Vacationing may be coming to an end, but poker tournaments are just warming up in the Keystone state. Big Bad Beat Beat Jackpots and large guaranteed tournaments are on the horizon for Pennsylvania poker players in August.
PlayPennsylvania takes a closer look and breaks down all the action this month.
Live! Casino hosts biggest guarantee of the month
A $100,000 guaranteed tournament is running at the end of August at the Live! Casino Philadelphia poker room. The event is a multi-day buy-in event that launches on Thursday, Aug. 25. Over a three-day period, players have 5 starting flights to pick from at Live! Day 2 will happen on Sun., Aug. 28.
Additional details for the $100K guarantee include:
- $450 buy-in
- 30 minute levels
- 40,000 starting stack
- Reentry until level 9
The Live! July Megastacks event drew 737 entries, creating a prize pool of $313,225.
In total, August events at Live! Philadelphia will include over $334,000 in guaranteed payouts. The poker room will host a daily tournament each day. Weekly events include:
- Mondays 11:15 a.m.: $120 NLH Bounty – $4,000 guaranteed
- Tuesdays 7:15 p.m.: $120 NLH Fat Stacks – $4,000 guaranteed
- Wednesdays 11:15 a.m.: $140 NLH Quadstacks – $3,000 guaranteed
- Thursdays 11:15 a.m.: $140 NLH Quadstacks – $3,000 guaranteed
- Fridays 11:15 a.m.: $200 NLH Bounty – $7,500 guaranteed (except 8/26)
- Saturday 11:15 a.m.: $500 NLH – $25,000 guaranteed (8/13 only)
- Sundays 6:15 p.m.: $130 NLH Triple Stacks Turbo – (except 8/28)
Rivers Philadelphia poker in full swing
Rivers Philadelphia poker room (open 24/7) is running a number of promotions in August, including more than $200,000 in high hand giveaways. These include a $500 high hand bonus every 30 minutes on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at select times.
There is also a packed weekly tournament schedule that includes a Seniors (50+) tournament on Wednesday mornings for $50.
Rivers will also run a $150 buy-in Ladies Event Friday, Aug. 12 at 7:15 p.m. Players start with 25,000 chips and blind levels are 25-minutes long. Registration is open through Level 9 (approx. 11:30 p.m.). They are also bringing back the Saturday 10:15 a.m. $65 Beginners tournaments in August.
Rivers Philadelphia August daily tournament schedule:
- Mondays 7: 15 p.m.: $130 NLH Double Green Chip Bounty – $4,000 guarantee
- Tuesdays 1:15 p.m.: $100 NLH – $2,500 guarantee
- Wednesdays 7:15 p.m.: $130 NLH – $5,000 guarantee (Seniors $50 at 10:15 a.m.)
- Saturdays 1:15 p.m.: $160 NLH – $5,000 guarantee ($65 Beginners at 10:15 a.m.)
- Sundays 11:15 a.m.: $230 NLH – $10,000 guarantee*
*Sunday, Aug. 28 tournament will be the $50,000 Freeroll at 12:15 p.m.
Other poker promotions:
- $50,000 Freeroll tournament (Aug. 28): Qualify by playing 100 or more hours through Monday, Aug. 22. Top prize of $10,000, 40 places paid. Earn double freeroll hours daily from 2 a.m.-10 a.m. and all day on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- August Wild Wednesday drawings: A total of $20,000 up for grabs. Poker players earn one entry for every 3 hours of cash game play from midnight Sunday to 6 a.m. Wednesday each week. The $1,000 drawings take place at noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. (Must activate entries on drawing day and be in the poker room when the drawings take place.)
- Friday Hot Seats: A random player will win $500 every 30 minutes from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays.
- Bad Beat Jackpot: $50,000 jackpot, minimum qualifier of quad 10s.
Mohegan Sun Pocono offers Turbo daily poker tournaments
Players can grab some hot high hand bonuses and stay cool up in the Pocono mountains this August. The poker room offers some one-day tournament action for vacationers looking for a quick game.
Mohegan Sun poker room currently operates 9 tables and is open until 3 a.m. daily. Tournaments are offered to players every day except Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The stand out event is the $125 bounty every Friday night.
Their weekly tournament schedule at a glance:
- Sundays 12 p.m.: $100 NLH Turbo
- Mondays 7 p.m.: $100 NLH Turbo
- Wednesdays 7 p.m.: $100 NLH Turbo
- Fridays: $100 NLH Turbo (12 p.m.) & $125 NLH Bounty (7 p.m.)
Mohegan has upped the bonuses this summer. Even though there are no tournaments on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays, cash players will find $500 worth of High Hand Jackpots every hour from 2-6 p.m. & 8 p.m.-12 a.m.
Live! Pittsburgh gives action daily
Daily tournaments for poker players in Pittsburgh are back in August. The 7-table poker room will have a full lineup for the month including their new $80 bankroll builder tournament series.
The stand out event of the month will be a $400 buy-in with a $100 bounty that will take place on Sat., Aug. 27 at 11:15 a.m. Players will start with 30,000 in chips; however, no guarantee is listed. On Thursdays, leading up to the event, players can win their seat into this tournament by playing the $50 satellite.
