As reported by CalvinAyre.com, PokerEagles can now independently verify that Cake Poker is in fact transferring all USA players to Juicy Stakes Poker. This transition is set to take place on 9/27/12 and this could be seen as a move to help insulate Revolution Gaming Network operators from the US DOJ. As part of this transition Cake Poker will no longer allow USA players to sign-up for an account.
All of the player balances, loyalty levels as well as gold chips will be moved to Juicy Stakes Poker. This move should be seamless for all players since both sites are part of the Revolution Gaming Network and use the same software. Also part of this migration is Colt Poker, Fugu Poker & Hilife Poker as they are all transferring USA players to Juicy Stakes Poker.
If you are not aware Lock Poker in May of 2012 bought the old Cake Poker Network and rebranded it as the Revolution Gaming Network. At that time Lock Poker was part of the Merge Gaming Network and they have since moved to become the flagship brand of Revolution Gaming. The owner of Lock Poker is Jennifer Larson who has made some very savy business moves to help make Lock Poker one of biggest brands in poker.
It is my belief and only speculation that this transition of USA players to Juicy Stakes Poker is being done to help insulate the Revolution Gaming Network. All signs are pointing to this since RedStar Poker recently stopped taking US player on 9/18/12. It is also my belief that Lock Poker and all other skins on the Revolution Gaming Network will cease taking new US player signups in the near future and push all USA players to Juicy Stakes Poker.
To me this seems as though either 1 of 2 things are about to take place on the Revolution Gaming Network (This is only speculation).
1) Revolution Gaming Network will sell all USA players to another company (owned by Jennifer Larson)
2) Revolution Gaming Network will abandon the USA market and sell USA players outright to another company not related to Lock Poker. All USA players would then transition to another poker network.
If the Revolution Gaming Network did in fact abandon the USA market the network as a whole would have a very rough time staying relevant. As the network currently has only around a 25% player base that is non-USA. The network including USA players is currently in the 11th position with 1965 peak cash players according to PokerScout. If they abandoned the USA players then the network would then only have a peak cash players of around 500.
The one item to keep in mind is that Juicy Stakes Poker is currently on a .com and the US DOJ has a very easy time seizing those domains. All USA players who are being transferred over to Juicy Stake Poker should be aware that they may be in for a very bumpy ride if Juicy Stakes Poker stays on the .com and does not transition to a .eu domain name. USA players will still be using the same cashier system so cashout times should be similar going forward. As I get more information about this I will be sure to have an update going forward.
This news broke on CalvinAyre.com.
