June 13 - Online poker rooms that still accept real-money US players continue to grow even bigger as they swallow up the smaller operations that either could not continue without American involvement or were not willing to accept the inherent risks of allowing USA poker players to keep accounts open on their websites.
The latest card room ingested by one of the big boys is Full Contact Poker, the pet project of Daniel Negreanu that was doing very well up until the UIGEA bill, which was acquired by Poker Stars.
I recall that at last year's WSOP Full Contact Poker was well represented and it was a well-run skin of the Ongame network (their flagship site is Pokerroom.com). But now the news is that Kid Poker will promote Poker Stars and that all the old FCP accounts will be transferred over to the world's largest online poker room.
The transition will probably be seamless and American poker players will continue to play online. It is a very similar scenario to what transpired earlier this year when Doyle Brunson's card room (Doyles Room) moved their USA accounts over to Full Tilt Poker.
Full Contact Poker has now shut down entirely, which is a shame. Party Poker is in discussions with the DOJ regarding clarity on the new laws, suggesting that their executives, many of whom are American citizens, are still sweating at the hypocritical hands of this Administration. That's also lamentable, although many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now trying to carve out an exclusion for poker as (rightly enough) a game of skill.
There are a handful of online poker rooms still catering to the USA market, and it is only natural that they'll get enormous if the law is not amended any time soon. This is great news for all the players at these sites because it means huge tournament prize pools - just look at out latest news article about another massive MMT at Stars, a familair story every Sunday in 07.
These companies are privately held and one hopes that they will stay strong in the face of bullying tactics implemented with no regard for international law by American law enforcement agencies.
