When it comes to film franchises, third installments typically fall short of the heights reached by the first two parts. That was somewhat the case for the third Pennsyl-MANIA event on PokerStars PA that finished Monday night.
The third go-round of the $200 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament sported a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, the largest in the site’s history. While the event once again attracted a huge turnout, it wasn’t quite enough to avoid an overlay of just over $70,000.
Even so, Pennsyl-MANIA Part 3 — or “P3nnsyl-MANIA” — ranks as the second-largest tournament in Pennsylvania online poker’s short history.
‘PokerAnomoly’ wins third Pennsyl-MANIA, Shahade makes a run
Like previous Pennsyl-MANIAs, the two-day tournament allowed up to five re-entries. There were a total of 1,421 unique players who re-entered 888 times during the 4.5-hour late registration period.
Ultimately the 2,309 entries were about 380 shy of what was needed to avoid the overlay.
The top 377 finishers divided the $500,000 prize pool. Among those taking part of it was PokerStars Ambassador Jennifer Shahade, who finished 37th.
After leading for all of a short heads-up battle, “PokerAnomoly” won the last all-in with king-queen versus the pocket sevens of “bigpapa272” to win the title and first prize of $74,147.85.
The first Pennsyl-MANIA back in May still ranks as the largest ever on PokerStars PA. That one drew 2,774 entries to create a $515,964 prize pool.
Thanks to a heads-up deal, winner “D-Low1527” earned just over $70K for finishing first in the inaugural Pennsyl-MANIA. Thus the prize “PokerAnomoly” won last night is the largest earned in any of the three Pennsyl-MANIAs.
High Roller easily eclipses guarantee to build $88K prize pool
For the first time, PokerStars PA added a side event to the Pennsyl-MANIA festivities, a $1,000 NLHE High Roller.
The High Roller featured a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool and had no problems exceeding that total.
The 93 total entries (70 uniques) pushed the prize pool up to $88,350. In the end “superdonkeydave” needed a little over six-and-a-half hours to win all the chips and a $21,243.68 first prize.
PokerStars holds steady revenue-wise as PA online casinos thrive
As has been the case since its November 2019 launch, PokerStars PA remains the only online poker site operating in the Keystone State. Both WSOP.com and partypoker appear poised to open online poker rooms in the state in 2021.
Since launching, PokerStars PA has averaged just under $2.9 million in revenue each month. Traffic-wise, the site peaked in April with more than $5.2 million in revenue amid casino closures and other measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last three months, PokerStars PA revenue has held steady at right around $2.4 million per month.
Per orders from the state government, retail casinos are closed once again in Pennsylvania until Jan. 4. Meanwhile, PA online casinos are thriving overall, hitting almost $60 million in total revenue to set a new record in November.
Lead image via Dreamstime.
