Market Pulse is an amazing bit of machinery.

It tracks over 20 million hands and over 3 million players per month in all the online poker rooms that count and churns out such invasive statistics that one wonders if there is any privacy left in this world.

Looking at the recent traffic reports generated by Market Pulse one thing is evident. Ultimate Bet and Absolutepoker are not doing badly at all. In August they were Number 8 and Number 9 respectively and their combined traffic has increased over July. And this despite the fact that the superuser scandal is refusing to die down. There has been no online poker forum in which Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker have not been whipped. Wicked Chops Poker has been vociferous in its tirade stating that playing at these poker rooms is like “flushing money down the toilet”. Poker News has banned Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker from its portals for stealing Tiffany Michele from them. Obviously these poker experts are not in synch with the online poker player fraternity.

The top 20 money makers in the year 2008 till now are all from Full Tilt Poker. Absolute Poker gets a look in at Number 30. In fact the first 100 have 93 from Full tilt Poker and 7 from Absolute Poker. There is only one millionaire in the list and that is PrtectYaNeck, though there are a couple who are almost there. Among the recognizable live poker pros in the top 20 are David Benyamine and Phil Ivey. It stands to reason that the online poker room that provides the biggest winners will also provide the biggest losers. In the first 100 there are 96 from Full tilt Poker and 4 from Absolute Poker. The losses are not as severe though. The biggest loss is 600K and the numbers fall pretty quickly after that. 

Market Pulse also classifies players according to their aggressiveness. This is based on PokerListings’s “Aggression Factor” that depends on the number of bets, raises and calls made by the player. An aggression factor below 1 indicates a passive player, also known as “calling station” in poker lingo. An aggression factor of between 1 and 3 indicates a moderately aggressive player who will raise or bet with big hands. An aggression factor of between 3 and 5 indicates an aggressive player who will bet or a raise with a wide range of hands. An aggression factor of over 10 indicates a real loose cannon. Unfortunately aggression factors have been calculated only for Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. Based on year to date statistics for 2008 there are 7 loose cannons at Fulltiltpoker. Cellmem was the biggest of the loose cannons at Full Tilt Poker with an aggression factor of 18.65. Now Market Pulse should correlate aggression factor with winnings or losses. This will indicate to the online poker players the most appropriate level of aggression. 

Other statistics offered by Market Pulse include biggest pots, highest big bet wins and the highest voluntary contribution to the pot.