Merge Gaming Network

Company Overview

Check for network status and wait for results. And you will stay waiting until the site eventually goes down. Whilst Merge Gaming Network still has a functional website, one that has been running since 2007, it seems to be all that remains of this poker network.

The company itself operated a poker network, mainly aimed at US players. The popularity peaked around the same time the Black Friday of Poker happened, as Merge Gaming operated from Curacao, which still allowed US players. The company operated a service that casino sites could join, which is what a poker network basically is.

What games were available, how did the service compare to others, and what ultimately happened to the company? Read on, and find out.

Software and Games

The main product for the company was the poker client. This allowed individual sites to use different skins, or layouts, whilst still all offering the same games and pooling all their players. Of course, different casinos and poker sites could offer their own bonuses, cashbacks, and more.

The games included Texas Hold’em, Omaha and its variations, 5 Card Draw, Baduggi, Razz, and a handful of others. These could be played at tables or via poker tournaments. The latter offered the company’s own tournaments as well as satellites to live events. Whilst not much information remains, some of the tournaments did offer quite big payouts. Assuming of course they attracted enough players.

The interface for its time seems to have been more or less on par with other poker networks. There’s not much else to say about it, as the system would be woefully outdated today (mobile support for one). You might run into a screenshot here or there, but otherwise, time has wiped away most references regarding this system.

Interpretation

The poker disaster of 2011 resulted in the previously somewhat unknown brand of Merge Gaming Network suddenly jumping from hundreds to thousands of players. The success was in fact so sudden, that the site had to stop accepting new US players for a handful of months.

The success led to more sites joining the network, which seems to have resulted in some friction. There were problems with sites poaching each other's players, offering sanctioned rakeback deals, and getting in each other's way. Of course, the poker boom itself soon started wavering, which spelt problems in the forthcoming years.

It seems that a handful of years later, around 2015 or 2016 sites that comprised nearly half the playerbase moved on to other poker networks. At the same time, other sites were kicked, and new registrations from US players were suspended. It seems that a handful of years later most life left at the site had fizzled out.

Today you are better looking at other poker networks.

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