The fallout continues to be felt in the online poker industry after the move of DoylesRoom. The Cake Poker Network has shown a drop in player numbers, while the Yatahay Poker Network has seen a major boost, according to PokerScout.com.
When DoylesRoom, the online poker outlet fronted by poker legend Doyle Brunson, departed the Cake Poker Network at the end of January, the effects were immediately felt. The Yatahay Network, which also counts True Poker and BetCRIS among its rooms, saw a jump from roughly a peak of 100 cash game players to nearly 250. This represents a 150% increase in peak players since the switchover occurred on January 28th.
On the other side of the coin, the Cake Poker Network – which features over 60 rooms, including Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, Only Poker, and its own eponymous poker site – saw its cash game numbers drop precipitously. For much of the month of January, the peak number of cash game players hovered in the 1,200 to 1,400 range, with a high of 1,525 back on January 13th. Once DoylesRoom departed on January 28th, however, the numbers took a dip to as low as 953 on February 6th.
The numbers overall for the Cake Poker Network show how much of an effect DoylesRoom had on its traffic. According to PokerScout.com, over the past two weeks, the network has lost approximately 19% of its traffic. After an initial 8% drop in week-to-week numbers ending January 31st, the Cake Poker Network lost another 11% last week.
Although the move to Yatahay has shown an immediate increase in player numbers for the network, online forums across the board have been reporting problems with the new DoylesRoom.
On PocketFives.com, several players reported different issues with cashouts after the network switch, with sums reportedly as large as $4,000. David “The Maven” Chicotsky sounded off, “The whole Doyle’s Room “’situation’ is scary for anyone with $ on there. Leaving Cake and going to an unknown network can’t be a positive (Chicotsky later rescinded his ‘unknown network’ statement). Doyle is great for poker, just not the site imo.” Other players have reported problems with using the live support system and no response to e-mails.
Over at TwoPlusTwo, a thread has grown to over 175 posts regarding player issues with the DoylesRoom changeover. Although some players say that they have had good experiences with the Yatahay Network, others have reported similar cashout issues and lack of response from both the live support and e-mail.
According to posters in the TwoPlusTwo thread, the $20,000 guaranteed tournament on DoylesRoom on Sunday afternoon had an overlay and was won by Brunson 10 member Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis for a $6,000 payday.
DoylesRoom was originally a part of the Tribeca Poker Network before departing into its own system, the Doyle Brunson Poker Network (DBPN). In 2007, DoylesRoom moved for a brief time to the Microgaming Network.
In 2009, DoylesRoom became a part of the Cake Poker Network, with both sides benefiting from the operation. Along with its namesake site, adding DoylesRoom gave the Cake Poker Network another marquee name in its vast system. The January move of DoylesRoom has sent shockwaves across the online poker industry.
At this time, PokerScout.com ranks the Cake Poker Network as the 26th largest poker operation in the industry in terms of cash game volume. The Yatahay Network, even with the addition of DoylesRoom, is still ranked 38th, just ahead of the iPoker Network’s French site.
