US Poker Rooms Rakeback Network Competition Traffic and Software
Currently the U.S. Market is looking bleak. With sites being shut down or opting to leave the market in fears of being seized by the DOJ, there aren't many options left for American poker players. In total there are 8 networks available for American players.
The Merge network was up until recently, the the largest poker room servicing US poker players. Lock however have now left the network and they've bought over the Cake network, so now most of the main US poker room traffic is split up between Merge and Lock poker, or the Revolution (old Cake) network. Some good news for US players is that Rakeback is now available on both networks. Merge offer 35% and Lock offer 36%, in order to avail of rakeback on Lock, players must send Lock support an email request direct 36% rakeback. Lock is the only skin on the Revolution network that allows US residents to play. As Lock have their hands quite full with their recent acquisition, their support has been somewhat slow, but this can only improve and they've acknowledged this thankfully.
Cake Poker is one of the longest running networks around. They have been business for almost 10 years and seem to be going on as if nothing happened. They were never a huge player in any market yet do quite well for themselves. The cash games are some of the juiciest around with lots of northern European players lighting up the tables. NOTICE - Cake or now Revolution gaming no longer accepts American players. All
The Winning Poker Network recently just went through a transition. They were called the Yatahay Network and had some of the worse software you could find. Seizing the opportunity to increase their player base. They've updated the software and have added some interesting promotions. Top skins include True Poker and Doyles Room which was once part of the Cake Network.
These next three are pretty much not even worth mentioning but they are available if you choose to play there. The Atlantis, Poker Pros and Legendz networks have little to no traffic and offer nothing to the American market.
After Black Friday there were a few other sites that continued to service the American players. The Everleaf network was forced to leave after a cease desist notice from the DOJ. Player funds were supposedly seized and Americans playing there were left hoping to get it back. The Winning network was also targeted by the DOJ, however they simply changed domains and continue to operate out of their reach.
Certain skins on US poker rooms and networks may not allow players from a specific state to register. The Merge network does not allow players from Maryland (MD), New York (NY), Washington (WA) and Kentucky (KY) to make new accounts. Residents of these states who signed up before Black Friday are grandfathered in and still able to play.
It looks like for now these few networks will continue to remain the only options for the U.S. Market. Not many sites want to risk the chances of getting their domain seized by the DOJ. Until future legislation is passed, nothing is likely to change any time soon.
The following US poker rooms and networks are still accepting players who reside in certain States
While Lock poker accept American players, we simply cannot in good faith reccomend them at this point in time, affiliates and players have all experienced unacceptable long delays with payments, we strongly advise avoiding Lock poker, we ourselves have removed their deal from our site due to the current ongoing issue of non payment of monies by the company. Carbon poker cashouts are still running smoothly,while traffic is not amazing, at least you can be assured of getting your winning is a timely manner.
