This week’s poker headlines feature a few big wins. Two of the victories went to individuals while the third is a big win for the poker players of Pennsylvania. That’s where we’ll start our weekly look at the poker news:
Pennsylvania Online Poker Launch Date Targeted For June 15th
Nearly two years after a bill passed to confirm the desire to bring online poker to the state, Pennsylvania has targeted an official launch date of June 15th. On that date, poker fans throughout the state will have the opportunity to play online poker legally for the first time.
From what we know now, seven online poker licences have been paid for and secured. PokerStars and partypoker are among the seven businesses that have purchased these licences. So that’s good news for poker players, who have long been waiting for these brands to be allowed to operate legally in the state.
Sources have estimated the projected revenue of online poker sites to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million monthly for the state. With the ability to generate revenue figures like that, it’s no wonder that Pennsylvania moved so quickly after the passing of the bill in order to get their online poker sites online and operational.
Jackson Has Career Day At Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship Winner
David Jackson has earned the biggest win of his career. He survived a field of 505 contestants to win the Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship $2,700 Main Event. Jackson took home a career-best $304,929 by winning it all. This was Jackson’s second-career win at Borgata, which is becoming a very good venue for him.
It certainly took a while to navigate through the field to get to the final two. But once he did, Jackson beat out top pro Shannon Shorr in heads-up play to secure his 11th-career tournament win. At one point, Shorr was up more than 6-1 heads up but Jackson turned the tables quickly and ended up securing the outright win less than an hour later.
The event had a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. With so much buzz and more entries than expected, though, that prize pool surpassed the guarantees by $262,500. Vladimir Alexandrov placed third and was the only other player to take home a six-figure payday at $110,216. Jake Tool and Michael Cohen rounded out the top five finishers at the event.
McCormick Comes Out On Top In Run It Up Reno VIII $235 Black Chip Bounty Tournament
Donnie McCormick managed to win the Run It Up Reno VIII at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno last week. The event is a popular one on the poker circuit, too. Not only is there a prize for the overall tournament winner, but players earn a $100 bounty every time they knock out another player.
McCormick, who began the tournament competing against 235 other entries, made his way through the field in order to cash in on the $6,690 payout. McCormick actually took home the first-place prize of $5,060 as well as an additional $1,900 in bounties. The one-day tournament lasted just 10 hours to complete.
McCormick put together a fairly impressive run in the series, cashing in for $1,430 after finishing sixth in the $235 Pro Bounty, as well as another $1,080 for finishing 22nd in the Mini Main Event.
For his career, he’s now picked up $17,656 in wins. His biggest haul was an impressive $9,634 when he won the Rio Daily Deepstack back in 2017.