The Merge Gaming Network was formed in early 2007 with Carbon Poker as its first member. Carbon Poker has a fairly interesting history. The management of Carbon Poker originally ran the Poker.com poker room. What happened was that the management of Poker.com ran into some marketing issues at live events. The problem was that the .com suffix was required to be obscured at many live events due to online gambling advertising restrictions. This presents a problem when the name of your poker room is Poker.com; cover the .com suffix and all you are left with is the word Poker. Putting the word Poker alone on posters and advertising material is fairly useless and no one would know what it was you wanted from them. In creating Carbon Poker, even if the .com suffix is missing in an advertisement, anyone running into the logo and name will know that it is an advertisement for a poker room and not some kind of artsy fartsy avant-garde statement.

The software at Carbon Poker is quite excellent. The graphics are great and the software provides for quick action. The lobby is well organized with logical filters that help you find exactly what you are looking for with great ease. For a poker room that accepts U.S. players, the level of play is actually quite marginal at Carbon Poker.

The truly exceptional thing about Carbon Poker, and the whole Merge Poker Network for that matter, is the poker bonuses and promotions. In addition, you will find a selection of mixed games which can be relatively hard to find online.

Carbon Poker offers very good game selection and the general skill level of its members is lower than expected; however, with just over 4,000 players online at peak hours, it can be somewhat difficult to find action outside of the Texas Hold'em tables on off hours.