Last week saw Doyles Room end their long run serving U.S. players as players were migrated to the recently reopened Americas Cardroom. In iPoker skin news, Genting Poker decided to ban players from 10 countries in a move that seems isolated to the Genting. These stories and more are a part of this week's Weekly Industry Update. Doyles Room Players Move to Americas Cardroom: Almost five months after Doyles Brunson left Doyles Room, Americas Cardroom has announced that they had purchased Doyles Room and would be migrating players to the rebranded room. The player migration took place in the middle of the week as players moved to fellow Yatahay Network site Americas Cardroom. Players will notice very little difference with the move, even being able to log on to ACR with the same logon details. Americas Cardroom relaunched about a month ago after a hiatus of approximately four years. They originally launched around 2001 as a standalone room using the Dobrosoft software. In the next few years they shared the Dobrosoft software with other rooms before moving to Ongame in 2005 where they remained until shortly after the UIGEA. Full Tilt Poker Updates: : Earlier in the week there were many rumors swirling that the Tapie-Full Tilt Poker was on the verge of collapse. Full Tilt Poker's lawyer denied the reports by saying that reports of the deal being dead "was news to me." If you haven't had chance to check it out, be sure to look at my sit-down with PokerAddict on Full Tilt Poker scenarios complete with betting lines. Genting Poker Leaves Ten Countries: Genting Poker, an iPoker poker room headquartered in Malaysia has decided to ban players from ten countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Spain. Genting Poker's legal team has determined that it is not fully legal for the company to operate in those jurisdictions. The company has stated that the countries do not represent a large portion of their player base or revenue. Genting Poker's largest market is in the United Kingdom where they enjoy a very favorable legal environment. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: According to the latest traffic report from, PokerScout online poker traffic was largely flat with a modest 0.1% increase and 4.7% when not accounting for PokerStars' 8% drop. Party Poker also saw a large increase during the week, up a healthy 7%, putting them 13% above third place iPoker. Jottings: Sportingbet sells Turkish website... AGCC Regulatory practices rely on honor system...British player convicted of threatening online poker staff...Party Poker releases Mac client...$2 million more in online gambling funds seized ...5 year anniversary of the UIGEA...$20 million seized in Swiss accounts...Piggs Peak bans South African players, loses 90% of traffic.
We have received word from a Doyles Room representative that AmericasCardroom, which had recently purchased Doyles Room, will be transferring players to AmericasCardroom on Wednesday. We are being told an official announcement will be made in the next 24 hours informing Doyles Room players of the acquisition and what this means to Doyles Room players. Doyles Room players will notice little difference in switching to AmericasCardroom, according to our sources. As a Yatahay Network site, AmericasCardroom already shares the same players, software and many similar promotions. In addition, players will also be able to keep their existing rakeback deals that they currently enjoy at Doyles Room. To make things even easier, players will be able to log on to Americas Cardroom software with their same log-in and password at Doyles Room. This move comes as no surprise to those following Doyles Room since Black Friday. On May 13th, Doyle Brunson announced that he was leaving the poker room. In his statement he requested that the site no longer use his name. His leaving obviously caused a dilemma with Doyles Room as all the branding and site identify was related to Doyles Brunson. AmericasCardroom is no stranger to the online poker scene, having originally launched almost a decade ago. They are owned by the highly regarded BetCris/Bookmaker group, an A+ rated sportsbook at SBR. ACR was originally a small poker room on the old Dobrosoft software eventually becoming part of one of the world's first online poker networks comprising of skin poker rooms (yes, a fairly new concept at the time). In 2005, most of the top skins of the Dobrosoft Network, including AmericasCardroom, moved to the Ongame Network, where they remained until shortly after the UIGEA. They originally vowed to stay in the U.S. market but as an Ongame room, they could not continue to do so. In early 2007, AmericasCardroom starting sending their players to one of two different brands: Bookmaker.com for U.S. players and non-US players to BetCris. The AmericasCardroom brand remained dormant until approximately one month ago, perhaps in anticipation of the migration of Doyles Room players. They have recently been spotted running .net commercials on ESPN and the Gameshow network. Please stay tuned for PAS for the latest information and industry news. Be sure to also follow us on Twitter.
