Carbon Poker is a major poker room that is part of the Australian based Merge Gaming Network. Carbon Poker was established in 2007 and its servers are based in Kahnawake, Canada and is regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. It offers online poker games to players from around the world and as it is part of the Merge Gaming Network is an U.S. friendly poker room. Being part of a poker network means that Carbon Poker shares players with a number of other poker rooms that are all based on the Merge Gaming software. Merge Gaming is ranked within the top fifteen largest poker rooms/networks.

History

Carbon Poker formed in 2005, but after Poker.com decided to branch out and create its own poker room they bought Carbon Poker and joined the newly created Merge Network under the name Carbon Poker. Poker.com still exists as an affiliate website for most of the online poker community, but Carbon Poker is owned and operated by Poker.com as Carbon Poker's Kahnawake gambling permit is held by Poker.com. As the Merge network has grown and added new poker rooms over the past three years Carbon Poker has grown with it and has developed into a strong and stable flagship poker room for the Merge Network.

One thing that has added in the steady, and above average, growth of Carbon Poker is that it has kept its doors open to U.S.-based poker players while many larger gaming sites such as PartyGaming

PartyGaming

bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc is an online gambling company, formed by the March 2011 merger of PartyGaming plc and bwin. The world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it is best known for its online poker room PartyPoker.com and its sports betting brand Bwin. It is...

 have exited the American market after the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was passed in 2006.

In April 2010 the Merge Network, and by extension Carbon Poker, acquired a number of new poker rooms such as PlayersOnly and Sportsbook.com

Sportsbook.com

Sportsbook.com is a privately held online gaming firm, featuring sports betting, online poker, casino games and horse race betting that caters to the U.S...

 from the larger Cake Network that immediately increased their player levels and launching higher in the player traffic rankings. The Marketing Director of Carbon Poker, Ian Williams, told Poker News Daily in an article from April 14, 2010 that he expects to see Carbon Poker "will grow by 20% over the next few months".

This increase in traffic has broadened the overall popularity of Carbon Poker and the Merge Network as a whole.

Records

On February 13, 2009 Carbon Poker handed out the largest Bad Beat Jackpot in online poker history that totaled over $1 million. One lucky person from New York won $417,396 when his 7 to Jack straight flush was beaten by the larger 9 to King straight flush. The two players were playing at the lowest level cash game that is part of the Bad Beat Jackpot, $0.50/$1, and when the jackpot was over $1.2 million in size. The winning player who held the 9 to King straight flush won $208,698 for winning the bad beat and the other 5 players at the table received $41,739 just for being present at the table.