Poker Numbers Up 8percent Last Week


Tuesday, May 8,2012 : BUMPER WEEK FOR ONLINE POKER
 
Latest Pokerscout numbers showcase a remarkable 20 percent gain for Pokerstars
 
Last week produced improved online poker traffic, which grew by 8.5 percent mainly due to a series of promotional activities at Pokerstars, principally the achievement of the 80 billionth dealt hand .
 
The independent internet poker site monitor Pokerscout reports that Pokerstars attracted 20 percent more traffic – way ahead of the previous week's 4 percent rise – mainly thanks to the 80th billionth hand promos, which attracted almost 80,000 cash game players and was achieved on Sunday afternoon.
 
The intense activity gave the site a soaring 34 percent improvement over the same period last year.
 
The figures show a continued decline at GTechG2's International Poker Network, which suffered a year-on-year decline of 51 percent.
 
Comparing current numbers with those of a year ago, Pokerscout reports that online poker traffic overall – excluding Italy – has slipped 13 percent, suggesting that it may have lost some of the ‘cool' perception that shored up its popularity.
 
Year-over-year changes indicate that Pokerstars is up 34 percent and still leads the field, with iPoker down 6 percent and Party Poker languishing down 24 percent.  888Poker (up 46 percent) and Winamax (up 25 percent) are still performing strongly, whilst Black Friday victims Full Tilt Poker and Cereus are almost moribund.