Multi-state poker in Pennsylvania is here, and two operators are already taking advantage of the possibilities: WSOP and BetMGM. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed its entry to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) last week, but today is the first day that sites could first go live with peer-to-peer play across state lines.
Both sites link players in Pennsylvania up with opponents in New Jersey and Michigan. In the case of WSOP, Nevada is also in the mix.
BetMGM was the first to announce it was going live with multi-state poker on day one, but WSOP has the honor of being the first to link four states instead of just three.
The speed with which multi-state traffic sharing has started is impressive. When Michigan joined MSIGA, WSOP was the only operator with an existing network, and it had software compatibility issues preventing immediate networking. That meant there was a delay of about eight months between the legal possibility of multi-state poker and the first network launch. So, there was some justifiable skepticism about whether any Pennsylvania sites would actually be networking within the first month… and yet here we are, with two up and running on the first day.
What this means is if you log into BetMGM Poker or WSOP today from Pennsylvania, you should find that the number of players has more than doubled.
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Why traffic matters
Does it really make a big difference whether you’re just playing poker within your state or with players from other parts of the country? Yes, it really does!
There are two main reasons that, as a poker player, you want to play on the highest-traffic site you can.
Game availability
More players means that there will be more tables running, across more stake levels and more formats. One of the most frustrating things in poker is when you want to play, but there’s no one seated in the type of game you want. Or maybe there’s only one table, and several people on the waiting list, but no one wants to start a second.
That experience becomes less common when the site gets bigger. It’s easier for less-common formats and higher stakes to get enough people to start a table. New tables start faster when the existing ones are filled. And there are also more people moving around and more seats being vacated.
Similarly, sit-and-go tournaments start faster, no matter time of day you’re playing.
Tournament prize pools
For most formats, the extra traffic is just about finding games more easily. But when it comes to scheduled tournaments, the size of the site has a direct impact on your potential winnings.
Twice as many players should, on average, mean twice as many people entering any given tournament. And that means twice as much money in the prize pool.
With multi-state traffic sharing, you’ll see guarantees go up, and special tournament series get bigger.
More chances at bracelets for WSOP PA players
There’s one more perk that’s specific to WSOP. Being on the same network as its Nevada site means playing in the same online bracelet events as attendees at this summer’s live World Series of Poker.
Conveniently, that’s kicking off almost exactly one month from now, on May 27.
Last year, WSOP Pennsylvania players had their own little gold bracelet series, but it consisted of just seven events, one a week. Now, as part of the shared liquidity pool, they’ll have access to three events every week for the duration of the series. That’s every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday, from May 31 to July 9, or 18 events in total.
On top of that, this is the first time Pennsylvanians will get to participate in the Online Bracelet Leaderboard, with an additional $30,000 in prizes for the players with the most consistently impressive performances across the series.
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