Get better at poker. Play more volume. Move up in stakes.

These are common goals set by poker players when a new year rolls around. Look a bit further down the list and you’ll probably find “win a big Main Event title” on there, too.

And after last night, three players have ticked that one off already.

The New Year Series on PokerStars came to an end on Tuesday night with its three Main Events ($5,200 / $1,050 / $109) playing down to champions. 

All three winners added six-figure scores to their already-impressive résumés.

Let’s start with the biggest.

Ödeen bests the beasts

The $5,200 buy-in was always going to entice the biggest names in the game, each hoping to kick off 2023 in style and secure a nice payday ahead of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) next week.

This event attracted 210 of them, which combined with 96 re-entries created a juicy prize pool of $1.53 million. After two days of play, the final table of nine returned on Tuesday with cards-up coverage streamed live on the PokerStars Twitch channel.

Needless to say, the line-up was a must-watch for anyone who set the aforementioned “get better at poker” goal.

Michael “imluckbox” Addamo and Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski–widely considered two of the very best tournament players in the world–were the big-name headliners, surrounded by a who’s who of high-stakes online regulars.

And it was one of those crushers, Sweden’s Jerry “Perrymejsen” Ödeen, who went the distance, winning $290,062 after defeating Paulius “D3cor” Vaitiekunas heads-up when his pocket nines held against ace-king offsuit.

Ödeen entered the final table eighth in chips but expertly manoeuvred his way through an incredibly tough final table line-up.

He might not be a household name just yet, but with many titles, $1.2 million in live winnings, and now $9.8 million in online cashes to his name, ‘Ödeen’ might well be soon.

New Year Series $5,200 Main Event

Dates: January 15-17, 2023
Entries: 306 (inc. 96 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,530,000

1. Jerry “Perrymejsen” Ödeen (Sweden) – $290,062
2. Paulius “D3cor” Vaitiekunas (Lithuania) – $213,275
3. “Zerodeda” (Finland) – $156,816
4. João Mathias “joaoMathias” Baumgarten (Brazil) – $115,303
5. Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski (Ukraine) – $84,779
6. Michael “imluckbox” Addamo (UK) – $62,336
7. “Aminolast” (Canada) – $45,834
8. Peter “Belabacsi” Traply (Hungary) – $33,701
9. “Netstar11” (Denmark) – $28,347

Muehloecker wins the Medium

With its slightly-more-accessible buy-in of $1,050, the medium edition Main Event attracted a bigger field of 1,662 (including 531 re-entries) and topped the prize pools with $1.662 million up for grabs.

Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker was always going to be involved. After all, he’s won just about everything there is to win in poker, from multiple Championship of Online Poker titles to live high rollers.

But he hadn’t won a New Year Series Main Event (perhaps because they didn’t exist until this year).

Well, he’s added that accolade to his CV now too.

Muehloecker overcame Lithuania’s Tomas “dartazzzz” Jozonis heads-up and banked $252,075, taking his online cashes up to $8.5 million.

New Year Series $1,050 Main Event

Dates: January 15-17, 2023
Entries: 1,662 (inc. 531 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,662,000

1. Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker (Austria) – $252,075
2. Tomas “dartazzzz” Jozonis (Lithuania) – $179,687
3. Jonathan “jwolter” Wolter (Brazil) – $128,087
4. “Avrora-sp” (Montenegro) – $91,305
5. “Kilrogg94” (Belarus) – $65,085
6. “yAAwn” (Canada) – $46,395
7. “Corleonegerber” (Brazil) – $33,072
8. “SuperQ22” (Montenegro) – $23,575
9. “Sexyflo1990” (Germany) – $16,805

Money in the Biancolini 

Finally, in the $109 buy-in low edition, an absolutely monstrous field of 11,787 entries was assembled (including 3,395 re-entries). With that, the million-buck guarantee was boosted up to $1,178,700.

When the marathon event was over, there was only one player across the finish line: Brazil’s João Pedro “Jbiancolini” Biancolini, who took this one down with no deals (quite rare in an event with such large sums up top).

Congratulations to him, and everyone who cashed in the New Year Series Main Events!

New Year Series $109 Main Event

Dates: January 15-17, 2023
Entries: 11,787 (inc. 3,395 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,178,700

1. João Pedro “Jbiancolini” Biancolini (Brazil) – $153,443
2. “3376788” (UK) – $109,375
3. “13_Pasha_13” (Ukraine) – $77,966
4. “Brunodellas” (Brazil) – $55,677
5. “alanyamil” (Argentina) – $39,617
6. “Carlos levis” (Brazil) – $28,240
7. “extasyman” (Romania) – $20,131
8. Vinicius “viniperri” Perri (Brazil) – $14,350
9. “T8yourmoney” (Canada) – $10,229

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