PokerStars, Titan Traffic Booming; Latest Online Poker Trends at PokerListings.com

Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles (PRWEB) March 5, 2008 -- Tracking and analyzing close to 20 million hands every month, PokerListings.com's new MarketPulse section (http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse) is the most comprehensive statistical overview of online poker on the Web. And looking at the numbers for February 2008 a few revealing trends emerge, including the continued rise of cash-game traffic at PokerStars and Titan Poker.

"Simply put," says Jan Lindhout, press secretary for PokerListings.com, "there's nothing out there that approaches the width and depth of MarketPulse. Automatically tracking nearly 20 million hands just allows for a more comprehensive and responsive overview than possible before, and gives a deeper - and more revealing - look at an industry moving faster than ever."

"Cash-game traffic is just the tip of the iceberg," Lindhout adds, "as far as poker statistics go, and we expect the entire section to become an indispensable asset for online poker players on a variety of levels."

Already with a dominant market share, PokerStars again ruled on the cash-game front last month, with more than 23,000 players hitting the tables at peak times. In total: an 18% upswing in volume, averaging out to a strong 13,675 real-cash players over each 24-hour period.

A distant second overall but also experiencing a nice upswing of 9% in February was Full Tilt Poker, which averaged 7,631 players over each 24-hour period - up from 6,976 in January.

The next-biggest increase went to the leading room in the iPoker network, Titan Poker. Cash game traffic jumped 4%, bringing it to over 10,000 players at peak hours and 5,252 players on average.

More numbers of note from February:

Average pot size (generally indicating looser or more passive games) was up at three rooms last month - Titan Poker, Mansion Poker and Party Poker.

Titan and Mansion in particular experienced big upswings, with the average pot at Titan growing 7% to $26.20 and the average pot at Mansion gaining 6% to $23.10.

On the juicy games front (indicating weak players that aren't afraid to put money in the pot), Bodog Poker and Pacific Poker lead the pack in low- to mid-stakes No-Limit and Limit Hold'em, with pot sizes on average at Pacific topping out at $164 in the mid-stakes games ($1/$2-$3/$6).

The biggest Hold'em pot won online over the last 30 days was a massive $384,951 pot Phil Ivey took from rival seda1 at Full Tilt Feb. 19th @ 7:55 p.m. (EST).

The two have had a series of high-stakes $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em sessions over the last few weeks, with seda1 decidedly taking the worst of it - especially on the 19th, when he came out roughly $600k lighter in the wallet.

To see a full breakdown of the awe-inspiring $385k pot, the rest of the biggest Hold'em pots won online over the last day, week and month, and more key industry stats, visit the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section (http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse).

About MarketPulse:

Automatically tracking and analyzing nearly 20 million online poker hands every month, PokerListings.com's new MarketPulse section is the most comprehensive, real-time statistical "snapshot" of the online poker industry ever developed. Biggest pots in the last day, week and month with full hand histories; traffic volume and trends across all poker rooms; statistical breakdowns for all Hold'em limits and table-types; summary profiles for over one million online players? just some of the statistics you'll find, all in an easy-to-read format and updated every hour. More features to be added in the coming weeks: Biggest winners and losers in total earnings, including their preferred room, game and stakes; most hands played and where; expanded stats for Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, Mixed games, Razz and more.

About PokerListings.com:

PokerListings.com (http://www.pokerlistings.com) was launched in 2003 and quickly became the largest online poker guide in the world. It provides poker players with in-depth reviews of all major online poker rooms, the world's best sign-up bonuses and promotions, breaking poker news and detailed content on strategy, tours, tournaments and the game's best players. PokerListings.com also has the best live poker tournament reporting on the Web, with unrivaled year-round coverage from the WSOP, the World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour and more.

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