3 Site Las Vegas Online Poker Network Created to Grow Player Pool
The Las Vegas-based Nevada online poker industry just received a positive piece of news. As reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal, a proposal delivered to Nevada’s state gaming authorities would add much needed liquidity to that small state’s online poker industry. While more than a dozen companies have purchased Internet gaming licenses for the state of Nevada, there are only two real players in the Silver State Internet poker marketplace – WSOP and Ultimate Poker. This three party agreement would have Internet gaming giant 888 Holdings join the current WSOP online poker site, as well as a planned Treasure Island poker room, in a network which would share player pools.
Liquidity Attracts More Players
In a state as small as Nevada (roughly 2.8 million residents), with less than 1.9 million residents of legal gambling age or older, growing player pool size is critical. With three separate sites sharing their player accounts, all of those online poker rooms would benefit. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has okayed the proposal, but there is currently no time frame for an actual launch. The poker rooms themselves are not the only beneficiaries. Poker players, especially cash game fans, tend to go where there are the most players. This gives them the most choices and better liquidity. So the state of Nevada and its online poker playing residents both come out of this agreement as winners.
Nevada WSOP and Ultimate Poker Tournament Review
WSOP ran 10 major events this past weekend, with the Ultimate Poker website hosting 5 major Vegas online poker tournaments. The largest single cash occurred when happymon won the Last Chance Event #4, pocketing $7,000. The biggest winner over at UP on the weekend was RunninGoodMC (also playing as PocketFives user name ValueTown). The veteran Vegas online poker player took home $2,500 in the Sunday $10,000 tournament at UP, and also took second place in the $2,000 nightly event on Sunday. That brought his total winnings on Ultimate Poker to more than $12,000. Including the more than $17,000 he has pocketed at WSOP.com, his total of nearly $30,000 for 2014 playing online poker in Nevada is impressive.
At Ultimate Poker, 348 entries battled it out for 54 price spots totaling nearly $20,000 over last week’s three-day weekend. At WSOP, 122 prizes totaling nearly $100,000 were being fought over by 819 tournament players. The non-football TimTebow took home $6,720 with a first-place win in the Sunday $15,000 WSOP tourney, his second victory in 5 final table appearances in that event. Consistent casher luckisreal brought home $624.00 in the $3000 WSOP R&A guarantee on Friday, and Nevada veteran ucheckicheck added $3,888 to his growing 2014 online poker win total with a second-place finish to TimTebow in the 15K event.
Over at Ultimate Poker, the above-mentioned luckisreal cashed for $847.67 as a second-place winner in the $2,000 Nightly on Saturday. The winner of that tournament was PapaJack59, who was rewarded $1,255.79 for his efforts. UP veteran and frequent winner Butters used a third-place finish in the Big 10 Event #2 Texas Hold ‘Em and a ninth-place Big 10 Event #1 Pot Limit Omaha finish to add $358.12 to his consistent 2014 winnings. DatDude won $1,044.22 with a first-place finish in the $2,000 Nightly R&A on Sunday at Ultimate Poker, with commatoast posting a $631.39 win in the UP Big 10 Event #2 Texas Hold’ Em tournament on Sunday.