The new year has just begun, but the action at PokerStars is already hot. On Christmas Day of 2022, the operator fired up its $40 million guaranteed New Year Series, and with a bit more than a week of action in the books, the series has been a massive success so far.
There are still a couple of weeks of action left in the PokerStars New Year Series, which has gotten off to a great start. With nearly 120 games complete, the series is running well above the promised guarantees, with almost $2.5 million in prizes over and above the original promise. And that’s just the current count.
While not all events have hit their promised prize pools, nearly 80% have exceeded those initial guarantees, with several tournaments doubling their guarantees or better. Nine games so far have more than doubled the original guarantee, with an additional five events featuring the 90% and several more in the high 80s.
The series has collected almost $16 million in prizes so far, well above the promised total of just over $13.5 million. That put more than $2.4 million in extra prizes into the games, for an increase just shy of 18 on the guarantees across the series so far.
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New Year Series Gets Big Numbers to Start 2023
With a little more than a week of action already complete, PokerStars’ New Year Series is pushing well beyond expectations. There have been nearly half a million entries, with prize pools well above the original promises.
New Year Series Summary to Date
| Total Prizes | $15,980,453 |
| Total Guarantees | $13,551,500 |
| Above Gtd | $2,428,953 |
| % Above Gtd | 17.92% |
| Total Games | 119 |
| Games Above Gtd | 92 |
| Games Below Gtd | 27 |
| Total Entries | 467,648 |
Nearly 80% of the games have done better than the guarantee, while 27 events have failed to hit their promise. However, in the tournaments that beat their guarantee, a few genuinely stellar performers helped beef up those numbers.
One event was particularly strong — New Year Series #36-L. The $5.50 buy-in on Dec 30 initially had a respectable $10k guarantee, but that promise was left in the dust early when almost 7000 entries turned out for a prize pool of $33,928, or 239.28% above the guarantee.
That was the only game that more than tripled its guarantee, but a few others did much better than double. New Year Series #9-L got a prize pool over 150% above the guarantee, with nine games at least hitting the full double-up.
2023 New Year Series Top Prize Pools So Far
| Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Guarantee | Above Gtd | % Above Gtd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event #36-L: $5.50 NLHE [The Rounder], $10K Gtd | 6924 | $33,928 | $10,000 | $23,928 | 239.28% |
| Event #9-L: $3.30 NLHE [6-Max, Monster Stacks], $15K Gtd | 12,821 | $37,694 | $15,000 | $22,694 | 151.29% |
| Event #20: $22 NLHE [4-Max Bounty Quads, Hyper-Turbo, Progressive Total KO, Zoom], $30K Gtd | 3533 | $74,016 | $30,000 | $44,016 | 146.72% |
| Event #9-M: $33 NLHE [6-Max, Monster Stacks], $60K Gtd | 4767 | $143,010 | $60,000 | $83,010 | 138.35% |
| Event #36-M: $55 NLHE [The Rounder], $25K Gtd | 1185 | $59,250 | $25,000 | $34,250 | 137.00% |
In terms of field sizes, it turned out that many players were looking for poker action on New Year’s Day. New Year Series #41-L was a specially priced $20.23 buy-in on the first day of the year, and 21,062 entries were recorded, making it by far the largest field of the series.
While this was not quite enough to hit the genuinely optimistic guarantee of $400,000, it came very close, missing only about $12.5k or 3%.
Including that New Year’s Day game, there have been 20 tournaments, with fields that capped 10,000 and four that capped 15,000 entries.
2023 New Year Series Top Fields So Far
| Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Guarantee | Above Gtd | % Above Gtd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event #41-L: $20.23 NLHE [New Year Special], $400K Gtd | 21,062 | $400,000 | $400,000 | $0 | 0.00% |
| Event #39-L: $5.50 NLHE [Progressive KO, Warm-Up], $50K Gtd | 16,589 | $81,286 | $50,000 | $31,286 | 62.57% |
| Event #15-L: $5.50 NLHE [Progressive KO], $40K Gtd | 15,718 | $77,018 | $40,000 | $37,018 | 92.55% |
| Event #1-L: $5.50 NLHE [Progressive KO, Warm-Up], $40K Gtd | 15,438 | $75,646 | $40,000 | $35,646 | 89.12% |
| Event #42-L: $11 NLHE [7-Max, Progressive KO], $75K Gtd | 14,504 | $142,139 | $75,000 | $67,139 | 89.52% |
Lots of New Year Action Still to Come
While there is more than a week of action already in the books on the New Year Series, there is still plenty of online poker to be played. Among the highlights yet to come are the 3-Day Main Events starting on Jan 15 with $3.75 million in total guarantees across the three buy-in levels.
- Deposit $20 and get $30 worth of free play
- One of the best mobile apps
- Biggest MTT guarantees
New Year Series Main Events
- $109 New Year Series Main Event Low — $1,000,000 guaranteed
- $1,050 New Year Series Main Event Medium — $1,250,000 guaranteed
- $5,200 New Year Series Main Event High — $1,500,000 guaranteed
PokerStars says “It’s time to party” as the lead-off for this event, and the operator seems true to its word. There are still more than $25 million in guarantees waiting to be won, but given the results, the actual prizes are likely to be much bigger.
Check out the PokerStars app now for the entire upcoming schedule of events — there is still lots of prize money up for grabs in the New Year Series!