Poker Affiliate Solutions' Tony Guerrero had the pleasure to sit down with poker legend, Doyle Brunson, to chat about many issues on the minds of players and affiliates. In the interview, Doyle spoke at length about a variety of topics including the recent move to Yatahay, player cashout issues and the current online poker legal situation. He also reveals who he had on the Super Bowl and his plans for WSOP Europe. Linked below is the audio of the interview. Hope you enjoy! Tony Guerrero from PAS: Doyle, thank you for doing this interview with us. First off, you are known as a pretty decent sports bettor. Who did you have in the Super Bowl last weekend? Doyle Brunson: I had Green Bay, thank goodness. I had a bet that I made earlier in the year. I had three teams to win the Super Bowl for $100,000. I had New England, Indianapolis, and New Orleans, (laughs) and my opponent had the New York Jets, the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh (Steelers). And so obviously, all my three teams got knocked out and so he had a freeroll at me. If Pittsburgh had beat Green Bay I would have lost $100,000 and I couldn’t win anything. But, fortunately, I survived and I made a smaller bet on Green Bay just to have a little incentive in case they did win that I would get to collect something. (laughs) "If Pittsburgh had beat Green Bay I would have lost $100,000 and I couldn’t win anything." PAS: Did you do any prop bets on the Super Bowl? Doyle Brunson: You know, I didn’t. I started to make some prop bets and I got so confused with them I just canceled all of them. PAS: (laughs) That’s usually what happens to me too. We’ve noticed that you’re really involved in Twitter right now. You have over 350,000 followers. What do you like least and most about Twitter? Doyle Brunson: Well, I like that fact that you can do it any time. You can do it any time from anywhere. You can do it on your phone, or from your computer when you are sitting at your desk. And it’s real convenient; it’s entertaining. So, I think that’s what I like the most, plus, you get to interact with a lot people that you don’t know, that know you. And you get a lot of questions...and it’s just interesting. The thing I like least is that you can only use 140 letters when you tweet. PAS: Yeah, makes it challenging, doesn't it? Doyle Brunson: Yeah. I usually have to rewrite everything I say because I’ve gone over the limit. (laughs) PAS: That’s great. Do you play much online poker these days? Doyle Brunson: I play at Doyles Room every day when I can. I play for an hour or so each day. I do actually kind of get bored with online gaming, online poker playing. I much rather play live. But I do, I try to play an hour or two every day. PAS: A lot of people are wondering if you could shed any light on the reason why Doyles Room left the Cake Poker Network. Doyle Brunson: Well, obviously we had some major disagreements with the Cake management and we couldn’t resolve them. And we wanted to have better communication with our players where we could put in our loyalty program and give back to the players. When you are on a network, the network has rules, and they wouldn’t let you violate their rules, you know. Consequently, we had a lot of problems over that, and we wanted to be able to have our own software and be able to do what we wanted to do: to give back to the players. I think that later on you will see that we probably will give back to the players more than any other site. Right now the software is in beta testing, and it’s not real sharp yet, but we just hope that people will put up with us for a few months until we get the software bugs out, and I think then we will really have a site that people will want to play on. PAS: So it’s safe to say that you guys felt like you needed more control over the VIP programs and basically more control over your database of players and what you can do with the software? Doyle Brunson: Right. We didn’t want someone telling us what we could and couldn’t do, and while I do understand Cake’s position, it didn’t suit us because we want to be able to control our own destiny. We want to be able to make our players happy…And (there were) a few other issues that we couldn’t come to terms with. So we decided to leave and go with Yatahay, or whatever you call it. (laughs) "And I’ll just guarantee that anybody that has any problems, that they will be able to get their funds out of Doyles Room" PAS: We’ve had a few players ourselves and have seen some threads on 2+2 and other poker forums from players complaining about not