Online poker finally showed signs of life last week, snapping an eight-week losing streak with a 2.8% gain. The rising tide lifted nearly the entire market. Among the top 10 sites and networks, advancers led decliners nine to one with five sites seeing a gain of 5% or more.
In a sudden reversal, iPoker Network surged ahead of PartyPoker to take over second place. PartyPoker, which was the only top 10 site to book a week-over-week traffic loss, had held second place since the first week of January. iPoker now holds an 8% lead over Party.
At PokerStars, Zoom Poker continues to account for 25% of seated cash game players and nearly 50% of cash game hands dealt. The site is reportedly considering making all high stakes games Zoom-only. Details remain sketchy, but such a move could tip the balance further in favor of Zoom Poker.
Next week marks the anniversary of Black Friday, when PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus Network were forced out of the US market. We will be looking at year-over-year performance to identify winners and losers in the year since.
Top 20 Movers
- iPoker Network took over second place from PartyPoker, which slipped to third.
- Ongame Network recaptured fifth place from PokerStars.it.
- iPoker.it moved up to 15th, pulling ahead of Svenska Spel.
- IPN climbed to 20th place, knocking Enet Poker Network out of the top 20.
Year Over Year
The total worldwide online poker market remains under pressure from Black Friday and a global stagnation in poker's popularity. According to PokerScout's ACES indicator, online poker traffic (ex-Italy) has decreased by 32% in the last year.
Year-over-year changes for some individual sites and networks are given below. Results are for the main (.com) sites and networks unless stated otherwise.
Top three:
PokerStars* 
16%
iPoker Network 
6%
PartyPoker 4%
Notable gainers:
Merge Gaming Network 72%
888poker 54%
Bodog 39%
Winamax.fr 33%
Notable decliners:
Full Tilt Poker 100%
Cereus Network 99.8%
International Poker Network (IPN) 46%
Ongame Network 24%
Small but interesting:
Chico Poker Network (formerly Action Poker Network) 290%
Everleaf Gaming Network 37%
*Yearly comparison affected by the introduction of Zoom Poker in March 2012.
