The Merge Network is an online poker network of moderate size, though it has increased its traffic in the past two years by poaching a few larger rooms from other networks. Merge is known for its excellent software, and is accessible to players from the United States. Below, we only have one recommendation of a Merge poker site as it is so far ahead of any other Merge poker room:

Merge Poker Information

The Merge Network has been in existence since 2007, and has since grown to include over 60 different poker sites. Each poker site on the network brings their own players to it, and all players on the Merge Network play on common tables.

This allows poker rooms who are way too small to survive on their own to hit the ground running and enjoy the large player base that Merge Gaming provides. However, it’s still preferable to stick to the main poker rooms, as the ones which are the most popular generally are the best run, and have the most experience making and keeping their players happy.

Most of the partners, or “skins” at Merge are sports betting sites who have branched out into poker on the side. This is one of the beauties of the network concept, where players from other forms of betting can be easily accessed from these essentially non-poker sites and brought into the fold.

This phenomenon tends to make these networks fishier than pure poker sites, attracting players much less familiar with poker. The non poker specialists are looser with their money and like to gamble more, as opposed to playing the more sound poker strategy that most poker players at least aspire to.

This is particularly significant in the poker information era that we’re currently in, where poker players can easily access top quality lessons and other poker information, resulting in the level of play among these players significantly increasing over the last few years. It’s not that it’s all that hard to stay ahead of the pack, but doing well these days is more of a grind, where you look to take down a lot of pots against players who end up playing too tight for their own good.

The gamblers, the ones from sports betting and casino sites, are generally not privy to the basic skills that have pervaded online poker lately, and therefore can be much more easily exploited. In fact these weaker players tend to exploit themselves, just like your average player did in the earlier days of online poker, by simply playing too loosely and recklessly.

So given that most of the 60 poker sites on the Merge Gaming Network are sports betting sites, it’s not hard to see how this has become a very nice place to have an account at, and where the fishing is always good.

Merge Poker Accepting Players From The US

Merge Poker has always accepted players from around the world, regardless of what country you are from, even if you are from the U.S. Merge didn’t back down after the UIGEA ruling came into effect in 2006, which had most poker sites exiting the U.S. market and no longer offering poker to Americans.

When Black Friday hit, seeing the major poker rooms getting out of the U.S. market, and in some cases getting out of the business altogether, Merge Poker was unaffected. They continued to offer online poker to U.S. players, although for several months they had to stop taking new American players, as they needed to prepare their software and their payment processing to get ready for the expected migration to them from other sites no longer taking care of U.S. players.

This process has now been completed and Merge is happy to announce that they are back taking new U.S. players, as well as players from other countries as well. Since then, the Merge Poker Network has experienced significant growth, a phenomenon which continues as we speak.

The Americans that have been abandoned by Poker Stars, Full Tilt, UB, and Absolute Poker, are becoming more and more eager to get back into the game. Of all the sites that are still in the game, the Merge Poker Network has been the most popular choice among these players, and the momentum continues.

However, a lot of the mega table grinders that proliferated the huge poker sites catering to Americans have been left out in the cold somewhat, at least for now anyway. As you might imagine, there simply isn’t the same opportunities out there to play 24 tables or more at once at the remaining poker sites.

There still are plenty of opportunities to multi table at places like Merge, but the new reality requires a more modest approach to this. What has happened though is the big volume players have tended to feel sorry for themselves and a great many have even given up online poker entirely.

What most of them really needed to do for a long time was to look to get better and move up stakes, and continue to resist this needed adjustment and insist on either playing their fairly mindless variety of poker or not play at all. This is actually good for those of us who continue to play, as these players tend to be profitable, and their exit from the scene certainly makes less of us to fight for the weaker players’ money, meaning an easier time for us.

So as you might expect, things at Merge have gotten a little tougher with all the new players coming over from other poker sites, who do tend to be better than the regular fish that have always hung out at Merge. Still though, things are nowhere near as tough as they could be if Merge ended up being turned into another Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker, being overrun by competent or better players fighting for the money from relatively few fish percentage wise.

So I’d characterize the fishiness of Merge these days as a B, formerly an A, but still a lot better than the F that the mega sites offered people. So if you’re coming from one of those tougher sites, you will find Merge to be delightfully fishy in fact. Merge’s ease of competition is much more similar to the poker sites that Americans used to play at, haven’t been able to play at for years, and all the while wish they could.

