Hi! I’m Keith Becker, PokerNews Ambassador and Pennsylvania native, here with a PA poker update for July 2024. 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.
Live Poker Update
We kicked things off this month in the live poker world with events sponsored by PokerStars at Philly Live! Casino. These events saw THREE NAPT Gold Passes awarded, with two going to prominent PA online regs Andrew “PhillyTaxGuy” Kershaw and Jonas “NellieKane” Wexler. The NAPT and the gold pass promotions are amazing value, check out PokerNews for more info on those.
Meanwhile, Rivers Poker Room in Philadelphia will conclude the month with their Fall Rush tournament, a popular recurring format with a $400 entry and $100,000 GTD for the players.
Online Poker Update
Speaking of Rivers, we’ve got a LOT of online poker news to talk about but one of the biggest stories right now is the impending launch of BetRivers poker room, affiliated with Rivers Casino as their brick-and-mortar partner.
You might remember BetRivers Poker because it’s also associated with Phil Galfond. The site is currently undergoing a soft launch, and while we’ve been asked not to share screenshots or info just yet and want to respect that, I will say that a BetRivers representative made a bold claim that the operator will be the CLEAR leader in giving players value back for their play, and I’m very excited to see what that means, and how it pans out.
And in other operators launching for US players, seemingly out of nowhere came the announced launch of ClubWPT Gold, a site available to players across the United States (46 States) and Canada (except Quebec). ClubWPT Gold uses the sweepstakes model for its players, with free games in gold coins, and sweeps coins games where you can redeem cash or prizes. To promote the launch the site will be hosting a FIVE MILLION DOLLAR GUARANTEED freeroll, with $1 Million for first place and many $10K tickets given away.
For the existing operators, World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Pennsylvania announced their bracelet series for October-November, with just FOUR of the coveted golden accessories up for grabs.
PokerStars is right in the thick of the Championship of Online Poker (COOP), their marquee tournament series, this year boasting not only huge prize pools but more opportunities to win those NAPT Gold Passes we talked about. I’ll personally be firing a full stream of COOP this Sunday evening, including firing in some of their juicy Path to NAPT satellites, and the $300 Main Event which awards one of those Gold Passes to the winner. Come check out my stream at twitch.tv/accidentalgrenade!
But trust me when I say I am NOT going to miss out on opportunities to check out these other clients, these other opportunities to play poker and hunt BIG value in my home state. I can’t even encapsulate … it is SUCH a huge time for poker in Pennsylvania right now folks.
Poker is surging in America, and I’m thrilled to be your ambassador here in PA. 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.
