have screwed FT and PS for US players won't do the same thing for the grown site?

If you do you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

this... imo if there is a "new generation" it is going to have to be based on a p2p model.

according to the stats thats exactly what happened

Well considering Intabill is who gave up all the FT, PS & UB bank account info, and they are not doing poker processing anymore, you are completely wrong. But hey, enjoy trying to scare people away from online poker.

LOL, I've spent the last few days trying to counter numerous posts from the 'Sky Is Falling' brigade.

But that has been done on a rational basis.

What possible rational basis do you think the DOJ has for picking on FT, PS and AP/UB?

The colour of the CEO's hair?

They lost money there?

No. The reason they started with those three is that they were the biggest sites that allowed US players.

Unless you can think of a single credible reason why they would ignore any other site, other than extremely small size, the only realistic scenario is that they won't.

US players need to put their energies into getting a fair deal from their government, not trying to play on small sites for a few weeks or months until they turn into bigger ones and get closed down.

They had an informant to give them details of payment processing for those sites. Otherwise, they'd have taken down big sportsbooks that accept U.S. wagers since sports betting is an even easier target.

Agreed. Basically without the informant they lucked into catching they would still be looking at a 5+ year investigation with NO results.

I do agree that there is obviously risk in playing on any site. Nobody can deny that. I've said it numerous times though, each player has to way the risk vs. reward and make a decision that suits them.

For me, I'm going to continue to play on the smaller sites for a lot of reasons. I don't think they are going to be indicted anytime soon(although I realize this is a possibility).

I personally think the DOJ would have indicted them at the same time to create bigger headlines and to completely try to crush Online Poker in the US. As it is they didn't. IMO, this means they do not have the evidence to indict any other site, ATM. I also think its possible the DOJ may not want to indict any further sites until the outcome of these indictments are clear and hopefully our efforts in contacting politicians will also contribute to this until we see regulation.

I do not earn a living playing Online Poker. I do make a little extra money which is very nice and allows me to do some things I may not otherwise be able to do. In the end though, if I lost the money I ALREADY had on these sites, its not going to ruin me or even cause me financial hardship.

Again, this is just my personal opinion and a look into why I made the decision.

I do agree that US citizens should spend PLENTY of time doing everything they can to try to get regulation though. But to say that nobody should play online is wrong IMO. If its wrong for you, I understand but don't expect everyone to share those feelings.

One last thing, how is this different then the old school rounders getting busted and their funds taken by the Gov. in underground games years ago? Did Doyle Brunson and most others simply stop playing? Some did and obviously, others didn't!

@TiltTheTilt Thats a great post really hit home for me I am in the exact situation just grind small to medium stakes playing a fun game an hour or two after work each day. I built my bankroll up from $200 on full tilt/stars each to thousands of $ on top of steady withdrawals from both. I had dreams of playing poker during an early retirement and treated it like any other part time work from home business someone would own and my business has been taken from me as of right now. Naturally, I will be quietly looking for a new way around to keep my business running but once there are clear defined rules from the government I will most certainly follow them and I hope there is because the action on full tilt and stars will be hard to match so many fish flocking in from the tv commercials and false promise of legitimacy. I was from new jersey I thought we made it fully legal WTF.

I dont think anyone denies that is a possibility obviously. Imo, I think many are saying, that isnt enough to keep me from playing. Im willing to take that loss. If I play on a site for two or three years while the DOJ is putting together a case to attack then I lose my balance so be it. Ill cut my losses and move to the next site rinse and repeat. If you are a winning player it shouldnt cripple your bottom line. If you are a recreational player you most likely will have gotten your entertainment value from your deposits. This is of course assuming you take reasonable precautions. I think the biggest thing now, and this has always been true but obviously its more crucial than ever, is you really must keep as little money on a site as possible. That sucks because it inhibits your ability and confidence moving up stakes and loading money is such a pain in the ass when you inevitably go on a downswing, but it is what it is I guess.