WSOP.COM went live on Thursday the 19th of September, joining Ultimate Poker as the only legal, regulated poker sites in America. In this post, I'll give a brief review of both sites and a brief summary of the current state of online poker in America.
As of this writing, there are only two Legal Sites in America-- both of Nevada- Ultimate Poker, run by Station Casinos with a close alliance with UFC and WSOP.com, run by Caesars Entertainment, which owns the WSOP brand.
Ultimate Poker went live April 30th and has developed a solid base of regulars that play the site. It exclusively offers Texas Holdem in both cash and tournament versions. Average daily volume of players-- 150.
WSOP.com offers Holdem, Omaha and Stud poker. Average daily traffic is 75 (http://www.pokerscout.com/) at present and climbing steadily as Caesars is now beginning to ramp up advertising for this site.
Neither site at present has enough traffic for poker players to grind out a living. As other states come online (New Jersey on November 26th), the player pool will expand and offer a better experience to all.
Both sites have positive and negative points.
Ultimate Poker has superior customer service and has answered every complaint and suggestion thrown its way by players. However, their software lacks many of the usual bells and whistles poker players have come to expect such as waiting lists, the ability to take notes, among other features.
WSOP.com has far superior software, but trails UP in base numbers, as it charges higher rake by 11% and has an inferior VIP program.
All in all, these two sites are on a learning curve--- both have a presence in the 2+2 forums and interact with players on various issues to get up to speed. Both have opportunities to improve-- UP must improve its software and WSOP.com has experienced complaints with customer service.
Bottom line--- legal online poker in America is in its infancy, but improving by the day.
http://www.wsop.com/
http://www.ultimatepoker.com/
As of this writing, there are only two Legal Sites in America-- both of Nevada- Ultimate Poker, run by Station Casinos with a close alliance with UFC and WSOP.com, run by Caesars Entertainment, which owns the WSOP brand.
Ultimate Poker went live April 30th and has developed a solid base of regulars that play the site. It exclusively offers Texas Holdem in both cash and tournament versions. Average daily volume of players-- 150.
WSOP.com offers Holdem, Omaha and Stud poker. Average daily traffic is 75 (http://www.pokerscout.com/) at present and climbing steadily as Caesars is now beginning to ramp up advertising for this site.
Neither site at present has enough traffic for poker players to grind out a living. As other states come online (New Jersey on November 26th), the player pool will expand and offer a better experience to all.
Both sites have positive and negative points.
Ultimate Poker has superior customer service and has answered every complaint and suggestion thrown its way by players. However, their software lacks many of the usual bells and whistles poker players have come to expect such as waiting lists, the ability to take notes, among other features.
WSOP.com has far superior software, but trails UP in base numbers, as it charges higher rake by 11% and has an inferior VIP program.
All in all, these two sites are on a learning curve--- both have a presence in the 2+2 forums and interact with players on various issues to get up to speed. Both have opportunities to improve-- UP must improve its software and WSOP.com has experienced complaints with customer service.
Bottom line--- legal online poker in America is in its infancy, but improving by the day.
http://www.wsop.com/
http://www.ultimatepoker.com/
3 comments:
The UP software sucks and WSOP doesn't have any traffic. Poor choices at present.
It is funny about the customer service issues.
Many may not remember all the complaints that UP had about not responding to emails to support, or Tweets. It took UP almost three months to ramp up.
WSOP is experiencing the same startup problems but they are listening to email and tweets.
As you mentioned, both sites do not offer enough for a grinder trying to make a living. But then, if you are in Nevada and have a bankroll, live is where the action is.
Right now, I am a online micro-stakes player on both sites.
Hopefully both sites will improve and offer more. In the days, I had an FTP and a PS account. There were different games and people just as there are now on WSOP and UP.
Thanks, Stephen for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
I was on Ultimate Poker very early and can say, they have most definitely improved since those first few weeks. However, they still need to bring their software up to industry standard. Right now it simply lacks the features many players want.
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