PA Poker News March Update: MSIGA is Close, Hellmuth & Galfond in Philly, and Big Parx Winners
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Hi! I'm Keith Becker, PokerNews Ambassador and Pennsylvania native, here with a PA poker update for March 2025. It's an exciting time in America for the game we all know and love, and I'm excited to be bringing you state highlights every month.
What are the big issues and stories on everyone's minds? Let’s get into it.
The biggest story, and it will continue to be the biggest story all year, is Pennsylvania joining into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). This month we got a fresh bit of news. A screenshot was posted by user James T. in a community Discord that I organized in support of multi-state poker. The screenshot was an e-mail from Doug Harbach at the PGCB stating that they are, "Proceeding with all that is involved behind the scenes for launching of Interstate poker early in the second quarter." To me, early in the second quarter means April, which is coming up soon.
Now, of course, that doesn't mean every operator will be prepared to flip the switch in April. It's a complicated process and we should understand that these things can take time... No, Nope! April. We've waited long enough. It's coming in April. You heard it here first. Get the torches and pitchforks ready if the calendar rolls over to May! No, but I do think it's coming and we're all very excited.
Pennsylvania Online Poker
In other Pennsylvania poker news, PokerStars PA has a lot going on this month. SCOOP 2025 was announced with dates set as March 21st to April 7th. We don't know much about the upcoming marquee series at PokerStars so far, but we do know the Main Event has a $200K guarantee in PA with $2 million guaranteed across all the tournaments with buy-ins that will range from $5-$2,500.
In addition to the scoop announcement, PokerStars PA has also curiously been running satellites to the Irish Poker Open, giving players the opportunity to win a package to play overseas... and has announced their third iteration of Red Spade Sunday, a trio of events with boosted guarantees coming on March 30th. You can find all these promotions in the PokerStars PA client and make sure to check out their socials for more updates on SCOOP.
Among other operators, BetRivers Poker once again turned heads this month, this time with streams by both Phil Hellmuth and Phil Galfond on their platform. As BetRivers Poker is available exclusively in Pennsylvania thus far, both of these big league poker players traveled to Philly to play and stream. Along the way, BetRivers ran some awesome promotions to go with the streams, but I will admit to more than a bit of bias here as I was one of the people who got to set up and produce Hellmuth's streams. But there was some great content in there. Make sure you go check out the clips on the BetRivers Poker Twitch channel.
BetRivers also brought back a fan favorite promotion this month in their Early Bird Special. The promotion gives players 10% back on their buy-in in the form of tournament tickets as long as they register MTTs prior to the start. This promo runs until March 30th and in my mind it's amazing because it basically makes your tournaments rake-free. Check out BetRivers if you're in PA and get some tickets back on top of their already amazing rakeback structure.
Switching gears to the sweepstakes streets, Global Poker brought back their four-card Maverick O series in March. This series focuses on the four card action. Every tournament is an Omaha variant, and as usual, Global Poker is delivering loads of trophies and merch. Excuse me, 28 trophies on the sweeps coin side and 28 trophies on the gold coin side, as well as awesome merch for those lucky GC winners. If you want to win some swag or a trophy and haven't done so yet, make sure to go log on to Global Poker. I actually think this series might be over by the time this video is posted, but they're always running another one and it's always a great place to snag some hardware and play some great poker.
Back in thePennsylvania-specific clients on WSOP this month, they're running an online "Super Circuit." The schedule is 18 days long and features fan favorite Mystery Bounty events, a couple of low $100 buy-ins, and the $50,000 guaranteed Main Event.
BetMGM Poker PA has also delivered some really cool things this month. First of all, BetMGM remains a fantastic place to be if you want to satellite into some big live MTTS, particularly at the Borgata. They're running satellites right now to the Borgata Monster Stacks events, and these are not a one-off thing. BetMGM runs these kinds of satellites all the time, and I can say that this operator has gotten some major points in the PA community for listening to player feedback when it comes to things like adding tournaments, adjusting structures, and overall just providing a good experience and getting people into these huge live spots.
I also love calling out unique promotions and prizes, and they are awarding BALLER Gaming PCs to the winners from their Winter Online Championship leaderboards. So congratulations to Mike Lavin. That'll help you out on those streams, I'm sure. What I'm saying is don't sleep on BetMGM folks. They are doing some awesome stuff.
Pennsylvania Live Poker
Over to the live streets, the $1,500 Parx Big Stax 34 ended in a four-way chop this month, including two known PA online regs, Andrew Kershaw and Josh Ben-Yaish, winning $84K and $96K respectively. Congrats guys, amazing scores.
And Live! Philadelphia Poker Room this month is bringing back their MegaStacks Multi-Flight Tournament, a $500 price point, six flights culminating in awarding the $200,000 prize pool on Saint Patrick's Day weekend. Over at Rivers Poker Room, also in Philly, they're targeting cash game players on Saint Patrick's Day itself. Rivers is running special $500 high hand promotions every 30 minutes on the Irish holiday from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Get out there, cash game grinders.
And to wrap things up on a wholesome note, this month in Chester County, PA they held a local charity poker tournament. That event looks like it had a great turn out, generating $9,200 to serve counseling sessions for low-income individuals. Well done, folks, well done!
Poker is surging in America, and I'm thrilled to be your ambassador here in Pennsylvania. For more information, check out our PokerNews Pennsylvania page here, and be sure to follow me on socials to stay in the know. I’ll be back next month with another update!
Keith Becker is an American poker player based out of Pennsylvania. A former member of PokerStars Team Pro Online, Becker is now a PokerNews Ambassador and Streamer. Becker has been streaming poker on Twitch since Day 1 of regulated poker in Pennsylvania and has led a grassroots movement for PA to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement.
