PocketFives is back live blogging Day 2 of the PokerStars PA soft launch.

After a successful first day, PokerStars PA is back for Day 2 of its soft launch. Follow along here as Pennsylvania enjoys the second day of regulated online poker play. This story will be updated throughout the day.

Update 12:00 AM: That’s a wrap on the second and final day of the PokerStars PA soft launch. PocketFives will be back for one more live blog on the first full day of play on PokerStars PA and many believe that day will be Wednesday!

Update 11:30 PM: With just 30 minutes to go on Day 2 of the PokerStars PA soft launch, the crowds are beginning to dwindle a little bit. After peaking at around 1,150 players earlier, there are currently just 659 players seated and no more tournaments scheduled to start for the rest of the night.

The biggest cash game running is a five-handed $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em game with almost $6,000 on the table.

Update 9:38 PM: What’s in a name? Well, in Pennsylvania apparently it’s the name of the live casino that you’ve partnered with. While players in New Jersey head to PokerStarsNJ.com to play, their counterparts in Pennsylvania punch in PokerStarsMtAiryCasino.com to download the software.

It’s not that PokerStars didn’t want to use PokerStarsPA.com, they’re actually required by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board regulations to use this URL (or something like it). Matt Primeaux, President of FOX Bet/PokerStars NJ/PokerStars Pennsylvania, explained in a Tweet earlier today.

Update 9:01 PM: Just before the clock struck nine o’clock, another peak was hit for total number of players with 1,143. This far surpasses the peak of 745 from Day 1 of the soft launch and is a great indicator that the first day of full launch – expected to be Wednesday – could see another significant increase as players come back to online poker.

Update 7:57 PM: Looks like we have our first Pennsylvania online poker Twitcher! Nick Amicucci, who is playing on PokerStars under the screen name ‘cooooooch’, is streaming some multi-table tournament play over at twitch.tv/trixter27. He’s already cashed in the first tournament he registered for and has a few other tables up and running. Good way for people from outside of Pennsylvania to check things out.

Update 7:50 PM: Behold! Some more firsts for PokerStars PA as the $50 Bounty Builder more than doubled it’s $5K guarantee becoming the first MTT with a five-figure prize pool and the first tournament to award more than $1k for first-place.

Update 7:45 PM: There it is! PokerStars PA as more than 1K concurrent real money online poker players on Day 2 of the soft launch.

Update 7:33 PM: We’re keeping an eye on the player stat as at 7:30pm PokerStars PA came within a SNG shy of hitting 1,000 players.

Update 7:20 PM: With over 850 players on the site, the largest guaranteed tournament so far had zero problem destroying the guarantee in a hurry. The prize pool for the $50 Bounty Builder with a $5K guarantee continues to soar with an over $7K prize pool…and another 40 minutes of late registration. This tournament could offer the first $1K+ payout when all is said and done.

Update 6:48 PM: Earlier in the day it looked like the Sit & Go buy-in range was $1 to $20. Unless we missed it earlier, it looked like some higher buy-in SNGs have been added since this morning with offerings of $30, $50, $100, $200 and $500. The majority of the higher buy-in SNGs are offered as Heads Up Hypers.

Update 6:35 PM: The $10/$20 table finally filled up as ‘TheOneSelf_111′ was joined by ’22EPL’, ‘breakfastball’, ‘GusRobinson’ and ‘dabigquk1’ to splash around in the highest stakes game running right now.

Update 6:17 PM: The $5/$10 has been on an off for most of the afternoon with game starters ’22EPL’, ‘ToddLaxmen’ and ‘youbestnotmiss’ trying to keep it going.

Update 5:53 PM: Registration is closed for the first guaranteed tournament of Day 2, The Hot $10 [Turbo]. The tournament, which had a $1K guarantee yesterday, increased that guarantee by $500 for Day 2. Just like yesterday, there was no problem with crushing that number. The tournament had 282 entries (199 players, 83 re-entries) and a prize pool of $2,566.20. The winner, provided there’s no deal, will walk away with $488.15 for their $10 investment.

Update 5:23 PM: The first multi-table tournament of the day is in the books. ‘hefnerrrr’ topped a 212-player field in the $5 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event and earned $188.83 for the effort. On Day 1, this event drew 140 players giving Tuesday’s event a 50% boost in entrants.

