For years, the online poker market in the United States has been relatively small and unsuccessful. Players had access to gaming in New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada, and it was hard for any of the states to reach a $1 million revenue mark each month in the gaming category. The state of Pennsylvania joined in last summer and quickly began to see a nice stream of online poker players. In the region, only PokerStars offers services and they recently finished up their Bounty Builder Series. The festival was a hit and managed to see prize pool guarantees increased with plenty of players logging in to compete.
Details of the Series
The Bounty Builder Series took place in Pennsylvania relatively at the same time as the one hosted in New Jersey. The PA version was quite large and offered a total of 32 events. Only two of the events had overlays and several had prize pools that were doubled or even tripled from the set guarantee. As the series was coming to an end, several events saw huge turnouts, including the $50 6-Max tournament.
This event had 335 entries and the small $5,000 guaranteed prize pool boosted to well over $15,200. This is just one example as to how the turnout created a larger prize pool for those participating in the event.
The Main Event finished up on Sunday and had a $300 buy-in, which is relatively small for a series Main Event. The tournament featured a prize guarantee of $100,000 and with 405 in total entries, the prize pool increased to $113,400. In the end, it was Shantag67 who earned the win, taking home $18,406.58 in prize money, which included the bounties won.
The PokerStars PA Bounty Builder Series was actually more successful than the PokerStars PA Winter Series. More events exceeded their guarantees and the series had more total entries as well at 11,033. The series offered up $500,000 in total guaranteed prize money. But with so many players participating, the prize money increased to $668,241.55.
Is the Newness or is Poker Making a Comeback?
Analysts are wondering if the reception of online poker in Pennsylvania is due to the newness of the offering or if online poker is truly making a comeback. Over the years, online poker gaming has taken a back seat to online casino games in the US, with poker barely bringing in any revenues each month.
In Pennsylvania, online poker has been a huge hit, with tournament series posting record numbers and just revenues in general being more than the other states that have offered the game for years. So, what’s up? Will Pennsylvania begin to see participation in online poker continue to swell and revenues earned? Or will the newness eventually wear off and the state will be like the others and barely reach $1 million in monthly revenues?
Only time will tell but, in the meantime,, PokerStars will continue to dominate in the region, offering quality cash gaming, tournaments and poker series to players located in the state.
