Internet poker cash game traffic monitoring site PokerScout.com released its Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update on Friday, reporting yet another down week for cash games. Last week was the ninth consecutive week that liquidity at the cash game tables across the internet dipped and unlike some of those weeks, when the decrease was just a fraction of a percent, this was a steep one: a full three percent. Only one poker room or network of the top ten saw its traffic rise, while one stayed flat.
PokerStars, as usual, maintained its status as the top dog, continuing to enjoy a large lead over the field. Its seven-day average of 15,500 cash game players, though, is its lowest mark in several months. 888poker is next with 2,100 players, giving it a nice cushion over Bodog, which has a seven-day average of 1,600 players. iPoker is next with 1,450, followed by PartyPoker and PokerStars.it, who are currently tied for fifth with 1,150 players each (it in its Friday report, PokerScout said PartyPoker had a “razor-margin” over PokerStars.it at the time). Rounding out the top ten are Full Tilt Poker (1,050 cash game players), Winamax.fr (950), Pokerstars.es (850), and PokerStars.fr (750).
Cash game traffic is down a staggering 16 percent from the same time last year.
WSOP.com, as expected, has seen a bump in its cash game traffic as the World Series of Poker is in full swing in Las Vegas. The combination of the influx of poker players to the state of Nevada, increased wireless internet access around the Rio, the relaxing of IP address restrictions by WSOP.com, and WSOP.com promotions in conjunction with the Series all drove expectations of at least temporarily higher liquidity figures for the site. Currently, WSOP.com has a seven-day average of 200 cash game players (PokerScout now lists WSOP.com under the umbrella of “Multi-State,” as it shares traffic with the three Delaware-based online poker rooms). For comparison, back in mid-May, before the start of the World Series of Poker, that number was 170.
PokerScout reports that every year, cash game traffic on other poker rooms and networks drops during the World Series (12 percent for the ten top operators last year), so the WSOP is generally looked at as the reason for that decline. It makes sense, too, as many high-volume players head to Vegas to compete in the live tournaments and spend less time grinding online and many casual players may turn to internet satellites to try to win seats in live WSOP events instead of focusing on cash games.
The WSOP may be a contributing factor to the worldwide cash game decline, but PokerScout says it is not likely to be the only factor. PokerScout opines that weather is actually the leading cause of the drop. Consider that, in 2015,” PokerScout says, “the seven weeks from early April to late May brought a more significant liquidity dip (14%) than the seven weeks of the 2014 WSOP.”
The theory is that the weather changes significantly during that time, as spring brings on much more pleasant conditions. As a result, people spend more time outdoors than they did when it was cold outside. Online poker traffic tends to begin to rise in July, though, which may indicate that players start heading back indoors and into the air conditioning as temperatures reach uncomfortable levels.
