Cupid Causes Online Poker Traffic Swings in New Jersey
According to PokerScout’s Scouting Report, Valentine’s Day had a significant effect on New Jersey’s online poker cash game numbers. A lot of it looked like it had to do with the calendar. Last Friday was Valentine’s Day. As such, many couples in the mid-Atlantic region took a long weekend and headed over to Atlantic City.
The end result was that cash game traffic spiked in New Jersey on Thursday; people from out of state were excited to be able to log in and play while they got comfortable in their hotel rooms. PokerScout’s chart shows that on February 13, almost800 people were playing online poker in New Jersey, the most since internet gambling’s launch at the end of November.
The next day was a different story. People stayed away from their computers on Friday, possibly deciding to spend time with their partners on Valentine’s Day. Traffic took a nosedive, falling to under 500 players, the second slowest day of the young year for the Garden State. The gulf between Thursday and Friday was the largest single-day change that New Jersey has seen so far. The next day, cash game traffic rose back up to more normal levels.
By comparison, online cash game traffic in Nevada also dipped on Valentine’s Day, but there was not a leap the previous day like there was in New Jersey. PokerScout points to the much larger influence of tourism in New Jersey versus Nevada to explain this difference.
PokerScout says, as has been the building narrative over the last couple of weeks, that New Jersey’s online poker market “is still showing signs of saturation.” The Borgata/PartyPokerNetwork, the dominant player in the market, saw its cash game traffic sag 1.3% last week, while WSOP.com, the second largest site, stayed flat. WSOP.com has been sitting at the same level for about four weeks, while Borgata/PartyPoker is right where it was two months ago.
888 Poker‘s All American Poker Network, however, made strides last week, watching its traffic get a 13% lift. It now holds almost a quarter of the market (24%). Borgata/PartyPoker is still the leader with 39% of the market, although that is down from 41% (AAPN took that 2%). WSOP has held steady at 34%.
Ultimate Poker, another player in the New Jersey poker community, is introducing a new game called Two Street Hold’em. Like many variants that have been unveiled over the last couple of years, Two Street Hold’em aims to remove some of the skill from the game and inject action.
In Two Street Hold’em, everything pre-flop works as normal: everyone is dealt two hole cards and a round of betting ensues. After that, all of the community cards are dealt at once and there is just one final round of betting before the cards are turned over. That’s it: pre-flop and then a combined flop/turn/river, or two streets.
The folks at Ultimate Poker conducted a live test run on February 10 at the Ultimate Poker offices using a $1/$2/$1 blind and ante structure. The game was launched for a very limited test over the weekend on Ultimate Poker in Nevada with just two tables. There is no word yet on when and if the game will officially go live on the either of Ultimate Poker’s sites.
Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest news and discussion from New Jersey players.
PokerScout’s Scouting Report is a daily newsletter for the online poker industry, with in-depth data and analysis of the market. More information can be found by clicking here or contacting support@pokerscout.com.
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