On Saturday evening Party Poker, part of the largest online poker network, surprised almost everyone by opting to go it alone. The result? A lot of confused and bewildered online poker players, some obliquely pissed off statements from the other sites in the network, and suddenly it seemed like there were no games and no players left.

So what exactly is going on? Why has Party Poker opted to suddenly cut its player base overnight, severing links with other sites, losing players and action, and leaving its position as the biggest online poker site wide open for the taking?

To understand what Party is up to, we need to look a little into its history.

Party Poker was launched in 2001 by PartyGaming. Alongside Party Poker, PartyGaming has been operating Starluck casino and PartyBingo since its inception, in 1997. PartyPoker quickly rose to ascendancy as one of the biggest online poker rooms, partly through a reputation for having some of the loosest and weakest tables, and, as the site grew ever bigger, for having the widest selection of tables to sit at. Part of the success can be put down to the existence of other sites, known as ‘skins’, that use the same client software that users download to play poker, and importantly allow users logged in to one skin play against players logged in at another skin. Alongside Party Poker, until this weekend at least, players at Empire Poker, Poker Now, and Coral Eurobet could all log in to whichever site they played at, and would be able to play against players logged in to any of the other skins in the network. As each of these skins also grew, so did the strength of the network as a whole. And as the network grew, its main beneficiary all the while was Party Poker.

And as the network leader, Party has never been about quality, but all about quantity. Until relatively recently, much higher stakes limit holdem games could be found at other sites, and even at the beginning of this year, although Party had introduced 30/60 limit tables, there were only 2 of them, so you had to queue all morning to get a seat at one of them. And when you did, you would have the pleasure of playing against half-decent opposition (after all, you have to be at least partially committed to your game to be willing to wait that long for a seat). Compare that to the 50/100 and 100/200 games that had been available at other sites for many a month. No, Party has always been about cramming low and middle limit players round as many tables as possible. And then charging them a higher rake than they’d pay at their competitors. But they don’t mind, you see, because at other sites they might not always get a game at the limit they want to play at. At Party you could pretty much always walk into any game you fancied playing, at any time.

Given this success, it seems strange, at first sight, that Party would want to sever ties with these sites, and lose players. But it doesn’t take much searching to find Party’s rationale. Firstly, there’s always been a bit of tension between Party and Empire poker, the best known of the skins. It could be something to do with the fact that while Empire was recruiting players to the network, Party was then paying Empire royalties in return. Whatever the reasons, though, the union was never going to last forever.

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Tags: Poker, Party Poker, Empire Poker