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PokerStars Tested and Approved in Pennsylvania

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

It’s live!

PokerStars made its debut in the Pennsylvania regulated market this week with its land-based casino partner, Mount Airy Casino. After little more than two days of soft-launch play for testing purposes, the state gaming regulator approved the site for a full launch.

Any person of legal age, with a social security number and US postal address, physically located within the borders of Pennsylvania can now create an online poker account on PokerStars.bet.

This is the second state in which PokerStars now operates in the US market, New Jersey being the first.

PokerStars Ambassador Jen Shahade, a Pennsylvania resident, will be representing the site online in her home state.

Testing, Testing 1..2..3

PokerStars first opened its website to the public in Pennsylvania on Monday, November 4. Players began logging on at 2pm, and the site remained open until 10pm. The site then reopened at 2pm on Tuesday, November 5, and more testing kept the site open until midnight.

Before noon on Wednesday, November 6, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) gave its final approval for PokerStars to offer real-money online poker and casino games in Pennsylvania. The site then launched in full operation.

Rebecca McAdam Willetts of PokerStars told Pokerfuse, “We look forward to welcoming players in Pennsylvania around the clock, and we’re very excited by the level of engagement and support so far.”

Within a few hours of the full launch, more than 500 players were in action at the real-money tables.

Basics for New Players

Players can download the PokerStars PA client from PokerStars.bet on Macs or PCs, and on Android or iOS for mobile players.

Those who had a PokerStars account before Black Friday (in 2011) or have an account in New Jersey or outside of the US can log in but then must create a new Pennsylvania account. FOX Bets accounts do share a baseline account, so money in a FOX Bet account can be used at PokerStars for online poker or casino games, and vice versa.

The requirements to be a real-money PokerStars PA player are as follows:

–Must be 21 years of age or older

–Must be physically located in Pennsylvania

–Must prove a social security number and postal address within the US

–Must open a PokerStars.bet account

–Must complete electronic account verification

Players can deposit funds to the site using Visa or Mastercard, PayPal, echecks, PayNearMe, and a Stars transfer.

Game Selection at Launch

From all of the reports, it appears that there is a wide range of cash games available for Pennsylvania players already:

–No Limit Hold’em six-handed and nine-handed ($0.01/$0.02 to $25/$50)

–Limit Hold’em six-handed ($0.10/$0.20 to $50/$100)

–Pot Limit Omaha six-handed ($0.01/$0.02 to $25/$50)

There are also some tables set up for PLO and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, Pot-Limit 5-Card Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, 2-7 Triple Draw, and an 8-game mix.

As for SNGs and tournaments, the first ones available on a regular basis are:

–Turbo SNGs six-handed ($1 to $100)

–Hyper-turbo SNGs two-handed ($1 to $500)

–NLHE and PLO tournaments ($3 to $20)

–The Bigs ($5 with $500 GTD, $10 with $1K GTD, $15 with $800 GTD $20 with $1,500 GTD)

–The Hots ($5 with $500 GTD, $20 with $1K GTD, $30 with $1,500 GTD, $50 with $2K GTD)

–Nightly Stars $100 NLHE with $10K GTD

–Nightly Midnight Express Hyper-turbo $20 NLHE with $1K GTD

–Nightly $20 PLO with $400 GTD

This is just an example of some of the events posted earlier today. And as for the Sunday schedule, it looks to be as follows, per PocketFives:

–Sunday Warm-Up $30 NLHE with $7,500 GTD

–Sunday Storm $10 NLHE 6-max with $5K GTD

–Sunday Special $100 NLHE with $40K GTD

–Sunday High Roller $250 NLHE with $10K GTD

–Sunday Supersonic $50 NHE Hyper-turbo with $5K GTD

More games and tournaments will be added as they are approved and as customer demand increases. They will be tailored for Pennsylvania players. According to FOX Bet CEO Robin Chhabra, “It’s a fresh start, so we’ll have a new tournament schedule designed specifically for the market, and we’ll aim to be flexible with that in response to player demand.”

Promotions and Freerolls

As players find their way to the Pennsylvania online poker tables, they will find a number of promotions, but also some freerolls.

There will be daily freerolls from Thursday, November 7 through Saturday, November 16. Each of those will offer $1K prize pools. There will then be a bigger freeroll on Sunday, November 17, which will offer a $20K prize pool.

Players can also choose from two welcome bonus options:

–100% match of first deposit up to $600 with bonus code “STARS600”

–$30 free play ($20 cash, $10 tournament tickets) with bonus code “FREE30”

 

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