PA Poker News November Update: Phil Galfond's BetRivers in Pennsylvania; Global's '25 Days of Poker'
Hi! I'm Keith Becker, PokerNews Ambassador and Pennsylvania native, here with a PA poker update for October 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.
What are the big issues and stories on everyone's minds? Let’s get into it.
The thing on everyone's mind of course is Pennsylvania joining the MSIGA and multi-state poker. While there isn't immediate huge news on that front as these things take time, one interesting development this month was BetMGM finally - and somewhat quietly - combining their Michigan and New Jersey player pools.
Do they know something we don't? Eh, maybe. But it's just as likely that they are just benefitting from combining their existing pools, plus doing their due diligence enabling the proper infrastructure so that when the time does come to combine with Pennsylvania, they're not at a disadvantage. For now, we here in PA will have to continue to wait.
Speaking of BetMGM, they're also currently in the middle of their Poker Online Championships, a marquee series at the operator offering a combined $2 MILLION in guarantees. These are primarily big entries aimed at higher-stakes players.
PokerStars in the USA - and thus Pennsylvania - has gone the other way this month, offering their Fall Fest Series. This series features a lot of smaller entries, although it's exclusively hold'em and Omaha, whereas Stars has been known to experiment with more mixed games in the past. But there's a little bit of something for every buy-in level on the US clients. For reference, the ABI (average buy-in) in this BetMGM series is about $240. On Stars in their Fall Fest it is $112. So whatever level you want to play, you got it this month.
And when I say something for everyone I certainly don't want to leave out cash game players. Those players should look to new operator BetRivers, who has made bold claims about their rake and rewards, particularly for those players in the cash game streets.
The rewards seem to be particularly lucrative for those players willing to redeem their bonuses from playing poker for casino or sportsbook play and promos, but the operator insists it has the leading rewards in the market for all players nevertheless. I've played a little bit on BetRivers, which of course is represented by Phil Galfond, and I am looking forward to putting in more volume there soon to take advantage of this honestly stellar return to the player.
And again on the subject of cash games, let's pivot quickly to live poker, as BetRivers Poker is affiliated with Rivers Casino in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and currently has some boosted high-hand promotions, paying out $1,000 to the qualifying high-hand - at times firing off every 30 minutes! Great place to be right now if you're a live cash grinder.
Meanwhile, the competing poker room at Philadelphia Live! casino just concluded their Live Cup IV. This unique tournament with Day 1s at both the Maryland and Philadelphia locations saw the Philly Day 2 reach a $1.3M Prize Pool with 2,570 entries. The tournament ended in a seven-way chop, with Taerim Kum from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania taking home the largest share at over $112K.
Back to the online streets... We were talking about how there's something out there for every buy-in level. Well, how about free! There has been a fervor for the massive ClubWPT Gold invitational freeroll, which now has a drawing with massive prizes for anyone who simply registers for a ClubWPT Gold account, in addition to the $5 Million invitational freeroll for those fortunate enough to score one of the coveted Golden Passports. 2,000 Golden Passports are being awarded through various giveaways and competitions, and some Pennsylvania residents have also been lucky enough to score one, like a longtime friend of my stream Patrick McCormack, who won by simply retweeting a tweet and getting someone else to sign up. What a spot! Good luck Patrick, AKA WTR.
And finally, Global Poker is currently running satellites to their 25 Days of Poker "Unfold the Present" tournaments. These tournaments have insane guarantees - 5 Million on the Gold Coin side and 500,000 guaranteed in the Sweeps Coin Final both on December 26th. Remember, you can't qualify for these tournaments directly, so get firing away in those feeder satellites. It's gonna be huge value in those finals.
Poker is surging in America, and I'm thrilled to be your ambassador here in Pennsylvania. 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.
