PA Poker News August Update: Justin Vaysman Claims WSOP Gold, RGPS Headed to Penn National
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Hi! I'm Keith Becker, PokerNews Ambassador and Pennsylvania native, here with a PA poker update for June 2025. It's an exciting time in America for the game we all know and love, and I'm excited to be bringing you state highlights every month.
What are the big issues and stories on everyone's minds? Let’s get into it.
Live Poker in PA
Major props to Pennsylvania's Justin Vaysman, who took down the WSOP $5,300 High Roller Six-Max this month. The final table played out live at the WSOP in Las Vegas after starting online, and Vaysman's victory adds another impressive bullet point to PA’s growing list of WSOP achievements in 2025. It also followed his 2023 WSOP Online bracelet from Event #3: $500 NLH Turbo 6-Max.
Now, who from PA is gonna crush Paradise in December?
The RunGood Grand Prix touches down at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course (Grantville, PA) from September 16–21. The six-day festival features nine RGPS Ring Events, capped off with a Main Event live reported by PokerNews. This is RGPS’s first stop at Penn National.
Every ring winner from this year can buy into the PokerGO Tour Dream Seat Invitational - a huge opportunity from RunGood to win a seat into the PGT Championship freeroll, to compete with some of the best in the world in a high-stakes, televised showdown at the PokerGo Studio in 2026.
Online Poker in PA
PokerStars PA cranked up the heat this summer with the introduction of NAPT Silver Pass qualifiers. Players could enter $20 Phase 1 satellites to chase a coveted $3,000 Silver Pass, granting entry into the invite-only $100,000 NAPT Tournament of Stars in Las Vegas this November. Each Phase 2 offered $5,000 GTD with a Silver Pass included as part of the prize pool.
BetRivers PA is rolling out its first-ever tournament series on the first day of August, splitting events into Gold (higher stakes) and Silver (lower stakes) tiers. Running August 1st through 10th, the Summer Series offers over $200,000 in guaranteed prize pools, competitive Gold and Silver leaderboards, and custom trophies awarded to the $200 Gold Main Event Champion, the $20 Silver Main Event Champion, and the Gold and Silver leaderboard winners.
That’s four trophies total and plenty of prestige up for grabs as BetRivers plants its flag in PA’s tournament landscape
And if you're wondering why BetMGM and WSOP were left out, they're both just kind of in between things right now. BetMGM just finished sending people to the Borgata Summer Poker Open through a variety of satellites, but they're still, of course, offering their standard tournament and cash game offerings.
And a similar story for WSOP, who ... well, just finished the WSOP in Las Vegas. They are currently offering a $1 Million Blast promotion if you play their Blast tourneys at the $100 level, so check that out if you are a grinder in that hyper Sit and Go format.
Poker is surging in America, and I'm thrilled to be your ambassador here in Pennsylvania. For more information, check out our PokerNews Pennsylvania page here, and be sure to follow me on socials to stay in the know. I’ll be back next month with another update!
Keith Becker is an American poker player based out of Pennsylvania. A former member of PokerStars Team Pro Online, Becker is now a PokerNews Ambassador and Streamer. Becker has been streaming poker on Twitch since Day 1 of regulated poker in Pennsylvania and has led a grassroots movement for PA to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement.
*Lead image courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services.
