Most poker rooms are now open in Pennsylvania. The rooms where you can find live poker right now are:
- Rivers Casino Philadelphia
- Rivers Casino Pittsburgh
- Mount Airy Casino
- Mohegan Sun Pocono
- Parx Casino
- The Meadows
- Live! Casino Philadelphia
- Wind Creek Bethlehem Casino: Opening Oct. 1
These two live poker rooms are currently closed:
- Hollywood Casino
- Presque Isle Downs
The WSOP poker room at Harrah’s Philadelphia permanently closed in November.
Players have a new live poker option in Philadelphia. Live! Casino Philadelphia is now open and has a 29-table poker room.
Wind Creek Casino poker room reopening
Wind Creek Casino in Bethlehem plans to open a temporary poker room on Oct. 1 at 2 p.m.
They posted the update on their Instagram. It read in part:
We’re prepping our tables and ready to make one of this year’s most anticipated announcements. On Friday, October 1st at 2 p.m. poker is back at Wind Creek Bethlehem.
The temporary poker room will be located in front of the table games salon next to stadium gaming. Wind Creek is planning a new, revamped poker room for 2022.
Poker at Parx Casino update
Parx Casino in Bethlehem is home to the largest poker room in Pennsylvania. The poker room is open, however players have been pining for the return of tournaments.
A Parx employee gave PlayPennsylvania an update on poker tourneys at Parx, however they wished to remain anonymous.
“Big Stax isn’t coming back anytime soon. The poker room and the table games are really short staffed. The starting rate is $30-35 an hour and we still can’t get anyone or keep anyone. It’s sad.”
Wind Creek Casino Bethlehem poker update
With 26 tables, Wind Creek Casino has one of the larger poker rooms in PA. A Wind Creek employee provided an update in Nov. 2020 on some of the happenings at Wind Creek including the poker room.
In May 2021, Wind Creek said on Instagram that the poker room would reopen “later this year.”
On June 30, Wind Creek revealed plans for a new poker room:
“We want to make sure we ACE your next poker room experience. To do that, we’re relocating, revamping and bringing you a brand new poker room coming in 2022. Until then, we don’t want to leave you with a busted hand, so we’re brining back a temporary poker area later this year.”
How about Hollywood Casino PA poker room?
The 17-table poker room at Hollywood Casino in Washington, PA remains closed. We called the casino and a prerecorded message said:
“Please note that our poker room is temporarily closed. We will post on the website when it opens.”
Poker tournaments return in Pennsylvania
Rivers Casino Philadelphia
Weekly no-limit Texas hold ’em poker tournaments return to the Poker Room at Rivers Casino Philadelphia.
Starting on July 5 the schedule is as follows:
- Sundays, 11:15 a.m. — $160 Deep Stack NLH ($5,000 guarantee)
- Mondays, 7:15 p.m. — $130 NLH ($4,000 guarantee)
- Wednesdays, 7:15 p.m. — $130 NLH ($5,000 guarantee)
Live! Casino Philadelphia
Pennsylvania’s newest poker room now has poker tournaments.
Poker tournament schedule at Live! Casino Philadelphia
July 19
- $120 FatStacks with $25 Bounty at 11:15 a.m.
- $100 NLH Bankroll Builder at 7:15 p.m.
July 20
- $130 TripleStacks at 7:15 p.m.
July 21
- $160 GreenChip w/$50 Bounty at 7:15 p.m.
Live! Casino Philadelphia High Hand promotion
All casinos in PA now open, masks not required
All casinos in Pennsylvania are now open. Masks are not required if vaccinated. Also, since the mandatory mask order was lifted, smoking indoors returned to most PA casinos.
Poker rooms in Pennsylvania
Play Pennsylvania will continue to provide updates here.
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.
Information about The Meadows Poker Room:
- 14 tables
- Live games such as Texas hold’em and Omaha every day
- Progressive bad beat
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 Poker Room is open.
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.
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
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.
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.
PA poker rooms had long road back
Poker players 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.
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.”
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:
Online poker in PA
Pennsylvania was a PokerStars only state for about a year-and-a-half. Then, the live online poker scene got two new additions. BetMGM Poker and Borgata Poker arrived in April 2021. BetMGM poker is integrated BetMGM online casino. It’s under Hollywood Casino Grantville’s license. Borgata poker is accessible via the Borgata casino app under the Rivers Philadelphia iGaming license.
Partypoker was rumored to be coming in the early fall, but like most party plans in 2020, it hasn’t happened.
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.
Lead image of Meadows poker room via AP Photo/Keith Srakocic.
