Black Chip Poker, one of the more prominent brands on Merge Gaming, will leave the network on December 3 and move to their new home on the Winning Poker Network.
Winning Poker Network, formerly Yatahay, is best known for skins True Poker and recently relaunched Americas Cardroom.
Black Chip Poker, Merge Gaming and the Winning Poker Network jointly announced the move in a press release issued late on Friday. A “seamless” upgrade to the Black Chip Poker client on players’ desktops will automatically redirect them to the new network on Tuesday.
According to the announcement, once the transition is complete, “neither Merge nor the Kahnawake Gaming Commission will have further liability for the Black Chip Poker player accounts transferred to the Winning Poker Network.”
Earlier this week, Black Chip Poker along with other Merge skins RPM and Hero Poker withdrew from participation in the Poker Maximus III tournament series on Merge. The 11 day event boasts more than $1m in guaranteed prize pools. Rumors of an RPM departure have been swirling in poker forums over the past week.
Merge made headlines recently with the announcement of the end of player-to-player transfers on the network. The policy change further restricted the ability of US players to withdraw funds from the network and sent many looking for a new place to play.
The change coincided with skins Carbon Poker and sister sites PDC Poker and Aced transitioning away from the Merge cashier onto Jazette for its transactions. The change was not without its problems but no lingering issues remain.
Its marquee skin, Americas Cardroom, recently announced a reduction in rake for its fixed-limit games bringing it inline with fixed-limit rake structures at Merge and PokerStars.
The Winning Poker network is the fifth largest US facing online poker site according to data from PokerScout, with less than half the cash game traffic as Merge and a fraction of US leader, Revolution.
Unlike its competitors, however, its traffic is growing rapidly, and it consistently ranks highly for speed of US cash-outs. The Black Chip Poker player move should lead to a significant boost in traffic.
