Black Friday – what next?

So, where will Americans play poker now that the big online sites are no longer accepting players from the USA?

With Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet closed to American players, there are still some rooms that are welcoming players from America. Bodog Poker has not made a statement about their intentions regarding the US market just yet, but so far they have continued to welcome players from America.

If that continues then Bodog could become the biggest online poker site – there are thousands of US players that are now without an online poker home. Once the initial scare dies down those regular players that have not been able to play in a while will overcome their doubts and pile into any online poker room that will accept them.

With proper bankroll management most players should be able to limit their risk in case a crackdown like the one that just happened happens again to the remaining US friendly poker rooms.

Bodog Poker is not the only room to remain open to Americans though. Both Carbon Poker and Aced Poker are advertising that they are accepting US players. Both those rooms are on the Merge Poker Network, and traffic has been growing steadily for the last week, so their advertising is paying off.

But will the DOJ come after these new market leaders?

No one can say for certain. If one or more rooms grow to the size of the likes of Poker Stars or FullTilt then I would think it would be a certainty that they will be the target of a Government investigation. That is not to say that it will unfold in the same way as the one that we have just seen.

Don’t forget that the DOJ had a witness, an insider, Daniel Tzvetkoff, who had been instrumental in setting up the various payment channels that were used by those poker sites that were seized. The other sites did not use these processing channels and so the DOJ would not have the same evidence against them.

However, having done it once there is no reason to believe that they would not be able to get their hands on another whistle-blower with access to the insider details.

But getting a case together against the next lot of poker sites would take time. And that time could be profitably used by poker players willing to take a chance.

If you are looking for a new place to play check out Bodog Poker by clicking here now