Well, I’m not usually one to be melodramatic – after 6 years in the poker business you end up kind of jaded to the news! This weekend I have been doing a lot of work on the upcoming iPoker Network split… and one thing has become very clear: A lot of smaller ‘VIP deal’ type skins are about to go broke, and I do not want to see SNG Planet readers (well, anyone really!) lose their bankrolls.If your site is not on the ‘certain’ iPoker2 list for the upcoming split and you have a big proportion of your bankroll on them then it is time to wake up and smell the coffee – get everything you do not need day-to-day safely out, erm, right now!
My main iPoker Split News page has all the details of the split and a comparison of the deals available on the top-tier sites. FYI the only ‘racing certainties’ are Titan, Bet365, William Hill, Poker770, Paddy Power and Everest (who are just about to join the network). There are some ‘close calls’ out there – we will have to wait for those… there are also a ton of tiny skins who are certain not to make it. These are about to either get acquired, move network or die a slow death – so please, no sad stories…. Press the withdraw button today!
Everest Joining iPoker Is Great News
I never really played much on Everest, those couple of times I did for reviews etc my general impression was that they were soft, the games were friendly and the software was rubbish! Everest are actually fairly big, the smaller proportion of cash game players keeps them out of the top-lists, however when you take the tourney traffic into account they are in the 4th / 5th spot – and have a very international reach too. Joining iPoker makes great sense now they can be sure that the ‘VIP / Parasitic skins’ will not poach their most valuable players. They get to drop all the costs associated with maintaining their own software, and can piggyback some cool promotions and ideas too. I will bring you more details on this move as soon as they become available!
Update: Things have settled as of 2016. Sure, many smaller skins were forced to close or to merge, and for a while the network split into two. Now it is back together and uses 'sourced based rake' to balance things better. For the latest news and views, keep an eye on my main iPoker Network Sites page.
GL at the tables, Mark
Submitted by Planet Mark on Mon, 08/27/2012 - 10:18