Carbon Poker to Launch Real-Money Mobile App Across Multiple Platforms
Here’s an interesting development from Carbon Poker, flagship site of the Australia-based Merge Network. Merge, the third or fourth largest US-facing network, will soon be introducing real-money play on mobile apps, becoming the first US-facing network of any reasonable size to do so. As with the initial testing, the mobile offerings are expected to be limited to cash games only for the forseeable future (no tournaments).
Carbon first announced the pending introduction of “Carbon Mobile” in a blog post on the CarbonPoker.ag home site back in February. That post detailed the rollout for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, but has seemingly been expanded during the testing phase to include other devices, include Android-based apps. The initial statement:
Carbon Poker has officially gone mobile after unveiling an app that allows United States residents to enjoy play money games through their iPhone and iPod Touch. The mobile poker application successfully finished its testing phase and is close to being available to the public. In the meantime, players who are interested in getting a special preview can contact Carbon Poker at [email protected].
Those who try the play money poker app can enjoy No-Limit, Limit and Pot-Limit Hold’em cash games. Unfortunately, tournaments aren’t available at this time, but Carbon definitely has plans to add tourneys to the mix later.
This isn’t the only thing that Carbon will be adding either because apps for the Android and iPad are currently in the works. And if you’re hoping to play for real money through Carbon Poker mobile, you’ll be pleased to hear that our site is currently working on this option as well.
But for the moment, only iPhone and iPod Touch users can enjoy Carbon’s mobile app. So if you’ve got either of these products and have always wanted to enjoy Carbon Poker games on the run, make sure to check out the application – especially since real money play will be available in the near future!
That post was recently updated with additional text, noting that the initial test phase had successfully completed:
UPDATE:
Due to the success of the limited release, Merge have given us permission to open access to the mobile client to anyone who is interested in giving it a shot.
We would still really appreciate you get back to us with your feedback, be it positive or negative. We are really excited about the release of this mobile version, and are really looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
In order to access the mobile client on your phone, iPod or tablet, you will need to point your device’s web browser to https://carbonpoker.mergeclient.eu/.
Next, you will be instructed to create it as a shortcut on your home screen for ease of access. Once you have done this, you should be all set to go.
Have fun, and please let us know your feedback.
A separate announcement came via a brief post by Carbon’s social-media rep, “CarbonChris” in Carbon’s sponsored forum at 2+2, which has been the primary outlet for official Carbon statements since Carbon discontinued its own in-network discussion forum a couple of years back, and the aforementioned blog is rarely visited. Here’s CarbonChris’s statement:
“CarbonPoker is just about ready to launch our mobile app for real money play. But first, we’re looking for some beta testers to help us get the app ready. From now, we’ll accept new beta testers for micro stakes real money play. Just post your screen name in this thread before Aug 16th. Then we’ll release further instructions via email in regards to how to participate and how to report bugs.”
A handful of Carbon players have already followed the instructions and posted in the thread, which appears to be one of only two ways — along with e-mails by registered players to the [email protected] address, to be considered as a beta tester.
Carbon and Merge presumably hope to use the new rollout as a means of recapturing market share, which has slowly ebbed over the last 18 months or so in the face of the site’s lengthy withdrawal times, which have been averaging about two months for nearly a year. Though very slow, one can note that the withdrawals remain stable, as opposed to the much, much longer processing times at Revolution, and the now-defunct Everleaf Gaming.
Similarly, the complexities in getting money onto the site from the US — including Western Union transfers to a third party — have slowed the deposit rate. The overall effect has been to eat away at traffic on the site, which this mobile-app rollout appears designed to combat.
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