being able to get their funds off Doyles Room. What can you say to reassure these players who are worried about their deposits? Doyle Brunson: Well that had to be while we were still with the Cake Network, and Cake controlled the payouts. And that’s another reason that we left. They were very slow with it, and I think that any of the players now will have no trouble cashing out. We’re very secure financially, and I’ll just guarantee that anybody that has any problems, that they will be able to get their funds out of Doyles Room, any time they want to. Of course, sometimes it’s getting harder to get them out, but the funds are safe at Doyles Room. PAS: Ok, that’s good to hear. Now, Doyle, why do you feel players should continue to play at Doyles Room after the move to the new network instead of going to another room or network? Doyle Brunson: Well, I think that some players like the smaller rooms because they get to build a rapport with the other players. They get to know a lot of players on the network, whereas at the bigger sites, it’s very impersonal. They usually don’t know who they are playing with and so forth, and a lot of players like that. I think, they should continue to play with us because in the long run we are going to give back to the players more than any other site does. And I think for that reason, they should come play with us. Plus, I think that we probably have a lot of softer players because a lot of them are sportsbook players; they’re not poker players. But they come to that site, and I think that the real poker players will do very well on our site. "if there is some question about what I think would be best for the site, well, the management they call me and I give them my opinion" PAS: Sure. Yeah, that’s been my experience at Doyles Room -- the player pool is a lot softer than other rooms because of the sports bettors. Now many players are curious of your specific role at Doyles Room. Do you see yourself as a sponsored pro that’s common at many other sites or move of a “mover and shaker” decision-maker with the room? Doyle Brunson: Yeah, well, I give my input to the decisions, usually. Not the day-to-day management because I’m not involved in that. But if there is some question about what I think would be best for the site, well, the management they call me and I give them my opinion. So, I don’t know if that answers your question or not, but that’s the position that I am in. PAS: Sure, so you’re more of a consultant as far as when they have questions about game play or stuff where they come to you and run it by you first? Doyle Brunson: Right. Yeah. If they think it’s some kind of important change or something they usually ask my opinion. PAS: Ok, what do you like most about the new Yatahay Network? Doyle Brunson: I just like the idea that we are in control. We have 3D (software) that I think is pretty unusual that I think maybe that the recreational player will like. It’s animated avatars and I didn’t think I would like it, but since I’ve been playing on it I do kind of like it. And it’s a little bit slow but the software people are working on it to speed it up. I think if they get it sped up and make a few changes, I think most of the public will like it. I think the recreational players will like it more than maybe the pros, that are, you know, the grinders that are trying to make a living playing online poker. I think it might be a little bit too slow for them. But I think just the ordinary recreational player that wants to come on and play for an hour or two: I think they will like it... I was surprised, but I kind of like it myself. "We’re planning on having a cash game on a national network" PAS: Doyle, are there any new exciting features or news in the pipeline for the new site on Yatahay? Doyle Brunson: Well, that is the thing that we are working on. There’s a lot of different flaws with the software right now that we are trying to correct. It wasn’t a major site, you know, like we’re trying to make it where we are having to make a lot of adjustments and a lot of changes, and it’s going to take a little while to get all this done. I’m just hoping that the players will bare with us and stay with us to help us get through this to where we get the site and the software to where we want it. We’ve got some big plans for the future. We’re planning on having a cash game on a national network, and I think that will bring a load of recreational players to our site. And again, I think that our site is going to be more for the recreational player than the pro players. Of ...
