POKERSTARS 70 BILLIONTH HAND PROMOS BOOST POKER TRAFFIC

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 : Impressive 12.5 percent boost to traffic last week, reports independent monitor

Online poker traffic took off last week, gaining a remarkable 12.5 percent as all top 10 sites and networks saw increases in player counts, reports the independent internet poker monitor Pokerscout.

"The PokerStars 70 billionth hand promotion generated a majority of the increase," the monitor notes, adding that the number of players online ramped up sharply as the final hand approached.

"A peak of 72,868 cash game players was recorded around the time of the milestone, but the true number was likely closer to 100,000," Pokerscout reports, revealing that PokerStars gained 22 percent over the week, further enhancing the previous week's 6 percent gain.

Traffic was good elsewhere, too. Merge continued to climb by another 2 percent, but one of the biggest gainers was GTechG2's International Poker Network (IPN), which achieved a 19 percent increase in traffic, probably due to a growing jackpot of over half-a-million euros.

Party Poker was the nearest rival to the all-dominant Pokerstars, with Playtech's iPoker chasing, as has been the case for the past seven weeks.

The French Pokerstars site overtook its Italian dedicated counterpart, but Bodog, PeoplesNetwork.it, Svenska Spel, Everest Poker and EverestPoker.fr, each gained traffic but fell two places in the overall rankings, ending up 15th, 16th, 17th, 19th and 20th, respectively, and dropping Cake Poker to the 21st spot.

The year-on-year numbers, which have been reflecting around a 34 percent decline in internet poker traffic following the Black Friday debacle in the USA, looked a little better thanks to the big surge last week. The decline is now 24 percent.

Pokerscout's gainers list for the year shows 888Poker up 83 percent; Merge up 71 percent; and Bodog up 57 percent.

Notable decliners are listed as:

Full Tilt Poker 100 percent

Cereus Network 99 percent

Ongame.fr 36 percent

EverestPoker.fr 35 percent

International Poker Network (IPN) 34 percent

Ongame Network 23 percent

Cake Poker Network 22 percent

3 Top Bitcoin Poker Sites - Bitcoin, in particular, is a cryptocurrency that you can use on various online poker sites and it allows a faster and cheaper way to get money into and out of the online poker site.

Kentucky Derby Odds: Justify still Favorite - With all the races on the Road to the Kentucky Derby complete, Justify is still on top of the odds list at 4/1. But he’s got company: Mendelssohn (9/2), Audible (11/2) and Magnum Moon (8/1) are all very much in contention for the big race on May 5.

888Poker Takes Over the States - With more and more states moving toward online casino integration, an increasing number of international players are moving in on American territory. Who will take the crown of the most popular online poker venue in the United States?

Top gambling ICOs to watch this year - The gambling ICOs that are being launched in 2018 are of better quality. Unlike the last half of 2017 when ICOs were numerous, the first few months of 2018 have seen a big drop in number.

MPN Poker Tour Bratislava | Day 2 - It was a hard fight around the bubble, culminating in the elimination of Georgios Drakakis in 46th place. He received a surprise consolation entry into the next MPNPT stop in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria (5-8 July), which softened the blow of missing out on a €900 min-cash.

MPN Poker Tour Bratislava Day 1B - Dorey Captures Chip Lead After MPNPT Bratislava Day 1b Triples 1a Field Size. The second flight of the €550 MPN Poker Tour Bratislava Main Event is in the bag, and so are the chips of 97 players who will be returning along with the 26 Day 1a survivors to fight to the money and beyond today

MPN Poker Tour Bratislava Day 1A - The MPN Poker Tour has arrived in Bratislava for the very first time, bringing with it the Tour’s friendly mix of local and globe-trotting poker enthusiasts, pros and qualifiers to the beautiful Slovakian capital.