A Player’s Guide to BetMGM Poker in Pennsylvania

Online poker players in Pennsylvania have been in a tantalizing spot for quite a while now. One online poker room is up and running, PokerStars PA. That has been the case for what will soon be a full year-and-a-half. However, expectations are another or perhaps two or three more online poker rooms may launch soon.

It’s a bit like having been dealt a premium starting hand and building a nice pot preflop. Now you’re waiting to see how things will proceed going forward. Prospects seem favorable, but for the next little while there remains some uncertainty.

One of the new online poker rooms expected to launch in Pennsylvania is BetMGM Poker. BetMGM has already launched online casinos as well as an a BetMGM online sportsbook in PA. In other words, licensing and many other particulars are currently in place for a BetMGM online poker room as well.

Here’s a quick look at what a new BetMGM online poker site should provide PA poker players.

BetMGM Poker to bring experience, industry connections to PA

When BetMGM Poker does come to Pennsylvania, it should hit the ground running with an inviting, well-functioning online poker room. After all, the site will arrive with a lot of prior online gaming experience behind it.

BetMGM has now gone live with not one but two online casinos in the Keystone State. In early December, the first BetMGM online casino launched in Pennsylvania via a partnership with the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville.

Then in February, BetMGM launched the Borgata Casino app in Pennsylvania with the Rivers Casino Philadelphia as a land-based partner.

Meanwhile in mid-December the BetMGM Online Sportsbook began accepting its first wagers in Pennsylvania as well.

So far, BetMGM Poker is only live in New Jersey. However expectations are it will soon launch not only in Pennsylvania, but in Michigan as well where the MGM Grand Detroit will serve as a retail partner.

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BetMGM Poker in New Jersey

With the Borgata as its brick-and-mortar partner, BetMGM’s first online poker room launched in New Jersey in 2017. Initially the site was known as playMGM, then in 2019 rebranded as BetMGM. In Pennsylvania, BetMGM Poker will again utilize its partnership with the Hollywood Casino to operate its online poker room.

BetMGM is of course owned by MGM Resorts International, which also owns the software developer Entain (formerly known as GVC Holdings). In New Jersey, Entain not only powers the BetMGM Poker site, but also the partypoker NJ and Borgata Poker NJ online poker rooms. They do so under the BetMGM brand (originally ROAR Digital) created via the joint venture between MGM and GVC.

Those three New Jersey sites — partypokerNJ, Borgata Poker NJ, and BetMGM NJ — together form a network that combines player pools, called the partypoker US network. That increased liquidity means bigger tournament fields and more players at the cash tables.

When BetMGM Poker initially launches in Pennsylvania, it will be as a standalone, ring-fenced site with only PA players allowed to play on it. However, much as community cards alter the course of a hand of hold’em, that circumstance could change, and perhaps significantly.

What PA poker players can expect at BetMGM Poker

As far as the BetMGM Poker site goes, Pennsylvania players should find plenty of reasons to want to explore it as a new option once it goes live.

BetMGM Poker: Software and game selection

The BetMGM Poker site at New Jersey features an attractive design and an intuitive interface. Thinking back to online poker’s early days, you might describe the site as featuring a clean or “classic” look. Rather than complicate the screen with cute animations and other ornaments, all of the details are unembellished and instantly clear at a first glance.

The site can be accessed in multiple ways. On a laptop or desktop, you can play either through a web browser or on a downloadable, Java-based client. Meanwhile the site is also mobile-friendly, meaning you can download apps and play on your Apple (iOS) or Android devices.

Currently the site features no-limit hold’em ($0.01/$0.02 to $25/$50), fixed-limit hold’em ($0.02/$0.04 to $30/$60), and pot-limit Omaha high and hi/lo (same stakes as NLHE).

In the past seven-card stud was also offered, but that has been removed at present. There are NLHE and PLO sit-n-go’s ranging from $1 to $500. The site also features a version of “fast fold” poker called “fastforward” – although there are rarely enough players wanting to play it for that game to run.

The BetMGM Poker NJ site has many regular, featured MTTs like a $109 buy-in Daily $10K (with a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool) and the $535 Mega Tuesday (also with a $10K guarantee). There is a weekly $215 tournament, the Sunday $35K.

There are frequent tournament series on BetMGM Poker as well. In fact, over the past year BetMGM Poker NJ and the other New Jersey sites in the partypoker US network hosted a number of World Poker Tour-branded online events. These included some especially large events with $1 million guarantees. They also afforded players the chance to win entry into future live WPT events.

BetMGM Poker: Welcome bonuses and loyalty program

Also worth noting when previewing a potential BetMGM Poker site in PA are the welcome bonuses.

For the New Jersey site, players receive a $25 no-deposit bonus just for creating an account. Of that bonus, $15 has to be played in either cash games or tournaments. The other $10 is essentially cash going straight into the player’s account, as long as the player plays a minimum amount with it.

BetMGM Poker players in New Jersey also can receive a 100% matching deposit bonus worth up to $1,000. Much like other sites, the deposit bonus comes with a playthrough requirement. BetMGM Poker players participate both in a loyalty program called iRewards and MGM’s popular M Life Rewards program.

BetMGM Poker vs. PokerStars

In terms of software, BetMGM Poker is more than adequate though for most players probably doesn’t match the standard set by PokerStars’ smooth-running interface. PokerStars has the advantage in game selection at present as well, although a BetMGM Poker site in PA might be able to offer more than what it currently does in NJ.

In New Jersey, the partypoker US network of sites to which BetMGM Poker belongs tends to draw close to the same traffic as PokerStars NJ. Meanwhile the WSOP NJ site routinely tops both by a wide margin, attracting more NJ players in part because it shares player pools with its poker rooms in other states.

However, when it comes to welcome bonuses, BetMGM Poker has an edge over PokerStars. The latter does not offer a no-deposit bonus. PokerStars does offer a 100% matching deposit bonus, though only up to $1500.

Will BetMGM Poker players in PA get to play against players in NJ and other states?

Certainly not at the start, although circumstances could change in the future.

BetMGM’s affiliation with partypoker potentially bears some significance. Despite its name, the partypoker US network currently only operates in one state, New Jersey. Theoretically the network could expand to include sites in other states. First, however, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will have to okay PA operators joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).

The January 2021 ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals invalidating the US Department of Justice‘s most recent opinion of the Wire Act of 1961 was good news in this regard. That ruling removed an obstacle that had previously made PA regulators and others less than eager about pursuing multi-state agreements. That said, there is no set timeline at present for Pennsylvania to enter the MSIGA.

For Pennsylvania poker players, then, the likelihood will be once BetMGM Poker goes online, they’ll have another ring-fenced online poker site as an option alongside PokerStars PA. That it itself will be a welcome development, and perhaps later will come an opportunity to play opponents located outside of the state as well.

That is to say, first things first. You can plan ahead, but you can’t play the turn or river until after you first play the flop. Here’s looking forward to those first flops being dealt at BetMGM Poker PA.

Lead image via Dreamstime.

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