What is pushing poker sites such as Sportsbook Poker and PlayersOnly to move from the Cake Poker Network to the fledgling Merge Gaming Poker Network?

While these two sites are scheduled to join the Merge network next month, the latest news to come out of the industry is that the two year old Lock Poker site has also announced its intentions to migrate.

It goes without saying that the addition of three poker rooms will do much to bolster the traffic at Merge, which has been suffering a decline in players in the past half a year or so.

Cake Poker, however, has actually seen an increase in traffic, so it is interesting to see whether the departure of three poker rooms will directly impact the traffic on both platforms.

By moving to the Merge network, Lock Poker will continue to offer its games and services to US poker players. The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lock, Jennifer Larson explained why she had chosen Merge as the optimal platform to migrate to.

“They are aggressive, innovative and very progressive in design and development,” she said. “They are also dedicated to allowing their partners to be authentic which is integral to the success of a network in the long-term.”

The Merge network will certainly benefit from the addition of such as a high profile site such as Lock Poker, which hosted the Bluff Online Poker Challenge.

The site carries a contingency of Lock Pros such as Eric “Rizen” Lynch who contributes to Bluff and is also the VP of Product Development at Lock Poker. “I am very excited about the move to the Merge network and I will be working closely with them to further innovate Lock’s product,” he said.

“We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative and experienced marketing group,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the network, Anthony Taylor. “This deal will bring even more liquidity to the network and aid our continued growth.”

It has taken the guys in the white lab coats to tell us what we’ve since known since online poker burst onto the scene in the mid 90’s – poker played on the internet is good for our mental wellbeing. (Well for some at least)

A research team at the prominent McGill University in Canada have studied the blood pressure and blood sugar levels of players and found that online poker actually de-stresses us.

It works likes this: Our bodies’ adrenal gland secretes a stress hormone called cortisol in certain situations. The academic team found that when we play online poker, the level of cortisol in our bodies actually decreases.

The researchers monitored cortisol levels of players over a prolonged gaming session and watched in amazement as the stress hormone dipped as much as 17% in the average player.

While any novice online poker player could have told these boffs that this form of entertainment naturally causes them to feel better overall, it is still good to know that online poker gets endorsement from the scientific camp for a change.

The McGill guys stressed that it wasn’t only online poker that would make players’ cortisol levels drop. They noted that in fact any form of online gambling would produce the same results. (We think that the results of this study should definitely be appendixed to Rep. Barney Frank’s proposal to overturn the UIGEA).

So how do the scientists explain the decrease in the stress hormone in their own language? Apparently, when we focus on our games, after a while we become so immersed in them that our brains manage to block out everyday thoughts and happenings. When this happens, we start to feel more tranquil and thus our stress hormones drop.

This isn’t the first scientific study done on internet poker and gambling and others have also outlined the benefits of this form of entertainment. The long term benefits of poker are also well documented, including the improvement of cognitive functions and sharper brain activity as we age.

Matt Vengrin, one of the poker world’s most promising young professional players, decided to shift his attentions elsewhere for just one weekend and acted as a judge in the Miss California Teen USA beauty pageant.

Not that Vengrin has anything to complain about as a member of Team Absolute Poker, where he shares a table with the lovely Lacey Jones and the reality TV stunner, Trishelle Cannatella.

The Absolute Poker pro joined other judges at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage to help decide among the bevy of beauties who would be crowned Miss California Teen this year and succeed the reigning queen, Chelsea Gilligan of Beaumont.

“As a poker player, I know how fierce competition can be,” said Vengrin. “Just like playing in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), these girls are in for a grueling, but fun weekend, and I’m excited to be an integral part of the experience.”

The girls were judged based on their performance in an interview with the judges, as well as their appearance in the swimsuit and evening gown competitions. They were also expected to have “character, poise, confidence and personality,” according to the official Miss California website.

The 24 year old Matt Vengrin is certainly living it up and enjoying the good life (and the perks that go with it) since he burst onto the poker scene. He has won nearly $2 million playing at Absolute Poker and other sites, and has also taken his talent to land poker tournaments.

2009 has certainly been a good year for Vengrin. He has finished in the top ten of no less than six popular online poker tournaments, grabbing first place in a recent No Limit Hold ‘em competition where he won $61,000.

Vengrin’s latest appearance was at the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic where he took home $13,280 for his 27th place in the Main Event.

And for the record, here’s Vengrin’s theory on the chance versus skill element in poker that has become a hot topic in the US these days. In a recent interview, Vengrin said: “Poker is a lot of short term luck. You have to get lucky in tournament poker to win tournaments, but it usually takes a lot of skill to close when you do get chips. Luck also has a lot of factors such as getting lucky by winning your flips, and not getting unlucky (KK vs AA). I think short-term, there is probably around 35% luck, and long-term there is about 1% luck.”