As Summer begins cooling down, poker tournaments in Pennsylvania are just heating up. Casinos in the major cities are upping the ante this fall and plan to attract large player pools.
Each month PlayPennslvania examines the best tournaments around and gives insight to what players can expect.
Rivers Philadelphia $200,000 Mystery Rush
After a short hiatus the Rivers Philadelphia Mystery Rush is back in action. The $560 buy-in comes with a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. This multi-day event starts Sept. 28 and will have four starting flights. All flights combine and duke it out on the final day Sun., Oct. 2.
Mystery Bounties are very popular in the poker world. Mystery bounties allow players to win big, but they don’t know what prize they receive until opening their bounty. On Day 2 of the event, there will be mystery bounties handed out after a player is eliminated. These bounties can range from $500 up to $25,000.
Aside from the Mystery bounty series, Rivers Philadelphia will host multiple daily tournaments throughout the month that include:
- 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 10:15 a.m.: $50 NLH $5,000 guarantee ( 50+ to buy-in)
- Saturdays 1:15 p.m.: $160 NLH – $5,000 guarantee (except Sept. 17)
- Sundays 11:15 a.m.: $230 NLH – $10,000 guarantee
Besides the Wednesday weekly Seniors event, Rivers will also host a $25,000 guaranteed Seniors event on Sat., Sept. 17. Players must be 50 years or older to enter and the buy in is $300.
Philadelphia Live! Casino Ups The Ante
September will be another big month for Live! Casino Poker Room. The Megastacks $150,000 tournament will take place starting on Sept. 15. Over a three-day period, players have 5 starting flights to pick from at Live! Casino Philadelphia. Day 2 will happen on Sunday, Sept. 18.
The tournament is a $150,000 guaranteed tournament. Additional details include:
- $450 buy-in
- 30 minute levels
- 40,000 start stack
- Reentry until level 9
In August, the $100,000 Live! poker event had 777 entries during the series, creating a prize pool of $300,699.
In total, $454,000 is up for grab in live poker tournaments this month. The poker room will host a daily tournament each day. Weekly events include:
- Mondays 11:15 a.m.: $120 NLH Bounty – $4,000 guaranteed (except 9/5 & 9/12)
- Tuesday 7:15 p.m.: $120 NLH Fat Stacks – $4,000 guaranteed (except 9/13)
- Wednesdays 11:15 a.m.: $140 NLH Quadstacks – $3,000 guaranteed (except 9/14)
- Thursdays 11:15 a.m.: $140 NLH Quadstacks – $3,000 guaranteed (except 9/15)
- Fridays 11:15 a.m.: $200 NLH Bounty – $7,500 guaranteed (except 9/9 & 9/16)
- Saturdays 11:15 a.m.: $500 Bounty NLH – $25,000 guaranteed (9/3 only)
- Sundays 6:15 p.m.: $130 NLH Triple Stacks Turbo (except 9/18)
Deaf Poker Tour returns to Live! Philadelphia in September
In addition, Live! will be hosting the Deaf Poker Tour Sept. 8- 10. The casino will play home to 7 events. Events 2, 5 and 7 will be open to the public. Check their website for additional details.
Mohegan Sun Pocono: Turbo Daily
Players headed to the Poconos this fall can still jump in some live poker action. The 9-table Mohegan poker room is open until 3 a.m. daily. Tournaments are offered multiple dates a week.
The stand out event is the $125 bounty event every Friday night.
Mohegan Sun Pocono weekly tournament schedule:
- Sundays: $100 NLH Turbo – 12 p.m.
- Mondays: $100 NLH Turbo – 7 p.m.
- Wednesdays: $100 NLH Turbo – 7 p.m.
- Fridays: $100 NLH Turbo – 12 p.m. & $125 NLH Bounty – 7 p.m.
There are no tournaments on Tues., Thurs., and Saturdays, but cash players will find $200-$500 worth of High Hand Jackpots every hour from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Bad Beat as of 8/28: $44,130; Tournament Bad Beat $39,096.
