The Winning Poker Network has overtaken the Revolution Gaming Network to become the second most popular US-friendly poker site behind Bovada Poker.
Just two months after ousting Merge Gaming as the third most popular US-facing online poker room, the Winning Poker Network (WPN) has now claimed second spot from the Revolution Gaming Network according to figures published on the poker traffic monitoring website PokerScout.
PokerScout recorded average 7-day traffic on the Winning Poker Network (Black Chip Poker, Americas Card Room, True Poker) for the week ending 6th October as 435 players, while Merge Gaming could only muster an average of 355 players and the Revolution Network slumped to an average of 350 players. Even after improving the cashout speeds the Merge network was not able to maintain their position.
New Features Help Gain Popularity
The figures released by PokerScout apply to cash table players only; however these are generally accepted as a fair representation of each poker room´s popularity. Tracking the number of players participating in online poker tournaments is pretty unreliable – especially as each of the three sites have different value buy-ins for their weekly feature events.
The success of the Winning Poker Network has been attributed to many factors – fast cashouts, the valuable bi-weekly “Beast” rake race, software updates and the network´s new “On Demand” tournaments. However, the sudden jump into second place among the USA-friendly online poker rooms has also coincided with an unpopular change in Merge Network´s VIP program.
Meanwhile, Up At The Top
Despite the success of the Winning Poker Network, they still have a long way to go before being able to claim top spot among the USA-friendly poker sites. Bovada Poker recorded a 7-day average of 1,280 players due to their successful “anonymous player model”, and they also pulled in 945 players for their $100,000 guaranteed Sunday tournament (Americas Cardroom attracted 284 players, although the buy-in is $50.00 more).
However, despite the introduction of regulated online poker in Nevada and the forthcoming launches in New Jersey and Delaware, the Winning Poker Network still seems to be gaining players month-on-month. It may not be inconceivable that by sometime in 2014, we could be re-writing the headlines about the Winning Poker Network achieving that top spot.
