PokerStars PA Summer Series Off To Hot Start With $533K Awarded Thus Far

Written By Martin Harris on June 24, 2020 - Last Updated on April 22, 2022
Hot start for PokerStars Summer Series in PA

Spring has turned to summer, and PokerStars PA has continued to stay hot, with big turnouts and prize pools for its first-ever Summer Series.

The 11-day, 38-event tournament series crossed its halfway point last night. So far, through 21 events, prize pools have totaled more than $533,000.

That’s more than $150,000 above the total guaranteed prize pools for those events. It is also well over halfway to the $750,000 in total guarantees for the PokerStars PA Summer Series.

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Big prize pools as guarantees met, often doubled

Thus far, 20 of 21 completed events have exceeded their guarantees. The only event to have an overlay was the one with the largest guarantee.

The $100 buy-in Sunday Special SE had a $100,000 guarantee. With 1,041 entries, it needed about 50 more to hit its guarantee, thus making for a $4,436.20 overlay.

Meanwhile, all other events have consistently exceeded their guarantees. In fact, 10 of the 21 have had prize pools adding up to more than twice the guarantees.

Five more days of summer fun in the PokerStars PA Summer Series

The PokerStars PA Summer Series continues through this weekend. It culminates with five tournaments this Sunday, June 28. Of those five, the highlight will be the $200 Main Event that features a $150,000 guarantee.

Other highlights on the remaining schedule include tonight’s $500 High Roller (6-Max) with a $35,000 guarantee and tomorrow’s $200 Thursday Thrill Special Edition (Progressive KO) with a $30,000 guarantee.

There is also a Mini Main Event on Sunday for the lower-stakes crowd, a $50 buy-in event with a $25,000 guarantee.

Click to check out the full PokerStars PA Summer Schedule.

Similar story in New Jersey for PokerStars NJ Summer Series

PokerStars NJ is simultaneously running its own Summer Series for players in New Jersey. The Garden State version is almost identical, with 40 total events and lower guarantees adding up to about $500,000.

The PokerStars NJ Summer Series has been very similar. Prize pools have exceeded guarantees for 21 of 22 events completed at this point. So far, around $325,000 has been awarded in PokerStars NJ Summer Series events.

In fact, the lone outlier was again the largest one in terms of its guarantee, the Sunday Special SE event. The PokerStars NJ version had a $45,000 guarantee, and it came very close to — just three entries shy of — hitting that mark, making for a small overlay of just over $500.

PA casinos reopening, but online still only poker option

PokerStars PA remains the only online poker site up and running in Pennsylvania. During recent months, the site enjoyed its highest-ever traffic and revenue, most certainly a consequence of casino closures in PA due to the coronavirus.

After launching last November, PokerStars PA broke a record in March with $3.1 million in revenue. The site promptly obliterated that mark with a new revenue high of almost $5.3 million in April.

Things settled a bit for PokerStars PA in May, when the site’s revenue totaled about $4.6 million.

Meanwhile, the Keystone State’s land-based casinos are starting to reopen. Following the mid-March closures, Rivers Casino Pittsburgh and The Meadows opened back up on June 9.

Lady Luck Nemacolin welcomed back guests on June 12, and Hollywood Casino reopened June 19. Then both Mohegan Sun Pocono and Mount Airy Casino reopened June 22.

The state’s other six retail casinos are all scheduled to reopen as well by the end of the month.

Worth noting, however, is that no poker rooms are reopening in any of the casinos yet. Poker room operations will be reconsidered going forward, with casinos following guidelines issued by the CDC and the PA Department of Health. Thus online poker will remain the only option for PA poker players, at least for the near future.

PokerStars PA Summer Series by the numbers (through Event #21)

EventBuy-InGuaranteeEntriesRe-EntriesPrize Pool
Event 1: Summer Series Kick-Off [8-Max]$100$30,000 544255$73,348.20
Event 2: Summer Series Mini Kick-Off [8-Max]$20$7,500 624216$15,288.00
Event 3: Thursday Thrill SE [Progressive KO]$200$25,000 20883$54,126.00
Event 4: Mini Thrill [Progressive KO]$30$12,500 521243$20,857.20
Event 5: NLHE [8-Max]$75$10,000 20061$17,813.25
Event 6: Escalating Antes$50$10,000 435198$28,801.50
Event 7: NLHE [6-Max]$20$6,000 466162$11,429.60
Event 8: NLHE [6-Max]$100$20,000 233125$32,864.40
Event 9: PLO [6-Max]$50$5,000 21178$13,149.50
Event 10: Progressive KO [8-Max]$75$7,500 21053$18,541.50
Event 11: NLHE [6-Max]$75$20,000 241105$23,614.50
Event 12: Sunday Special SE$100$100,000 678363$100,000.00*
Event 13: Mini Special$25$15,000 583189$17,563.00
Event 14: Progressive KO [8-Max]$75$12,500 326112$29,893.50
Event 15: Sunday Supersonic SE$50$10,000 23751$13,536.00
Event 16: NLHE [4-Max]$20$7,500 504242$13,577.20
Event 17: Battle Royale SE [Progressive KO, 6-Max]$50$15,000 408195$27,436.50
Event 18: NLHE [8-Max]$75$7,500 17578$17,267.25
Event 19: Super Tuesday SE$200$35,000 252121$69,378.00
Event 20: Mini Super Tuesday$20$15,000 681289$17,654.00
Event 21: Progressive KO [8-Max]$50$7,500 266106$16,926.00

*Event #12 had an overlay of $4,436.20

Martin Harris Avatar
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Martin Harris

Martin Harris is a writer and teacher who has reported on poker, online gambling, and sports betting since the mid-2000s. Once a full-time academic (Ph.D., English), he currently teaches part-time in the American Studies program at UNC Charlotte. In 2019, his book Poker & Pop Culture was published by D&B Books.

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