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It has been over a year since online poker was legalized in Pennsylvania, and now the first poker site has finally gone live in the state. On Monday at 10pm, PokerStars officially launched in Pennsylvania. This is fantastic news for players across the state who have patiently been awaiting the opportunity to play poker online with a licensed operator.

Pennsylvania is now the second state to have launched PokerStars as a licensed operator. The first state was New Jersey, where PokerStars continues to thrive as a top source for online poker players across the area.

While the site is now live for players in Pennsylvania, this is considered a “soft launch”. PokerStars will be testing its software and closely monitoring things to ensure that players are getting the best experience possible.

The operator will also be keeping a close eye on regulatory measures, such as geolocation technology. It’s important for PokerStars that only players who are located within Pennsylvania are able to access the site and its services, so this will be a key aspect during the testing period.

Should everything work fine, PokerStars could be going live fully by November 6th. It’s only a two-day testing period, but it should be enough time for the operator to identify any potential issues with the software and ensure that they are fixed to provide players with an excellent online gaming experience.

During the soft launch, only a selection of games will be made available to players. The most popular game formats will be playable, including cash games, sit & gos and tournaments. However, the options will be limited; for example, just over a dozen different tournaments can be played with buy-ins ranging from $3 to $20. Both Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em tournaments are available.

Some of the more niche activities on PokerStars are still awaiting approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. So, Spin & Gos and Zoom Poker won’t be playable during the soft launch, and there is no word yet on when they will be made available to players in Pennsylvania.

During this time, anyone who is over the age of 21 and currently located within Pennsylvania will be able to play at PokerStars during the testing period. If you have an existing PokerStars account, you’ll be able to use it to login, but you’ll have to create a new username and password as a PokerStars PA player.