Regardless, it was probably impossible for the company to fully realize the lofty expectations that customers had for it even under ideal circumstances. However, the site took a big hit when competitor PokerStars NJ began operations, and Party hasn't regained the top spot since that time. Initially optimistic hopes for Party in the Garden State seemed to pan out at first because PartyPoker USA soon became the most popular destination in the New Jersey regulated market for legal online poker. Unfortunately, New Jersey is the only US state Party Poker is available in as it is not licensed elsewhere. Therefore, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the return of the Party name to America with the PartyPoker NJ site, which opened up in November 2013. PartyPoker was the leader in USA online poker back in the early 2000s, but it had to leave the U.S.