Poker Sites In Pa

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Four live poker rooms are now open in Pennsylvania. The rooms where you can find live poker right now are:

Pennsylvania regulators have long hinted they are interested in joining the Multi-state Compact, which would allow players from New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware to come together on Pennsylvania poker sites. This means the player pool and traffic would increase significantly, allowing you more options for cash games and tournaments. PA Poker Sites: Play Online Poker in Pennsylvania Online poker is legal in Pennsylvania since 2017. PA players can access real money poker sites and play different games with poker players in the.

  • Rivers Casino Philadelphia
  • Rivers Casino Pittsburgh
  • Mount Airy Casino
  • Mohegan Sun Pocono
  • Parx Casino

These four live poker rooms are currently closed:

  • The Meadows
  • Hollywood Casino
  • Presque Isle Downs
  • Wind Creek Casino

The WSOP poker room at Harrah’s Philadelphia permanently closed in November.

In the New Year, players will also have another live poker option in Philadelphia. Live! Casino and Hotel in Philly will open in early 2021, and a 29-table poker room should open with it, pending COVID-19 restrictions. PlayPennsylvania exclusively reported that according to workers at the new casino site, a Jan. 20 opening is planned.

We will continue to update casino and poker room closings and reopening plans at our live updates page here.

All casinos in PA set to reopen week of Jan. 4

Casinos in Pennsylvania reopening on Jan. 4 at 8 a.m.:

  • Rivers Casino Pittsburgh
  • The Meadows and Hollywood Casinoaccording to PennLive
  • Mount Airy Casino
  • Harrah’s Philadelphia
  • Wind Creek Bethlehem
  • Live! Casino Pittsburgh
  • Parx Casino (9 a.m.)
  • Mohegan Sun Pocono (10 a.m.)
  • Valley Forge Casino Resort ( 1 a.m.)
  • Rivers Casino Philadelphia (4 p.m.)

Opening on Tuesday, Jan. 5:

  • Presque Isle Downs & Casino at 4 p.m.

Opening on Friday, Jan 8:

  • Lady Luck Nemacolin at 9 a.m.

When casinos in PA reopen, they will still follow the COVID-19 Casino Reopening Protocols, which detail the minimum safety and health-related requirements that are mandatory before reopening.

All casinos and poker rooms ordered to close for three weeks

Gov. Wolf announced that mitigation restrictions put in place back on Dec. 12, including the closures of casinos, will be lifted Monday, January 4 at 8:00 a.m.

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Parx poker room reopening in mid-December

Pennsylvania’s largest poker room announced a date for its long-awaited return. Parx Poker Room will reopen on Dec. 15 at 9.m. with all of its usual games and be open 24 hours. The news came via Parx’s website.

What’s up at Wind Creek’s poker room?

With 26 tables, Wind Creek Casino has one of the larger poker rooms in PA. A representative from Wind Creek told PlayPennsylvania they had no update on when the poker room would open.

A Wind Creek employee provided an update on some of the happenings at Wind Creek including the poker room. Read the full story here.

PA poker rooms opening one by one

Other poker rooms in Pennsylvania could be reopening any day. According to a spokesperson for the PGCB, casinos submit plans and safety protocols for review. Once they receive final approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), they can reopen.

It’s positive news for poker players who have been waiting a long time to get back to live games. Casinos in Pennsylvania started shutting down to slow the spread of coronavirus in mid-March. They did not begin to welcome back guests until June, and poker rooms were not open due to the social nature of the game.

PlayPennsylvania has contacted poker room reps for Hollywood Casino, Wind Creek Casino, and Presque Isle Downs Casino but they had no concrete plans to share.

We will continue to update you here as more rooms open or set a date for reopening.

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Live Poker returned to Rivers Philadelphia but closed again

Rivers Casino Philadelphia reopened its poker room on Oct. 23. It did so with approval for up to 14 tables with a capacity of 100 guests. Under normal circumstances, the room has 28 tables and offers a variety of poker games but now the action returned with primarily No Limit Texas Hold’em cash games.

According to a recent press release, in addition to the existing casino-wide safety measures, the following precautions are in effect for the poker room (when it is open):

  • Masks must be worn at all times
  • Poker dealers will wear both a mask and a face shield
  • Each poker table in play will have plexiglass dividers, separating players and the dealer
  • A maximum of seven players allowed per table
  • Frequent and thorough cleaning of all cards, chips and surfaces
  • Only sanitized chips bought from the poker room cage will be used in play
  • No food, beverage or smoking is permitted in the poker room or anywhere on the Rivers Casino gaming floor

Peter Longi, assistant general manager at Rivers Casino Philadelphia, commented:

“Poker players are excited to be back at the tables, enjoying the game they love. Our reopening was carefully planned with the safety of our team and guests being the primary concern. We’re eager to welcome back our poker team.”

