What Is A Poker Network? – Poker Rooms That Look The Same
Many online Poker players will sign up for one Poker room and stay there, without really venturing out into the big world of online Poker rooms. However, the more adventurous players amongst us will browse around the rooms on offer, just so we can see whether or not the grass is greener on the other side.
We’ve all heard of the big names like Full Tilt, PokerStars and Party Poker. They are all completely unique with totally different designs and have their own sets of players. However, if you venture a little further afield and look at rooms like Titan and VC Poker, you will notice that some rooms look surprisingly familiar.
So what’s the deal with some of these rooms looking so alike?
Basically, you have two types of poker room. You have an independent room that uses its own unique software, and then you have rooms that are on a network that share the same software engine and players.
Both of these types of rooms are perfectly legitimate, it’s just that one is on a bigger network with other rooms and the other one works by itself. Therefore, the rooms on the network will have the same software with slightly different graphics (to make them look more individual), and they will also share the same players.
Which major Poker rooms are on networks?
The biggest names in online Poker that are part of networks are; Titan Poker, Cake Poker, Paradise Poker, Carbon Poker and PokerRoom. However, none of these are on the same network, as they are part of their own respective networks.
You can see that these rooms are on networks because there are other rooms out there that look very similar to them. For example, Titan Poker is part of the iPoker network, and so it has very similar graphics to other popular Poker rooms like; VC Poker, Chili Poker, Bet365 Poker and more.
You will also find that these rooms also share their players, so if you have an account at both Titan and Bet365, you can expect to see the same competition at the Texas Hold’em tables for example if you play on a regular basis.
A few examples of the biggest networks.
To give you an idea of the different networks, below is a list of the most popular ones with an example room given for each.
OnGame – PokerRoom
iPoker – Titan Poker
Cake Network – Cake Poker
Microgaming – 32Red
Merge – Carbon Poker
Boss Media – Paradise Poker
As far as traffic goes, iPoker has the most players, followed by OnGame and then Boss Media. Cake is climbing up the rankings, but the others are slightly lacking when compared to the biggest rooms in the industry.
Does it matter whether you play on a network or not?
Not at all.
Poker rooms on networks are just as good as standalone rooms like Full Tilt and PokerStars. You will often find many new rooms emerging on networks due to the fact that they can offer good player traffic from the start, without having to attract their own unique set of players.
One of the advantages of networks is that if you like the software and players on one network, you can hop from one room to another on that network to take advantage of the bonuses. This is perfectly acceptable, and you do not have to veer away from the software and competition that you are familiar with.
Other than that, there is no real difference between an independent room like PokerStars and a room on a network like Titan.
Max said
am March 11 2009 @ 5:57 am
Great article – just submitted to PokerUpp.com!
Emma said
am March 25 2009 @ 2:53 am
In my experience promoting many high profile brands on the big networks whilst the tournament prizes, and traffic are excellent, independent sites such as PKR and BEtfair really hit the mark and can become great online poker sites in their own right.
The key is to provide a great poker experience.
Plus networks can work against the player – for example ipoker does not allow rakeback on their sites!