Editors Note: This blog entry was written with help from Pokeraddict. Earlier today Doyles Room announced that they would be leaving the Cake Poker Network for the Yatahay Network, best known as being the home of True Poker. The move represents their third network change since the UIGEA essentially forced them off the Tribeca Network in February of 2007. The Yatahay Network and What It Means To You A lot of concern has been made in forums about the safety of player funds and whether their promotional dollars will be paid. Doyle Brunson has confirmed that player funds are safe at Doyles Room. Regarding promotional payments that are due to players, these will be paid next week. Affiliate payments will also be made next week. Players that had rakeback at Doyles Room will continue to receive rakeback at the 33% rate for a period of three months, at which time it will be reduced to 27%, the network cap. Players who try to load the Doyles Room software will automatically start downloading the new software from Yatahay. At the time of this writing, the Doyle Room website has updated, for the most part, to account for the new network changes. Despite the fact that Yatahay has been around since 2002, traffic is quite low on the network. According to PokerScout, the US-facing site has just over 100 real money players at their tables during peak times, all from No Limit Hold’em tables (they also run NL Hold’em tournaments). At this point, it is unknown what impact the move will have on both Yatahay and Cake. If I could prognosticate, I would say the site COULD see as many as 150-300 players real money players during peak times (probably on the lower end) after the dust has settled, with a relatively minimal impact on Cake. A History of Doyles Room Network Moves Doyles Room Beginnings Doyles Room first launched on the Tribeca Tables Network in 2004, when the network still accepted players from the US. The network at the time consisted mostly of casino and sportsbook brands such as Victor Chandler, Golden Palace and BetUS. On November 10, 2006, a few weeks after the signing of the UIGEA, Tribeca announced their intention to leave the US market in the coming months, primarily due to a future move to the iPoker Network. An announcement finally came in late February of 2007 that stated that new US players would no longer be accepted. Shortly after, all US players were blocked from the network. The move left Doyle’s Room scrambling to find a home for their US players. On March 1st of that year, US players had their balances, rakeback and VIP Points transferred to Full Tilt. Unfortunately the move was not without controversy as the action caused uproar among revenue-share affiliates who would lose revenue from players they had previously referred. By mid March of 2007, most of the Tribeca skins had moved to iPoker, which had benefited greatly from network merges after UIGEA. For the skins that remained on Tribeca, players played on a now very small Tribeca Network (which included the non-US Doyles Room players). Six weeks after Doyles Room sent their US players to Full Tilt, they announced that they would be accepting play again, this time at Microgaming, a network that allowed players from 38 or 39 US states at the time. This would move would prove to be relatively short-lived. In mid November of 2008, Microgaming announced that their licensees could no longer accept new US players effective immediately. It was speculated at the time that it wouldn’t be long before Microgaming banned all U.S. players (which they did months later). Seeing the writing on the wall, Doyle’s Room set out to find yet another network that was US friendly. Would the third time be the charm? A Move to the Cake Network The next move came by way of the Cake Poker Network, which occurred in January of 2009. This meant that they could take U.S. players again. During the first week on Cake, non-US players were on Microgaming and the US players were sent to Cake. By the end of the month, the merger was completed for all players, which Doyles Room celebrated with a $5,000 freeroll for their players. The move to the Cake Poker Network seemed to be a great fit. They had moved to a growing network and the network seemed to strongly embrace US players (with no signs of stopping). The Cake Network was the largest US-facing NETWORK to accept players from the US. Despite being larger in size, Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Cereus do not allow additional skins. Everything seemed to be fine until the Cake Poker Network was hit with a series of bad news and missteps. In April of last year, the Jazette group of sites (Sportsbook.com, Players Only) moved to Merge, placing a surprising traffic hit on the network. Two months later, PokerTableRatings uncovered an embarrassing encryption vulnerability, which led many to question the security of the entire network. Then just after Christmas, Lee Jones announced that he would be leaving Cake Poker as cardroom manager. 2010 was a relatively flat year for the entire industry but the developments at Cake helped contribute to a 60% loss in traffic from the previous year, according to PokerScout. At Doyles Room, reports began to swirl about delayed rakeback, the cancellation of some longstanding promotions (the $50k Bounty) and the possibility of promotional payments not being made. Rumors also started circulating that Doyles Room was in poor financial health. In early January, clues of a change in networks surfaced. The download software button at the Doyles Room website was no longer functional. Doyle Brunson himself hinted at changes by tweeting that he was going to Costa Rica (home of many online gambling companies, including True Poker). He also reassured worried players and affiliates that “everything will be in order next week, later part of the week.” A Future with Yatahay Everything became clarified with the move to Yatahay this morning. Some Doyles Room players are clearly going to be upset that they have far less games to play and have rakeback that gets moved down to 27% after three months. On the other hand, players will feel comforted in the fact that their funds are more easily accessible. Doyles Room players will, of course, have a choice to open up an account on a Cake Poker Network skin if they still wish to play on the network. As for the Cake Poker Network, it will be interesting to see in the coming year if they can stop their slide and ease fears about the future.
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