To assist with social distancing, players are encouraged to call the poker room at 215-717-3883 to put their name on the waiting list when the room reopens. Guests can also check the Bravo Poker Live online or the website’s mobile app for the Rivers Casino poker room up-to-the-minute game status. In addition, players will have a chance to win their share of the $100,000 Bad Beat Jackpot. The minimum qualifying hand is quad 2s.

Rivers had to close its poker room once again along with the rest of the casino until at least Jan. 1, 2021.

Here’s a look at a poker table at Rivers Philadelphia:

Players pine for poker

When the PGCB released its casino reopening protocols in late May, part of them stated that poker rooms were not authorized to operate due to players’ handling of cards and chips. They also said poker room operations would be re-examined based on changes in the CDC’s and PA Department of Health’s guidance.

On June 9, Rivers Casino Pittsburgh was the first to welcome back visitors. When asked when poker rooms would return, PGCB Director of Communication Doug Harbach said poker rooms present a different type of challenge since people are sitting close together in a room. He said at the time:

“The casinos want to walk before they run and make sure they are getting the venue open and then move on to opening up other areas once they know the protocols are working well.”

PokerStars, the state’s lone online poker site, has posted healthy numbers in PA, but players are still pining for in-person play.

Harbach gave this update to PlayPennsylvania in late August about poker rooms in Pennsylvania:

“There has been no alteration to the casino reopening protocols released by the Gaming Control Board in May in which poker rooms were not authorized to operate. At the same time, this guideline can be reexamined based on health experts’ guidance. Should casinos wish to explore reopening a casino room, it would need to provide plans to do so safely, which would be reviewed by the board on a case-by-case basis.”

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Poker is back in New Jersey, too

New Jersey also had a long poker pause. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa reopened its poker room, the largest in the state, on Oct. 21. The room is operating with 30 socially distanced tables. It’s about a third of the room’s 85 tables when operating at full capacity.

The Bellagio in Las Vegas opened its poker room in June. Nevada state guidelines mandated five-handed play in rooms without dividers or plexiglass partitions. However, the Bellagio’s request for six-handed poker games with partitions was approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Other poker rooms in Nevada have also reopened with virus protocols in place.

When will poker rooms in Pennsylvania reopen?

Play Pennsylvania will continue to provide updates here as more casinos announce plans and reopen live poker.

Hollywood Casino live poker update

Currently closed.

Information about Hollywood Casino Poker Room:

  • 17 tables
  • Monday nights, $200 high hand, every 30 minutes; Wednesdays and Thursdays, $200 high hand, every 30 minutes; Fridays, $500 high hand, every 30 minutes; Sundays, hourly high hand prizes.
  • Bad Beat Jackpot
  • Weekly Rack Back Bonus

The Meadows live poker update

The Meadows poker room opened on Oct. 23 with daily hours of 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.

Welcome back Poker Players! pic.twitter.com/9X66QuZqXp

— Meadows Casino (@MeadowsCasino) October 23, 2020

Information about The Meadows Poker Room:

  • 14 tables
  • Live games such as Texas hold’em and Omaha every day
  • Progressive bad beat
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Mount Airy Casino live poker update

Mount Airy’s poker room reopened on Oct. 16 and is open 24 hours.

Information about Mount Airy Casino Poker Room:

  • 12 tables
  • Games such as Texas hold’em, Omaha and stud

Mohegan Sun Pocono live poker update

Mohegan Sun Pocono’s poker room reopened on Oct. 16.

Information about Mohegan Sun Pocono Poker Room:

  • Eight tables
  • Daily tournaments feature no-limit Texas hold’em and Bounty tournaments
  • Offering a Bad Beat Jackpot for BOTH cash and tournament play
  • Each day, $25 added to the Royal Flush Jackpot for each of the four suites

Parx live poker update

Parx sent out an email in mid-November saying they were finalizing plans but hoped to re-open poker “before the end of December.”

Information about the Parx Casino Poker Room:

  • 80 tables — the most in PA
  • The room offers a variety of no-limit hold’em games (from $1-$2 up to $10-$25), limit hold’em ($3-6 up to $30-$60), pot-limit Omaha, Omaha eight or better and a variety of mixed and draw games
  • Weekly tournaments. Major tournament: Parx Big Stax

Presque Isle Downs live poker update

The poker room is currently closed.

