More 'Easy' Money? Average Pot Sizes Bulging; More Online Poker Trends from PokerListings.com

Curao, Netherlands Antilles (PRWEB) April 7, 2008 -- There's always money to be made in online poker for a skilled player. But if early returns in 2008 are any indication, there might be a little more "easy" money kicking around online in 2008.

How to tell? Growing average pot sizes, with no less than seven top online poker rooms showing increases over the last four months, based on stats generated by the PokerListings.com (http://www.pokerlistings.com) MarketPulse section (http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse).

Tracking and analyzing over 20 million online poker hands each month, MarketPulse is the most comprehensive, real-time statistical snapshot of online poker on the Web, and an unmatched overview of what's going on in the industry at any one time.

And the numbers look good for skilled players.

"As a general rule," says Jan Lindhout, press secretary for PokerListings.com, " the larger the average pot size, the looser or more passive the games tend to be. So with seven of the biggest online poker rooms showing pot sizes on the rise, things are definitely looking profitable for the best players - and profitable virtually anywhere they choose to play."

"Simply put," he adds, "there's no better way for serious players to track this kind of information. Tracking over 20 million hands, as MarketPulse does, just allows for a more comprehensive and responsive overview and gives a deeper, more revealing look at an industry moving faster than ever."

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Four poker rooms in particular are showing strong upward trends, with Pacific Poker leading the way as far as overall totals go. Average pot size at Pacific in April has hit a massive $44.80 - up from $41.30 just last December.

Following close behind, all with strong increases over the last few months: Full Tilt Poker, up 5% to $36.50; Titan Poker, up 15% already this month and growing from $26.10 to $31.70 overall this year; and Everest Poker, up an astounding 22% to $24.70 this month - double what it was in December of last year. Also showing modest increases: UltimateBet, Mansion Poker, Party Poker and Absolute Poker.

More online poker numbers of note from the first few months of 2008:

Cash-player traffic at PokerStars was up slightly again in March, now averaging 14,599 players over each 24-hour period. More dramatic, even, is comparing that number to May 2007, when the average was closer to 9,000 real-money players - an overall increase of close to 6,000 players.

Peak traffic at Stars is also now an overwhelming 23,395 players, helping the poker site to a dominating 32% market share of all cash-player traffic.

Also growing traffic-wise were Titan Poker, up 6% to an average of 5,440 players in March with peak traffic of 10,530 players, and Mansion Poker, jumping 9% already in April with an average of 4,490 players and peak traffic of 9,577 real-money players.

If you're looking for the golden action hours, it's still decidedly between 2-7 p.m. (EST), with traffic across the top poker rooms peaking at around 70,000 players every day at 5 p.m. (EST).

Biggest Hold'em pots won online last month were fairly steady, varying between $50,000-$150,000. The biggest pot overall in March was a $163,997 pot between high-stakes regulars Di "Urindanger" Dang and "guaranteed376" - paling in comparison to the $385,000 pot Phil Ivey won in February, but hefty nonetheless.

Read about some of the biggest hold'em pots over the last month in the PokerListings.com blog section (http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog) or visit the MarketPulse biggest pots section for a look at the top 100 pots online over the last day, week, month and year.

About PokerListings.com/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 on the Web. 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 three 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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