Here’s a quick look at their August schedule:
- Mondays: No regular daily event (High Hand Cash Promos)
- Tuesdays 11:15 a.m.: $120 NLH Bounty Fat Stacks
- Wednesdays 6:15 p.m.: $80 NLH Bankroll Builder
- Thursdays 6:15 p.m.: $50 black chip satellite
- Fridays 6:15 p.m.: $130 NLH Triple Stacks Turbo
- Saturdays 11:15 a.m.: $200 NLH Double Green Chip Bounty (except Aug. 27)
- Sundays 2:15 p.m.: $80 NLH Bankroll Builder
Live! poker room in Westmoreland is also running a $500 Power Hour (high hand) promotion every day in August at 11 a.m. They will give away $500 every 30 minutes from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and $500 every hour until 1 a.m. on Aug. 6 and 20. Aces full is the minimum qualifier for the $500 high hands.
Rivers Pittsburgh MEGA BAD BEAT
The big news in Pittsburgh is the epic size of the Bad Beat Jackpot. Currently the Rivers Pittsburgh poker room has the highest bad beat jackpot on US record. Heading into August, the jackpot sits over $1.159 million. The previous record was $1,068,590 won in 2018 at Motor City Casino in Detroit.
Even though the casino doesn’t offer daily tournaments, Rivers Pittsburgh poker room offers an exclusive $500 Deep Stack event on Fri., Aug 12 at 11 a.m. This event will be a freezeout event and seating will be limited to 152 players. Registration is open one week prior to the event.
The Poker room also offers other promotions such as:
- Rolling Royal Jackpots
- Bad Beat Jackpots $1.1 million (as of 7/31/22)
- High Hands
Will Parx Big Stax poker series ever make a return?
At one point, Parx had some of the best tournament series on the East Coast. Their popular Big Stax series attracted huge fields and were run smoothly. Players in the tri-state area always looked forward to these events. They offered multiple buy-in sizes and a large chip stack that allowed for a lot of play.
But since the Covid pandemic, the tournament area has been a ghost town. Cash games came back early during the pandemic, since Parx was located outside of the Philadelphia city limits. This provided the casino with an advantage of attracting players back to the game. Local players had hoped that tournaments would soon follow, but those hopes have been crushed.
The tournaments used to be held in the upstairs area of Parx East (racetrack area). The poker cash room also moved from that location and is now located in the back corner of the main casino.
As for tournaments, according to a Parx employee that wished to remain anonymous:
“There are no plans announced currently of the return of a Big Stax series anytime soon. However, there has been some buzz for the poker tournaments; a lot of people have been asking about it.”
With the successful ability to run large scale tournaments at Rivers Philadelphia and Live!, players want a real answer as to why Parx isn’t running tournaments. Besides a dead tournament room, Parx Poker Twitter social media account also has been dormant since Nov. 2020. Will Parx return to its BIG status in the poker world or will it fade away into the back corners of a casino?
Live poker rooms currently open in Pennsylvania
Here’s a look at all live poker rooms in the Keystone state that are open.
- Parx Casino (no updates on tournaments)
- Mohegan Sun Pocono (weekly tournaments)
- Mount Airy Casino Resort (no tournaments; current bad beat jackpot $251,447 as of 7/31/22.)
- Rivers Casino Philadelphia (weekly tournaments)
- Rivers Casino Pittsburgh (monthly tournament; record bad beat jackpot over $1.159 million)
- Hollywood Meadows Racetrack and Casino (no tournaments; current bad beat jackpot $52,142 as of 7/31/22.)
- Philadelphia Live Casino (weekly tournaments)
- Wind Creek Bethlehem (no weekly tournaments; current bad beat jackpot $497,894 as of 7/31/22 )
- Live! Pittsburgh Casino (weekly tournaments)
Pennsylvania online poker series
For players that would rather jump in some PA online poker action, major series will be available for players in the Keystone State.
The popular Online Circuit series will be returning to WSOP.com PA. Also according to the PokerStars website, there is a possibility of a live series/online series coming to the Keystone State this fall.
Follow PlayPennsylvania @PlayPANews on twitter for further details when those events are announced.
New Jersey poker keeps games hot in August
Three poker rooms are in operation in the Garden State. Only Borgata currently offers weekly tournaments. The following three casinos offer 24/7 cash games at the following locations:
- Borgata (52 tables) – Bad Beat Jackpot $100,000
- Harrah’s Atlantic City (40 tables) – Bad Beat Jackpot $50,000
- Tropicana Atlantic City (10 tables) – Bad Beat Jackpot $10,000
Borgata Poker Survivor is back in August
The Survivor Series returns Aug. 22 through Aug. 26. Survivor series includes six different tournaments ranging from $125-$450 buy-ins.
Borgata bounty tournaments are back as well in August. These events will occur on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
August’s entire tournament schedule can be found here.
Just like at Parx, players are still anticipating the return of major tournaments to Borgata. Even though there are daily events, unfortunately no announcements have been made in regards to a Borgata Open coming anytime soon.
Image via Borgata Instagram.