Information about Presque Isle Downs Poker Room:

  • Seven tables
  • Games like hold’em and Omaha. Also offering multitable and single-table tournaments (sit and go’s)

Rivers Casino Philadelphia live poker update

Rivers Philadelphia reopened poker on Oct. 23. But it is closed once again as of Nov. 20 along with the casino to comply with city orders. It could reopen as soon as Jan. 1.

Cards are in the air! Welcome back players! $200 high hands are on every hour 24/7 all of October! Call 215-717-3883 to reserve your seat. pic.twitter.com/MwcxTABsNM

— Rivers Philadelphia Poker Room (@riverspokerphl) October 23, 2020

Information about Rivers Casino Philadelphia Poker Room:

  • 28 tables
  • Rivers offers a wide variety of poker games, including, but not limited, to Texas hold’em, Omaha-high, Omaha-hi/lo split eight or better, seven-card stud high, seven-card stud low, seven-card stud hi/lo split and seven-card stud hi/lo split eight or better.
  • Poker promotions and tournaments listed on site when available.

Rivers Casino Pittsburgh live poker update

Rivers Casino Pittsburgh opened on Nov. 11. And beginning Nov. 16, Rivers Pittsburgh will operate 24/7, according to their twitter.

We are excited to announce that the Poker Room will be opening on Wednesday, November 11th at 4PM. We can’t wait to welcome you back!

Learn more about what you can expect and current hours: https://t.co/heQ3qJyQbV

Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler pic.twitter.com/FjgJY2cC7v

— Rivers Casino Pittsburgh (@WinBigRivers) November 10, 2020

Information about Rivers Casino Pittsburgh Poker Room:

  • 30 tables
  • Poker promotions and tournaments listed on site when available

Wind Creek Bethlehem live poker update

Wind Creek poker room remains closed.

Information about Wind Creek Bethlehem Poker Room:

  • 26 tables
  • Variety of games such as limit and no-limit Texas hold ’em, stud and Omaha. Limits starting at $3 and $6
  • Automated shufflers on every poker game
  • Bad Beat Jackpot available daily
  • Massage service

Best Poker Sites In Pa

Lady Luck Nemacolin and Valley Forge do not have poker rooms. PlayPennsylvania exclusively reported that Harrah’s Philadelphia closed its WSOP-branded room in August.

More online poker operators coming to PA

PokerStars arrived in Pennsylvania in November 2019 and has been the state’s only operator for 11 months. Partypoker was rumored to be coming in the early fall, but like most party plans in 2020, it hasn’t happened.

Last week, the PGCB approved Caesars‘ online poker partner 888 Holdings for an interactive gaming manufacturer license. 888 Poker was the No. 1 poker website in the country last year. It has a self-branded poker platform, and its software powers World Series of Poker (WSOP) online and mobile sites.

It seems only a matter of time before both partypoker and WSOP.com make their way to PA.

Health and safety at PA casinos

Here are a few things you should know in case you have not been to a casino since they reopened. Per the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, all casinos in the state must follow the COVID-19 Casino Reopening Protocols, which detail the minimum safety and health-related requirements that are mandatory before reopening.

Casinos may also choose to have additional measures, such as temperature checks at the entrance.

Key points to remember are:

  • Casinos can reopen at 50% capacity. (Rivers Casino Philadelphia is open at 25%.)
  • Employees and guests must wear masks.
  • There must be markings on the floor to promote social distancing.
  • Enhanced cleaning is required throughout the facility.

In addition, there is a current pause on smoking at casinos, no drink service on the gaming floor and no sitting at the bar.

Be sure to check back often as we continue to post updates on PA poker room reopenings here.

Lead image of Meadows poker room via AP Photo/Keith Srakocic.

The long-awaited launch of online poker in Pennsylvania made headlines on Monday. However, it might be New Jersey poker players who are celebrating the most.

PlayPennsylvania broke the news that PokerStars would soft-launch its global poker site in PA on Nov. 4. That launch happened as planned.

Rebecca McAdam Willetts, a spokeswoman for PokerStars, told USPoker last week:

“We are very excited to be bringing our most popular brands to Pennsylvania next week, subject to regulatory approval.”

Obviously, the successful completion of the testing phase is required before PokerStars receives the green light. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Pennsylvania poker players aren’t the only ones interested in this development.

Poker Sites In Pa

The fledgling NJ online poker market has been waiting for more than three years for this news. The hope is PA online poker will eventually join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).

