Immediate Effects of Merge Gaming's Poker Reintegration

ProfRB.com broke the news in the early hours on Wednesday that the barriers between the Carbon | Aced and Jazette poker player pools on the Merge Gaming Network had been removed. Now, less than 3 days later, we take a look at the dramatic effects this reintegration has had regarding cash game player traffic, tournament overlays, MTT series, as well as what could be in store for Merge in the weeks to come.

Full Reintegration of Carbon Poker into the Merge Gaming Network

One of the most recognizable effects are the player totals, which have shot up at least 40% over the past two days. As cash game and tournament tables have been opened up, traffic has risen at an impressive clip. Overlays once prevalent on an ever changing multi-table tournament schedule have now instantly stabilized. So much so that Merge pumped up the nightly High Roller tournament to $20,000 guaranteed - up from $12,500 - just one day after the desegregation occurred. The Sunday Big Ticket has also seen its guaranteed prize pool increased, from $100,000 to $125,000 for this coming weekend. These are just the initial changes, and we believe there will be more increases coming throughout the month of April.

Cash game traffic has swelled to levels not seen on Merge Gaming Network in months. Although GameIntel, the leading online poker cash game traffic tracking site, hasn't updated their player totals for Merge in five days, ProfRB.com has cataloged player data at several points over the past 48 hours. This screen capture, taken on Thursday, shows 20 no-limit holdem cash tables of $1/$2 stakes and higher filled to 6-max and 9-max capacities. We tracked cash game player data early Friday morning, and counted over 800 players seated at no-limit holdem, fixed limit holdem, and Pot Limit Omaha cash game tables at 1:45am eastern time (EST).  This most recent sample wasn't even representative of peak traffic, which typically would have taken place 3-5 hours earlier. These numbers blow away all prior player peaks recorded for Merge via GameIntel between March 28th and April 6th, which most recently peaked at 560 players, and again, this isn't even a fair comparison of peak vs non-peak traffic at 1:45am! The Professional Rakeback Carbon Poker Review is a great spot to check up on the most up to date and accurate information regarding both the poker site itself, the Merge Network that it resides on, its position and market share in the current US friendly poker markets and more, check it out.

The aforementioned nightly $20,000 guaranteed High Roller tournament has reached over $29,000 in prize money in both offerings on Wednesday and Thursday evening. The nightly $5,000 and $6,000 guaranteed MTT's offered at 8pm EST have struggled in recent weeks to turn a profit, let alone not overlay. However, with the integration of player pools, these two tournaments have easily hit their marks, averaging a 35% increase in the amount of players competing in these multi-table tournaments. These are but a few examples; stay tuned to our weekly overlay reports for much more hard, factual data. As it stands, there have been virtually no overlays in any tournaments, big or small, since player pool combination.

And nearly a day after reintegration became the law of the land on Merge, the next Online Poker Series was announced for early May with over $2.1 million in tournament guarantees offered, doubling the prior OPS series guarantee of just shy of $1.1 million. This next OPS series will sport a $250,000 main event as the featured tournament. One of the telling signs of Merge's belief in desegregation is the amount of non-NLHE events scheduled. Over 19 of them featuring $124,000 in guaranteed money signals a strong projected player field will be taking part in the upcoming Carbon Online Poker Series. Game such as FLHE, HORSE, Badugi, 7-card Stud (7CS), Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), Razz, and Omaha high/low (FL08) are scattered throughout the schedule.

You can check out results from the most recent OPS event from February, as reported by ProfRB.com, at this link.

The new bad beat jackpot is also seen as a way to continue to bring more casual players into the fold. Initially seeded at $1,000 and moving up $0.10 every minute regardless of the level of action, players can cash in on a bad beat with any four of a kind hand losing to a better four of a kind or straight flush.

Player response to the reintegration has thus far been positive. Players on the popular Twoplustwo forum have been especially excited at the opportunity of the increased traffic. One particular user exclaimed that "cash tables have been BUMPING since the update" and that it was "...A GREAT DAY IN MERGE HISTORY AND IM GLAD I COULD BE A PART OF IT." Once the news of both player pools being combined became fully known, the thread was filled with a plethora of gif's of famous people giving "thumbs ups," "God bless ya Merges," and general merriment. We are confident that the downward trend has abated and that moving forward, traffic will continue to increase. ProfRB.com eagerly awaits the next data update provided by Game Intel so that we may further analyze the data.

We will continue to tirelessly cover this story and will be giving updates through the weekend via twitter as well as the following weeks to come.

If you'd like to play on the newly desegregated Merge Gaming Network, we invite you to play on the network flagship Carbon Poker or it's sister skin Aced Poker. Initial deposit bonuses of 200% up to $5,000 are available for new accounts on either skin.  UPDATE November 2014: Aced Poker was absorbed by its larger sister skin Carbon Poker.  All player balances were instantly transferred over, as were player accounts. 
 

by ProfRB Editor                 get your best rake back and cash back deals here
 

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