Michigan to Share Liquidity with Nevada, New Jersey on WSOP.com?

The future of WSOP-branded online poker in at least three states is starting to come into focus. (Image: Frazer Harrison/McClatchy-Tribune/Alamy)

Three of the largest online poker markets in the United States will soon be able to play together, as WSOP.com appears set to merge its player pools in Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey.

According to a special report by Charlie Passut at PokerFuse, recent announcements by WSOP.com, combined with some small print, have revealed that Michigan is ready to join a shared liquidity pool with Nevada and New Jersey. 

Circuit Series Info Reveals Shared Liquidity Plans

That report was based on information the World Series of Poker revealed in details on the upcoming WSOP Online Circuit Series, which is scheduled to take place in all three states from May 11-22. 

All three states share identical schedules for their WSOP Online Circuit Series next month. In addition, they all share a $100 buy-in Mystery Bounty event on May 12 with a $100,000 guarantee. Mystery Bounty events only run on the Poker 8 client, which WSOP.com currently uses in Michigan, but is not yet activated in Nevada or New Jersey.

Finally, the announcement of the events included language noting that the events will have “shared liquidity with Nevada and Michigan (as permitted by law).” While that announcement leaves out New Jersey, the Garden State currently shares liquidity with Nevada. All three states are members of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), a compact which also includes Delaware and West Virginia. The MSIGA authorizes shared online poker liquidity between member states. 

According to a later report at PokerFuse, the pages on WSOP.com that featured this information have since been taken down. That may because WSOP has yet to make a formal announcement about any software upgrades in New Jersey or Nevada, or plans to share liquidity between the three states. 

The report also notes that no tournaments have been deployed on the older client used in New Jersey and Nevada past May 1, suggesting a possible date for a software update for those states.

Casinos.com reached out to WSOP officials for confirmation and comment have not yet received a reply.

Shared Liquidity Would Boost Online Poker

In the short-term, such a merger of player pools would mean that players will likely play for more online bracelets and bigger prize pools on a combined site. However, the long-term implications are much larger for online poker in the United States.

Liquidity is the biggest barrier to success at online poker sites. Unlike other casino games, poker requires a critical mass of players to keep games going. When online poker rooms fail to hit sufficient traffic numbers, tables fail to fill, which not only limits the game and stakes variety on the site, but also discourages new players from signing up due to the lack of options. 

This is the major reason why regulated poker sites in the United States haven’t been able to produce anything near the success of sites that ran across the country in the online poker boom years of the mid-2000s. Fragmented player pools have doomed online poker efforts in all but the largest states.

The MSIGA has helped combat this issue by allowing states to share liquidity. Currently, the largest online poker market that isn’t part of the market is Pennsylvania. The state – with a population of nearly 13 million – supports sites from PokerStars, BetMGM, and the WSOP. 

But neither the Pennsylvania online poker rooms nor those that utilize the MSIGA can rival the traffic seen by international sites like GGPoker and PokerStars, which average several thousand real money players at any given time.