Live! Pittsburgh Expects Big Labor Day Game
The 7-table poker room will have a full line up for the month including the return of their $80 bankroll builder tournament series. In addition to their Labor Day $100 buy-in Green Chip bounty, here’s a look at Live! Pittsburgh’s September schedule:
- Sunday: $80 NLH Bankroll Builder – 2:15 p.m.
- Monday: No regular daily event (High Hand Cash Promos)
- Tuesday: $120 NLH Bounty Fat Stacks – 11:15 a.m.
- Wednesdays: $80 NLH Bankroll Builder – 6:15 p.m.
- Thursdays: $50 black chip satellite 6:15 p.m.
- Fridays: $130 NLH Triple Stacks Turbo – 6:15 p.m.
- Saturdays: $200 NLH Double Green Chip Bounty
Rivers Pittsburgh MEGA BAD BEAT HITS!
After months of growing, the record breaking Bad Beat Jackpot has been hit! The Jackpot swelled to over $1.2 million before landing.
As of 8/28/22 the prize had reset to $316,722.
Even though the casino doesn’t offer daily tournaments, Rivers Pittsburgh poker room offers an exclusive once a month tournament. The $500 deep stack will take place on Fri., Sept 9 at 11 a.m. Seating is limited and registration is open one week prior to the event.
Live! Pittsburgh poker room also offers other promotions such as:
- Rolling Royal Jackpots
- Bad Beat Jackpots
- High Hands
Parx Big Stax and tournament update!
After players and poker media have voiced up, it seems that executives at Parx may have taken notice. Even though there has not been an official release yet, inside information is that a weekly daily tournament may appear in the next few months. According to a Parx employee that wishes to stay anonymous, “It’s in the works.”
According to the Bravo Poker app, Parx poker says: Daily tournaments will be returning soon. Stay tuned.
When asked about Parx Big Stax events, there still isn’t anything planned for this fall. One of the issues they brought up is that Parx East (the former location of the poker room and home to the Big Stax tournaments) is in disarray and needs some major repairs to the building to be brought back up to speed.
In the meantime, Parx is still pumping out big cash games daily and the bad beat is currently at $146,359 as of 8/28.
Live poker rooms now open in PA
Here’s a look at all live poker rooms in the Keystone state that are open.
- Parx Casino ( Daily tournaments possibly in the future)
- Mohegan Sun Pocono (weekly tournaments)
- Mount Airy Casino Resort (No tournaments, current bad beat jackpot $34,341 as of 8/28/22.)
- Rivers Casino Philadelphia (weekly tournaments)
- Rivers Casino Pittsburgh (monthly tournament)
- Hollywood Meadows Racetrack and Casino (No tournaments, Progressive Bad Beat)
- Philadelphia Live Casino (weekly tournaments)
- Wind Creek Bethlehem (no weekly tournaments, current bad beat jackpot $174,285 as of 8/28/22 )
- Pittsburgh Live Casino (weekly tournaments)
Pennsylvania Online Series and WSOP Bracelet
On Sunday, Sept. 11 Pennsylvania online poker players can win an official WSOP bracelet online. The action takes place on WSOP.com PA. Grinders can play in this $500 monster stack event for a chance to bring home a coveted bracelet.
Also in September, the WSOP.com Online Circuit series will be returning. Stay tuned to PlayPennsylvania for more online series coming this month including BetMGM PA Championship Series and PokerStars COOP events.
New Jersey Poker at a glance
The Garden State currently only has three poker rooms available. Out of those three 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 (40 tables): Bad Beat Jackpot $50,000
- Tropicana (10 tables): Bad Beat Jackpot $10,000
Borgata Poker September Survivor
September will be a repeat of the events players have seen all summer. The Survivor Series returns again Sept. 19 through Sept. 23. Survivor series includes six different tournaments. This will include poker buy-ins ranging from $125-$450.
Borgata brings back bounty tournaments in September as well. These events will occur on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
September’s entire tournament schedule can be found here.
A Borgata employee has relayed information that no major series will take place this fall, but the staff is looking into a series possibly in the start of the new year.
