PA Poker News May Update: #GrowPAPoker Campaign, PASCOOP & Borgata Spring Poker Open
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Hi! I'm Keith Becker, PokerNews Ambassador and Pennsylvania native, here with a PA poker update for May 2024. It's an exciting time in America for the game we all know and love, and I'm excited to be bringing you state highlights every month.
Remember, PA players can legally play real money poker in Pennsylvania, so PokerNews has come up with a list of the very best online poker sites in Pennsylvania. Access real poker sites and play different games with poker players within the state.
What are the big issues and stories on everyone's minds? Let’s get into it.
Save the Date
On Tuesday, May 7th, PokerNews will be joining forces with Pokerfuse.com and poker players all over Pennsylvania in an advocacy #GrowPAPoker campaign to promote the inclusion of Pennsylvania in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). To make it easy, you can share this text (courtesy Pokerfuse) on X (formerly Twitter):
Please support HB 2078 to bring shared liquidity to Pennsylvania and #GrowPApoker! @GovernorShapiro @RepBradford @RepDunbar @RepRozzi @russdiamond @PAGamingControl @pokerfuse @pokernews
The goal of the campaign is to get the attention of various lawmakers in the Keystone State to encourage them to support HB 2078, which is a piece of legislation authorizing the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to enter a shared liquidity agreement with other states including Nevada, New Jersey, and Michigan. The PA Gaming Control Board supporting the bill is good for me, it's good for you; it's good for every poker player in PA, Michigan, New Jersey, and Nevada.
With a population of nearly 13 million, Pennsylvania's joining shared liquidity would be a huge boost; in fact, it has the largest population of all four states mentioned. Not only would it mean more games and larger prize pools for players, but it would also result in more tax revenue for Pennsylvania.
If you want to help, all you need to do on May 7 is copy and paste the above-premade tweet and share it. That’s it! If you want to go the extra mile, encourage your friends and family to do the same. PokerFuse is spearheading the campaign and reaching out to poker rooms, other media outlets, online poker communities, and influential poker players from the area.
What's more, the #GrowPaPoker initiative got a boost from PokerStars PA when they announced support for the cause by hosting a special Freeroll on May 7 with $2,078 added, so if you're able, register for that in the lobby!
Continuing in the political poker landscape, another bill was recently introduced to have Pennsylvania join a few other states in banning credit card usage for online gambling activities. Senator Wayne Fontana, who introduced the bill, said that he believes online gaming "should not be another scenario to accumulate more debt."
Now, can we get an addendum to ban poker players from using their credit cards for Uber Eats and Doordash at 2 a.m.? Just a thought!
Hear From the Lawmaker Who Wants to Grow Online Poker in Pennsylvania
PA Online News
The big online poker story last month was the PokerStars PASCOOP, which along with other SCOOP series awarded $2.7 million in prize money, ahead of the $2.3 million they had guaranteed.
“PocketAces500” took down the $300 Main Event for more than $38K and the trophy, while several players delivered three or more wins, including “NellieKane1” who came through with five victories, a Pennsylvania online series record.
Other noteworthy performances include “Vaysmoney” with back-to-back High Series event wins in the Super Tuesday and Thursday Thrill Championships, and Zach “KennyTheRipper” Gruneberg with 20 total final tables.
In other April online news in Pennsylvania, WSOP PA ran a 12-event Circuit series awarding gold rings, and BetMGM PA came out strong with their Spring Poker Championships – 65 events awarding 24 trophies. At the time of this writing, several events are still to be played, but “MuckLavin” may have a stranglehold on the top leaderboard spot, awarding a $2,500 prize.
Both the WSOP and BetMGM series are typically targeted at a higher price point, in contrast to PokerStars' SCOOP, which covers a wide range of buy-ins and is a bit more accessible to micro- or low-stakes players.
In upcoming online news, this weekend is Half Price Sunday on PokerStars PA offering players some great tournaments with 50% off the usual buy-in.
Check out our Pennsylvania online tournament calendar here!
PA Live Poker News
In the live poker world, the Philly Live! Poker Room recently hosted its $250 buy-in Road to Riches tournament, which smashed its $150K guaranteed with a $242,000 prize pool. The tournament ended with a seven-way chop at the final table, with each player taking home $18K... although the Twitter account said it was an ICM chop? I'd be pretty surprised if their stacks were that similar.
Meanwhile, many PA poker players may be crossing state lines to New Jersey in May as Atlantic City is currently hosting the Borgata Spring Poker Open. The series runs from April 29th to May 4th, is hosted in affiliation with the aforementioned BetMGM Poker, and boasts over $4 Million in guarantees.
From May 24-26, Rivers Casino Philadelphia will play host to a $2,200 buy-in, $200K GTD Main Event that is sure to attract some of the biggest names not only from Pennsylvania but from the surrounding area.
There are some great poker tournaments coming up at the Philly LIVE! Poker Room starting May 15-19 with the $600 Live! Cup 3, which costs $600 to enter and boasts a $1,000,000 GTD. Day 1 flights will take place at both the Pennsylvania venue and Maryland LIVE! in Hanover, Maryland, with Day 2 taking place on May 19 at the latter location. Also, at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia from May 22-26 is the $25 buy-in, $150K GTD Road to Riches.
Poker is surging in America, and I'm thrilled to be your ambassador here in PA. For more information, check out our PokerNews Pennsylvania page here,, and be sure to follow me on socials to stay in the know. I’ll be back next month with another update!
Keith Becker is an American poker player based out of Pennsylvania. A former member of PokerStars Team Pro Online, Becker is now a PokerNews Ambassador and Streamer. Becker has been streaming poker on Twitch since Day 1 of regulated poker in Pennsylvania and has led a grassroots movement for PA to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement.
