Despite Shutdown, Many Poker Rooms Remain for USA Players

A week after the US government indicted 11 men as a part of an online poker shutdown that took down PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, the online poker world is beginning to settle down again. Life appears to be carrying on mostly as normal for players outside of the United States, as the major poker sites are still servicing customers in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, American players may have lost their biggest sites, but many options remain for those who wish to continue playing online poker.

Click Here for Poker Sites Accepting USA Players

Several great – if somewhat smaller – poker rooms are available for American players who aren’t ready to give up on Internet poker quite yet. The largest of these is the Merge Gaming Network, which has seen a significant spike in traffic over the last week. The Merge Network is particularly notable for having one of the widest varieties of game options around, including unusual poker variants like Triple Draw Lowball and Badugi. Several rooms on the network, including Carbon Poker and Lock Poker, are probably well known to American players already, giving them a leg up over the competition.

Coming in slightly smaller than Merge – but perhaps with even bigger upside – is Bodog Poker. While Bodog had been averaging between 600-700 players online at any given time before Black Friday, it now sees closer to 900, with up to 1,500 or more during peak hours. Given that Bodog was once a fairly major player in the USA online poker industry, it’s not hard to see Bodog capturing a big part of the American player base.

Several other options are also available for Americans who want to play online poker. The Cake Poker Network is a reliable and trustworthy network that has a long history of providing online poker for USA players. Other lesser known options include the Everleaf Network and the Yatahay Network, both of which have real money online poker for Americans.

The ultimate impact of the indictments has yet to be seen, and there may someday be a regulated market in the United States that once again leads to one or more major online poker sites dominating the USA market. But in the meantime, there is plenty of great online poker action available in the USA – as long as you know where to look!