January 1, 2023, marks a significant day in New Jersey’s online poker history. With the start of the new year, PokerStars NJ will merge player pools with its Michigan-facing client, becoming the second site in New Jersey to offer interstate poker play and the first to share liquidity between the two states.
With the merge, PokerStars NJ effectively more than doubles its player pool, as PokerStars is the most popular site in Michigan. It also gains an advantage over its competitors, WSOP.com and BetMGM Poker, which still operate separately in the Garden and Mitten States.
NJ online poker players will be the biggest winners of all, though. They can look forward to larger prize pools and more action, paving the way for more sites and states to follow.
Sign up is already open up for two huge PokerStars kickoff events
Online poker players know that Sundays are the biggest days of the week. Conveniently, New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, and PokerStars will be hosting two large-guarantee events to kick off its new shared player pools. The PokerStars New Year’s Bash features $150,000 in guarantees:
6 p.m. ET: $100 buy-in, $100K guaranteed
6:30 p.m. ET: $10 buy-in, $50K guaranteed
Moving forward, New Jersey poker players should expect increased guarantees compared to what they are used to on PokerStars, potentially even double (or triple for large-scale tournament series like USACOOP and SCOOP).
May PokerStars contend with WSOP. possuindo in Nj-new jersey?
With PokerStars participating in shared liquidity between New Jersey and Michigan, it joins WSOP. com NJ, which has offered interstate tournaments with players in Nevada since 2018.
Despite interstate online poker being legal in New Jersey, WSOP has enjoyed over four years of being the only poker site in the state to take advantage of it. This was primarily due to WSOP being the only site in Nevada, previously the only state allowed to share liquidity for tournaments. (Delaware is also included, but only for cash games.)
WSOP’s advantage has helped it become the undisputed leading online poker site in NJ. However, Michigan’s entry into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) in May 2022 was the first step in changing the landscape.
As a result, all of New Jersey’s platforms can enter shared liquidity agreements with their Michigan counterparts. However, PokerStars is the only one jumping at the opportunity for now.
Given New Jersey’s population of over nine million, PokerStars still sees the Garden State as an untapped market, despite being almost seven years old. It is an established brand with a global presence. With a growth mindset, PokerStars can make an impact on WSOP’s business, especially if WSOP is late to join Michigan.
Search for BetMGM in order to merge swimming pools early within 2023
Although PokerStars may be the first to join forces between Michigan and New Jersey, it was not the first to update its software in preparation for the occasion.
BetMGM Poker NJ updated its software in November 2022, with the client being updated to the newer Michigan and Pennsylvania platforms native to those sites when they went live in 2021. While Pennsylvania’s games remain ring-fenced for now, New Jersey and Michigan clients are compatible to share player pools.
So, why hasn’t BetMGM beaten PokerStars to the punch here?
These sites have more to gain by expanding their player pools, and we expect BetMGM to feel more urgency once PokerStars hits the ground running. Therefore, BetMGM should be announcing shared player pools early in 2023. Anything later would be a missed opportunity.
How will discussed liquidity along with Michigan advantage New Jersey online poker players?
Since legalizing online poker in January 2021, Michigan has grown to challenge Pennsylvania as the largest market in the nation.
All three sites stand to experience immediate growth by merging their player pools, but even more opportunities are on the horizon. The momentum from this growth solidifies the potential of online poker for players still on the fence about playing and gives sites more ammunition to allocate more funds towards advertising major tournament series.
PokerStars will undoubtedly set new records for its annual Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) this spring. BetMGM’s monthly series will also guarantee larger prize pools.
Finally, if WSOP can merge its NJ/NV pools with those in MI before the summer, we will have unprecedented online turnouts for tri-state bracelet events.
Regardless of the site, New Jersey online poker players can look forward to 2023 being the biggest year yet.
