PA Poker News October Update: Live Win for Akash Patel + BetRivers Poker Championship Results

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Oct 10, 2025 7 min read

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

First, let's start off with a live poker update. Philly Live! Casino recently ran their October MegaStacks, with winner Akash Patel from ... Mechanicsburg, which is where I live ... taking it down for a prize of $29K in the $500 buy-in event.

Akash, are you available for coffee and some live poker consulting? Asking for a friend.

Online Poker in PA

In online poker, we saw two operators run a series in late September to October.

First, BetRivers Poker ran the first BetRivers Poker Championship, a marquee series with over $500K guaranteed. And not only that, the series featured 112 events over 15 days, with buy-ins ranging from $2 to $500 and two trophy events every night, with four on the last day of the series.

The series was extremely well-received by the US player base and saw some standout performances in the field. First and foremost was the dominance of "SebastianH3" (aka "OMC Escher" in Discord), who captured the title in BOTH the $200 Main Event and the $500 Super High Roller on the last day of the series, combining for over $16,000 in winnings and two trophies.

Other big winners included player "Mapz", who won two high roller tournaments; "TheNumbersLie", who notched three titles across various buy-ins; and players "Bswo xBlackout16" and my fellow streamer "DrDadPoker", who all notched multiple wins.

Those last two are ALSO the winners of the BPC Leaderboards, which come with additional prizes in the form of tournament tickets and their own additional trophy.

BetRivers Poker Championship Results

BetRivers is also keeping the pedal down this month with boosted guarantees in their flagship and Sunday tournaments. Ten tournaments have had their prize pools amped up, so if you're an MTT player who has yet to try BetRivers, now could be the time

And finally, BetRivers is also taking aim at late-night cash game grinders. Their Halloween-themed "Witching Hour" promotion gives a boosted $1 poker bonus for every $5 raked on the cash game tables between the hours of Midnight and 3 AM Eastern.

The other operator offering a series this month was BetMGM Poker, who ran their Online Championships starting on September 21st and concluding on October 5th - a perfect overlap with the aforementioned BetRivers series. The BetMGM series aimed a little higher in terms of buy-in, however, with entry amounts ranging from $25 up to a $2,500 super high roller.

The BetMGM Online Championships featured several multiple-tourney winners. Players "itsallmath101", "krushurdreams", "sirsgoodboy", "youcantcall", and "new milford ho" all notched two wins apiece in the series.. But the biggest standout had to be "ZetaPoker", who took down the win in $250 PKO and the $1,000 Six Figure Sunday, both trophy events combining for over $70,000 in winnings.

PokerStars USA continues to award silver passes for the NAPT, now adding some of them to $3 Spin & Go's, the Sunday Special, and weekly $20 Phase tournaments. On the live poker side, they are also preparing for their PokerStars Open Maryland, which I touched on in last month's update but is coming up soon, with the full schedule featuring buy-ins from $200 up to a $2,200 high roller.

Thatfestival runs from October 19th to 26th, featuring an $1,100 buy-in Main Event with a $300K Guaranteed, a Women's Event, a $2,200 High Roller ... and a Mystery Bounty event with a "Sports Betting Twist."

The twist is that at the close of registration, players have to pick the winning team in a football game. Players who choose the winning side correctly can "Go for 2" in the mystery bounty period, choosing to put back their Mystery Bounty Prize and draw again. So how good are you at picking winners?

And finally, WSOP online is currently running events where players can chase after that coveted wearable hardware. WSOP is running not only a Super Circuit Series right now, with 18 rings total up for grabs ... but is also offering 33 bracelet events between the end of September and mid-November.

The battle for bling is on, but make sure to beef up your bankroll first, as the WSOP buy-ins do tend to average a little higher, typically starting around the $250 mark and capping out as high as $3,200 in these events.

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!

_{*Lead image courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services.}

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, host of both the PokerNews Podcast & MPST Podcast Presented By PokerNews, and 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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