Although nothing is official as of yet, several industry sources and indicators are pointing to an imminent split between Doyles Room and the Cake Poker Network. This would follow a recent string of other mid-grade online poker sites, including Lock Poker and Sportsbook Poker, that have departed the struggling network in the past twelve months.
Aside from the most obvious indicator (Doyles Room hasn’t been offering their software client for download for weeks), the fact that Doyles Room support techs have been blaming affiliate Rake Race problems on the Cake Poker Network certainly raises some eyebrows. In addition, Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones left the organization in the final days of 2010, stating his dissatisfaction with the “direction the company was going.”
As Doyles Room is the largest poker site on the Cake Poker Network, its departure would mark the most significant blow that the network has received in its recent history. The fact that pokertableratings.com recent cracked the Cake Poker Network’s encryption only adds fuel to the flames.
Of course, it’s unlikely that Doyles Room will ultimately leave until it finds a new home. That may be accounted for as well, as signs are pointing to the Cereus Poker Network as a potential landing spot. Brunson’s surprisingly prolific Twitter account indicates that he recently made a trip to Costa Rica, the home of UB. Joe Sebok indicated massive changes for UB in 2011, beginning with the mildly surprising addition of Prahlad Friedman. The acquisition of a large, name brand poker site such as Doyles Room would certainly fit in with UB’s mission statement for the new year.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Doyles Room jumped ship on an ailing network. Just two years ago, Brunson and Co. joined the Cake Poker Network after Microgaming stopped accepting US players. Only time will tell whether history repeats itself.
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