The Winning Poker Network is one of the ten most popular poker rooms and networks worldwide, with players from the U.S. leading the charge.
Featuring top skins [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/americas-cardroom/”]Americas Cardroom[/geolink] and [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/black-chip-poker/”]Black Chip Poker[/geolink], the U.S.-friendly WPN averages 650 cash game players, an amount that places it in the upper echelon of the industry.
While those rankings are based on ring game traffic as tabulated by PokerScout, there are indications that WPN would perhaps register an even better showing in the category of tournament traffic. No such rankings currently exist, but WPN is the only online poker network available to American players that has guaranteed $1 million in tournament prize money since Black Friday in 2011.
WPN hosted more than a half dozen such million-dollar events in recent times, with its latest offering in April finally surpassing the $1 million guarantee. U.S. players were getting accustomed to valuable overlays in the tournaments, but an influx of players has put an end to that run.
Next Most Popular
While WPN is ranked among the world’s best, the Chico Network is not far behind in terms of popularity. A seven-day average of 450 ring game players finds Chico in 15th place worldwide.
[geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/betonline-poker/”]BetOnline Poker[/geolink] and [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/sportsbetting/”]SportsBetting Poker[/geolink] are the dominant poker rooms on the Chico Network, with both offering a generous first-time deposit bonus of 200% up to $2,500 (instead of the normal $2,000) if you sign up through the links and use the promotional codes from our reviews. That’s one of the industry’s best welcome bonuses available, which many U.S. players are finding out about and taking advantage of.Chico doesn’t have anywhere near the tournament traffic of WPN, but it does have something that Americas Cardroom and Black Chip Poker do not. That is, a large group of sports and horse racing bettors who click their way over to the poker room. Typically not the best poker players, the gamblers from the accompanying sportsbook at Chico are known for contributing to soft action at the cash game poker tables.
New Player Halt at Merge
Player traffic will likely not increase at the Merge Gaming Network considering multiple reports suggesting that players from the U.S. will no longer be allowed to deposit. It is not known if the move is temporary or permanent, but it’s worth pointing out that the network did implement such a maneuver in the past only to later accept U.S. players again.
Led by Carbon Poker, Merge currently averages 100 cash game players. That’s less than one-fourth that of Chico and an even smaller percentage compared to WPN. Existing U.S. players are apparently not affected by the new player stoppage, which leads one to believe that the signup embargo may eventually be lifted.
Player Increase on the Horizon
The U.S.-facing Horizon Poker Network will probably soon pass Merge in player traffic due to the halt of new players at the latter. Horizon’s seven-day average of ring gamers sits at 90 players as of this writing, but may pick up some of the new U.S. players who first headed to Merge but were turned away.
There are some players who like to play at smaller poker rooms or networks because of perhaps better promos, a solid reputation, and a lack of pros or sharks at the tables. [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/intertops-poker/”]Intertops Poker[/geolink] on Horizon would fit in this category, at least for now until U.S. players find out that their win rate and ROI (return on investment) would likely be greater at the site due to the added perks and abundance of recreational players.
