The news about poker rooms being shut down, especially popular and beloved ones are always regrettable to the poker community. just recently it was found out that a huge poker network Microgaming (MPN) is to stop its operations soon. The process of liquidation of the network will be maximally pain-free for the users as they will be able to save their bankrolls and cash out all the money.
The news about Microgaming was first published in the network blog by its managing director Alex Scott. he told that the network is going to stop operating in Q2-Q3 next year. The exact date is not yet known.
Alex calmed the network users down by reassuring the rooms will function as they did previously till the very shut down. All the players will be able to withdraw money from their accounts. Why does such a popular poker network shut down? The thing is after a certain research the existing MNP business model was found deficient and not corresponding to the further vector of the company development.
The main direction of Microgaming activities is creating and maintaining software for online casinos. Poker is far from being the key product in this company. that is why the management chose to get rid of such a complicated asset and focus on the development of the prioritized directions.
Despite the fact that poker room traffic of Microgaming network dropped during the recent years, and they were gradually losing their positions in the fight with the leading poker rooms, news of this network being shut down entirely was still unexpected. It is a good thing MPN users are able to not get huge pains as the network closes its operations.
This is not surprising as Microgaming doesn’t experience any financial difficulties, it just makes changes in their business model. That is why all the players are able to cash their money out from their accounts and continue to participate in promotions and receive their bonuses till the very shut down of the network or a poker room leaving the network.
What Microgaming poker network users should do in such a situation? We can expect the traffic decrease as many players will transfer to other poker rooms. Full traffic collapse is expected when Betsson poker rooms will quit the network. The smaller the number of entries in the poker rooms, the smaller is the selection of the tournaments and cash tables. if you do not want to wait until the networks final days, you can think of changing your poker room. Here are two decent options as an alternative for your consideration.
Upoker
Upoker is a new mobile poker room aimed for the Asian market and popular in other countries. the main advantage of this poker room is comfortable and fast software as well as a rather weak field. The room will be attractive to the players of the middle stakes (NL200-NL100), but the players who choose lower stakes will be able to find their action here as well.
The peak of the visitors Upoker is at 16:00 to 21:00 MSK. the most active action is at NL200-NL100 tables, but PLO is also a popular format. there are also head-up tables, NLHE, Chinese Poker, PLO.
Upoker is supported by mobile phones on ios and Android and there is a desktop version for PC. Poker trackers that gather stats are not compatible with the poker rooms. There is an opportunity to have a look at the basic stats of the players at the table and making notes though. there is also hands replayer.
The rake may vary from club to club but is no bigger than 5%. this is a reasonable rake for the mobile poker room. To sign up to Upoker and get to know the terms of play and rakeback, please, contact or managers.
Betfair Poker
Betfair Poker is one of the biggest European poker rooms in iPoker network. Among the main advantages of this poker room is the high number of visitors, huge selection of disciplines and poker formats, great software and fast and competent support service.
Betfair is the biggest online sportsbook in the world, so the poker room is often visited bu the recreational players who specialize in sports betting and are not that food in poker. That is why poker rooms of almost all the stakes are full of fish.
he highest number of visitors in the poker room is usually seen at 21:00 to 24:00 MSK and during the whole day on weekends. The most popular are cash tables on NL Hold’em 6-max at the stakes up to NL1000. There are up to 20 tables at the stakes of NL10 and up to 10 tables at the stakes of NL20. There are 15 tables at NL50 and NL100. The most expensive are cash games at NL200 are presented by 7-8 tables, and NL1000 have 1-2 tables.
Betfair Poker has about ten tables on the format that is gaining big popularity – Holdem 6+. There are SnG twister tournaments with the max multiplier at X1000 and the biggest buy-in of 10 euro. MTTs are presented with 20-30 tournaments with the buy-in of up to 10 Euro. the most expensive tournament with the buy-in of 50 Euro and 25,000 Euro guaranteed prize pool is held every Sunday.
The poker client allows choosing the needed tables by using several filers: kind of poker, stakes, bets type. There is an opportunity to set up bet sizes, change the table view. you are free to open up to 5 tables simultaneously for multi-tabling. The poker room supports trackers for gathering the stats.
The rake size is at 5% to 7% depending on the poker format and stakes. The rake system is WC – and depends on the contributions to the pot from every player. The standard rakeback is 10% but if you sign up to the poker room from our website, you will be eligible for the fixed rakeback of 35%. To get more detailed information about the registration and the rakeback, contact our managers.
We hope that Microgaming shut down won’t affect your online poker success as there are plenty of poker rooms with the more profitable terms of play.