The MSIGA combines player pools between states. Currently, only three states are part of the agreement:

  • New Jersey
  • Nevada
  • Delaware

Let’s be honest; while we’re excited for our neighbors to be able to play online poker at home, the reality is New Jersey needs PA poker players to help grow its struggling industry.

Will PA and NJ online poker markets pool players?

It is a possibility that PA and NJ online poker players will one day take a seat in the same virtual poker room. That day is likely far from reality, though.

Doug Harbach, director of communications for the PA Gaming Control Board (PGCB), spoke to Online Poker Report in August 2018 about the possibility of PA joining the MSIGA.

“While an interstate compact could certainly occur, at this junction I can’t predict or comment on the likelihood.”

It is fair to say that PA has not been the speediest when it comes to movement in the online gambling world. The Gambling Expansion Act became law in the Keystone State in October 2017.

Even so, it was December 2018 before the state accepted its first sports bet. Then, it was another five months before online sports betting launched. Once sports betting was online, online casino gambling in PA joined the party one month later.

As it stands, it took more than two years for the first online poker room to go into a testing phase. That doesn’t bode well for a speedy entry into the MSIGA.

What NJ online poker wants and needs PA

Over the last six years, real money online poker in New Jersey has been treading water. PA was the state closest to a potential online poker launch.

As such, NJ has been waiting patiently for poker in PA to come online and join the compact to boost the player pool.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that more players in the pool are a good thing. More players mean larger prize pools and larger prize pools mean more players.

New Jersey did combine player pools with Delaware and Nevada in the spring of 2018. Unfortunately, New Jersey didn’t benefit as much as some hoped, mainly because the population of the two states is only around half of NJ.

PA’s population, on the other hand, is nearly 50% bigger. If PA joins the compact, the player pool in NJ could more than double practically overnight.

It’s no secret; online poker rooms are not the segment of the NJ online casino games that are bringing home the bacon.

Looking back at yearly revenue further, it shows a clear declining trend.

While 2019 isn’t over it, it doesn’t appear the trend will change. Over the last 12 months, online poker in NJ has seen a decline in revenue of 4.74%.

A combined player pool could be the catalyst to change the course finally.

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Lessons PA could learn from six years of NJ online poker

Over the last six years of NJ online poker, only one year (2016) resulted in a year-over-year increase.

As mentioned throughout this article, what we’ve learned from watching online poker over the last few years is that poker thrives when the pool of poker players grows.

It’s evident when online poker rooms run big online tournament series with big guarantees. NJ online poker revenue usually gets a bump from tournaments such as:

  • Fall Online Championships on WSOP.com
  • NJCOOP on PokerStars NJ

During these big tournaments, poker players in the region, including PA, travel to New Jersey to play online. Cash games are usually better and tournaments often smash the guarantees.

For a few short weeks, it seems as if online poker is finally gaining momentum. Then the tournament ends, and it is more of the same lackluster and uninspiring results.

There was a period on the 2018 calendar when one big tournament came after another. The numbers reflected what might be the result of player fatigue.

What makes a big tournament series great is its uniqueness. The World Series of Poker, which is held every summer in Nevada, is a perfect example.

When another tournament is scheduled for the following week, the fear of missing out is lost, and it soon becomes just another game. From a business perspective, it is not a sustainable model.

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What PA could learn from NJ is:

  • Build a viable player pool and invest in growing it.
  • Create a calendar of events that complements competing poker rooms.
  • Join the MSIGA.

Why NJ players should hold off celebrating PA’s online poker news

Most NJ poker players have focused their attention on Pennsylvania joining the MSIGA. The potential for new players is huge.

If, however, PA doesn’t join the MSIGA right away, the NJ poker pool might suffer.

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While there isn’t any concrete data, players from PA are thought to be driving across the border to play online poker in NJ. Certainly, this is true during big tournament weekends.

Poker Sites In Pa

Some of the traffic may diminish as PokerStars PA and other online poker rooms offer games and tournaments closer to home.

Currently, PokerStars NJ offers NJCOOP during the middle of October. It is fair to say that it is one of the biggest online tournaments in the Garden State.

More than likely, PokerStars PA will eventually offer a PACOOP. If it does, it would be good business to do so before or after New Jersey’s event. That way, both states could benefit from cross-border traffic.

There is no doubt that PokerStars launching in Pennsylvania is great news for online poker. But it becomes better news when it joins the MSIGA.

Until then, we’ll be watching to see how online poker in PA impacts the NJ online poker market.