Merge Poker Traffic

The traffic at Merge has never been anything to hoot about, and in fact, this has been the big knock against them all these years. However, my own personal view is that poker players should have accounts at all of the profitable sites, and even though a particular poker room or network may not have enough traffic to make it your main poker site if you play above the small stakes, it’s still a good idea to have access to the good tables when they do run.

So this was the challenge that faced Merge after Black Friday when most U.S. poker players were left out in the cold. Most had avoided Merge and the other poker sites that still offered online poker to them because they simply considered them to be too small to be worth their while.

Now I feel that this is a mistaken view, but at the same time, when I think back to how thin the traffic was back then at all of these sites, I can understand where they were coming from. So in order for Merge to start getting a good amount of these players, they had to build up some momentum.

The fact that they had to stop taking new U.S. players over the summer was definitely a set back, but it was seen as one step back to move several steps ahead, and that’s exactly what happened. I had predicted major growth for Merge back then, and many people questioned this, but my thinking was that Americans won’t be able to stay out of the market in such droves forever.

So recently my predictions have come to pass, and Merge currently sits as the number six poker room in the world in terms of player traffic, and in the number one position for traffic among poker sites offering play to Americans. So things are really starting to look up here and the expectation is that they will continue to grow in 2012, and things at Merge will continue to get even bigger and even better.

Merge Poker Safety

As might be expected, one of the things that have given a lot of players pause for thought about getting back into the online poker scene is the safety of poker sites still offering play to Americans. What players need to realize is that the extent of the Black Friday crackdown really came down to the fact that the U.S. government had a key informant who pretty much told all about the existing payment processing operation of the big poker rooms he used to work with.

This informant had been kicked to the curb so to speak by these poker rooms and was extremely angry at them and was looking for revenge. Given what was at stake, it was probably very foolish of these poker rooms to treat him that way, and I’m sure that they regret this now.

In addition to the very low likelihood that this situation would happen again, meaning the government being told the ins and outs of a poker room’s means of moving money in and out of the poker accounts of Americans, there has been a lot that has been learned from this episode.

The several months pause that the Merge Poker Network took to significantly bolster their payment processing system demonstrates that they take this very seriously, and for good reason, as their money is on the line as well. The U.S. government recently tried to take action against Merge, and failed, which demonstrates that the time and effort that Merge has spent to immunize themselves from this meddling has been well spent.

Overall, while nothing is ever absolutely certain, one fact remains, and that’s if people want to spend their money on something, long term, governments can’t really stop it, only slow it down a bit, no matter how many resources they commit to it. Where there is a will, there is a way, and there’s lots of will out there on the part of both players and Merge.

Merge Poker Bad Beat Jackpots

Merge’s bad beat jackpot is one of the most popular and exciting features that they offer. If often grows to mega proportions, and for instance at the time of this writing it’s almost half a million dollars.

Merge offers special bad beat tables which take an additional amount of rake from pots to contribute to the bad beat jackpot. Even if you aren’t that enticed by he chance at winning such a huge sum of money, you can bet that there a lot of people that are, and these players tend to be the fishiest on the site.

So therefore, Merge’s bad beat jackpot and bad beat tables have a double benefit, and in my opinion, the distinctly better fishing there is the bigger benefit of the two, with the chance to win big thrown in as a nice extra.

Merge Poker Deposits And Withdrawals

Merge, like most poker rooms, has no issues when it comes to accepting deposits or processing withdrawals from players residing in countries other than the United States. They offer many popular options for both and you can move money in and out of their member sites with ease.

If you are from the United States, due to the crackdown by the government, there are limited options for deposits and withdrawals. Merge has worked hard though on offering a reliable payment processing service to these residents, and while it does require some time to get your money out, at least you can.

Overall, there are very few good choices out there for Americans, and Merge is definitely among the best if not the very best. Players from other countries will also enjoy some of the soft tables that run there. Just click on one of our top recommended Merge poker rooms to try them out and collect some nice bonuses while you are at it.

More on the Merge Network

The Merge Network, founded in Australia, has become well known for their software package that includes many unique features, as well as a wide selection of games that are playable in the poker room. Merge also provides software for many other games of luck and skill, including blackjack, roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, backgammon and euchre.

In total, there are over 60 sites in the Merge Gaming Network. Along with many that use unique branding on their sites, many poker rooms.