12/11/2012
http://rakeback.diguk.com/rakeback/black-chip-poker.html
Black Chip Poker moved to the Winning Poker Network last week from their former home, the Merge Gaming Network. This caused a traffic shift between the two networks. The Winning Poker Network enjoyed a traffic boost of about 35%, or about 250 players. Merge Gaming’s player counts have fallen by about 20%, or about 200 players.
It is possible that the player loss to Merge Gaming is smaller due to Carbon Poker, its biggest skin, moving to a new cashier that accepts credit cards. The old Merge Gaming cashier did not accept credit cards so this cashier moved helped Carbon Poker, and their new brand Carbon Sports, to convert players that may have otherwise been out of action. It being the football season probably helped the network’s traffic due to its sports book operators.
The Winning Poker Network traffic boost may have also been helped by new processing capabilities. The Winning Poker Network has the best payment processing in U.S. online poker. The new cashier options certainly helped convert players that were otherwise out of action and helped players that needed to reload more options to do so.
Black Chip Poker also improved their cashout abilities by moving to Winning Poker. Players now have two options that have a cashout time of no more than three days and often cashouts by debit card and Western Union are processed in just one day. Checks are also much faster that they were on Merge Gaming, just a week or two in most cases.
Existing Black Chip Poker players were able to move their 35% rakeback to the Winning Poker Network. New players can still receive 27% rakeback. The first deposit bonus is now bigger and better. The deposit bonus is now 100% up to $1000, a $250 increase from before. The bonus is deducted from MGR though, as are a few other promotional perks. Players can still earn 34% Black Chip Poker rakeback when combining bonus and rakeback.
One noticeable difference between Merge Gaming and Winning Poker for Black Chip Poker players is the lack of limit games. The Winning Poker Network even dropped fixed limit rake in anticipation of Black Chip Poker moving to the network. This has not helped Winning Poker generate more limit games.
Black Chip Poker’s move to the Winning Poker Network was just about seamless. There were minor issues that were resolved within two days but Black Chip players were back at the online poker tables in just a few hours after closing on Merge Gaming. Most players should be happy about the move, especially if they play No Limit Texas Hold’em.
