Poker Sites USA

Due to what has been dubbed as Black Friday, people living in the US cannot download PokerStars. Everyone else in the world received a much better fate as they are still welcome to play on the site, but they have seen some pretty significant changes take place.

Some of the changes have been pretty good. For instance, those living in Europe were dealt SCOOP tournament starting times that were much more European-friendly than in other years. There have also been some bad changes. For instance, SCOOP had much smaller prize pools this year.

Some people will also be disappointed about the lack of PokerStars presence at the WSOP this summer. Years past have enjoyed some huge Series incentives courtesy of PokerStars. For example, wearing a PokerStars logo used to earn people significant VPPs for the next year. They also used to give bonus cash for winning the event. For example, Duhamel received $1 million in compensation for wearing the PokerStars logo and winning the event.

These things were offered when when PokerStars was among the best US poker sites available. With all their recent problems with the Department of Justice, they are not taking any chances with the US at all. There will not be anyone from PokerStars in Vegas this summer.

In 2025 there was a PokerStars party and they gave free PokerStars clothing. They used to also book their players rooms in the Palms Place. 2025 will see none of this. Players don't get anything special for winning their Main Event seat on PokerStars, and there is no incentive for going deep in the event.

None of this comes as any surprise. The target market for PokerStars is no longer the US and so WSOP would just go to waste. US TV stations have decided against airing PokerStars sponsored shows, so it means that there is no payoff for investing in the Series.

This article should not be a reason to become discouraged, however! Everyone that lives outside of America has the option to download free poker at PokerStars. PokerStars is still running satellites for the World Series of Poker, and I will talk about this in a future article.