The recent troubles between Lock Poker and their network, Merge Gaming, seemed to have finally boiled over. Lock has now announced that they’re leaving Merge, and making a big purchase in the way of the Cake Poker Network. Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson made the following statement about her site’s big moves:
We are very excited at the prospect of driving the product, marketing and overall vision of the network. It is a dream come true. Merge was a great stepping stone for us but we have outgrown them. We really need to forge our own path to continued success. The only way to do this is to stay true to our of core philosophy: partnering with our players.
The comment about Lock having outgrown Merge is particularly telling in all of this, and it seems like a thinly-veiled insult too. Back in early April, Lock Poker was excited about holding their first major tournament series – LockOPS. This event was set to offer $2 million over the course of 33 poker tournaments, until it was stopped by Merge Gaming on April 23rd.
Lock wasn’t happy about this at all, and no specific reasons were ever given for what caused Merge to halt LockOPS. This being said, it’s interesting timing that Lock would leave their former network just a couple of weeks after the disagreement over LockOPS.
One thing that’s worth watching in this story is how both poker entities do following their split. Lock is one of the biggest sites on Merge – the biggest according to them – and this will take a huge chunk out of the network’s traffic. Going further, many will be interested in how Lock Poker does on their own, with the Cake Network as a new asset.