While ‘SugarDaddyPA’ took down Monday’s first tournament, ‘hefnerrrr’ won this one outright.

4:30 PM: WIth 678 players online, there’s currently only one $2.50/$5 NLHE game running. However, the $1/$2 game is going strong with four full nine-handed NLHE tables and another four full Six Max tables.

Update 4:07 PM: The current PokerStars PA Mixed Game top dog appears to be ‘TheOneSelf_111’ who is sitting by themselves at two tables – $5/$10 Limit Razz & $5/$10 Limit Stud Hi/Lo – each with $111 in front, ready to take on all challengers.

Update 4:00 PM: The first MTT of Day 2 was the $5 NLHE Turbo which ended registration with 212 entries (149 players, 63 re-entries) which generated a $964.60 prize pool. The winner will turn their lunch money into over $188.

Want to see how yesterday’s slate of MTTs fared? Read: PokerStars PA Soft Launch Day 1 MTT Schedule Gives Grinders Hope

Update 3:50 PM: The traffic on PokerStars PA continues to impress and is nearly double that of the traffic on PokerStars NJ.

The initial excitement and hype around the PokerStars PA launch probably have something to do with that, but the population of Pennsylvania is roughly 1.5 times larger than New Jersey.

Now imagine what happens if these two states ever get liquidity sharing figured out!

Update 2:54 PM: The biggest cash game on the board so far (in terms of limits) has ‘ToddLaxmen’, ’22EPL’ and ‘love2playpoker’ battling in a three-handed $10/$20 Limit Hold’em game.

Update 2:44 PM: Taking a look at the Sit & Go lobby, there is plenty of action with roughly 28 Six Max SNGs running at a time with buy-ins ranging from $1 to $20.

Update 2:15 PM: Day 2 of the soft launch is off to a fast start as 440 players are currently online in the first fifteen minutes of the day.

Update 2:12 PM: Good news! You can now add your PokerStars PA screen name to your PocketFives account. It takes just a few moments. Results should start showing up by the end of the week!

Here’s how:

  1. Login to your PocketFives account
  2. On the top right, click on your PocketFives username and select ‘Profile’
  3. Choose ‘Edit Poker Names’
  4. From the drop-down menu, select ‘PokerStars PA’ and enter your screen name and click ‘Create New’

Please note: It can take up to 24 hours for your screen name to pop up in your profile.

Update 2:00 PM: A day after hosting 12 multi-table tournaments, the PokerStars PA lobby has 14 events scheduled for Tuesday. The Day 1 schedule had no problem blowing past their guarantees and the Day 2 schedule see an increase across the board. The Hot $10 went from a $500 guarantee to a $1,000 guarantee and the Moonlight Express also doubled, going from a $1,000 guarantee to $2,000.

The big addition to the schedule is the $50 buy-in Bounty Builder event at 7 PM. With $3,500 guaranteed, it will be the biggest prize pool in pa online poker history (until tomorrow!).

Start Time Game Buy-in Name Speed
3:00 PM NLHE $5.00 NLHE Turbo Turbo
4:00 PM NLHE $10.00 The Hot $10 – $1000 GTD Turbo
5:00 PM PLO $5.00 PL Omaha Turbo
6:00 PM NLHE $10.00 Progressive KO
7:00 PM NLHE $50.00 Bounty Builder $50 – $3500 GTD
7:30 PM NLHE $10.00 PL Omaha Turbo
7:30 PM NLHE $3.00 Time Tourney: 45 Minutes Turbo
7:45 PM PLO $10.00 Deep Hyper-Turbo Hyper
8:00 PM NLHE $5.00 NLHE Turbo Turbo
8:30 PM NLHE $3.00 Time Tourney: 45 Minutes Turbo
9:00 PM NLHE $20.00 The Hot $20 – $2,000 GTD Turbo
9:30 PM NLHE $20.00 Moonlight Express – Early Edition – $2,000 GTD Hyper
10:00 PM NLHE $5.00 Four Max NLHE Hyper
11:00 PM NLHE $10.00 Time Tourney: 45 Minutes Turbo

Update 11:05 AM: Day 2 of the PokerStars PA soft launch begins at 2 PM and will be available to all Pennsylvania online poker players for two more hours than Day 1 with tables closing at midnight.