New Year Series: Cambodia’s ‘KAgoulAKboul’ latest player to win three titles

January 16, 2026

News

by Jack Stanton

watch_later

7 Minute Read

Forget about joining a gym or journaling every day*. Your New Year’s resolution has already been decided: Win a New Year Series title on PokerStars.

We’re kicking off 2026 in style with another edition of the New Year Series, a 144-event, 317-tournament extravaganza with a whopping $18 million guaranteed in prize pools. The series runs from January 1 through January 20.

LATEST NEWS

Friday, January 16

“KAgoulAKboul” from Cambodia has become the fourth player to win three New Year Series 2026 titles.

Their first came in a $55 PKO (#51-M) for $17,425 total, followed by a win in the $215 Super Tuesday (#92-M) for $17,776. They’ve upped the buy-in level once again for title no.3, clinching victory in the $2,100 PKO Thursday Thrill (#105-H) for $41,738 total–the biggest score from Thursday night.

Thursday, January 15

Just 12 New Year Series events wrapped on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean we’re short of headlines.

Albanian crusher “king153246” is now a triple champ, winning their third of the series in the $109 8-Game PKO (#99-M). They banked $3,399 (including bounties) for the win, which sees them join Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv and “Sintoras” as the only players with hat tricks.

Austria’s “Keep3r” may well pick up a hat trick of their own as they dominated Wednesday’s session, winning two titles–both in the same event. Keep3r took down both the $22 8-Game PKO and $530 8-Game PKO, for $1,880 and $7,619, respectively.

Botteon took one down

Bruno “bottenpoker” Botteon picked up his first title, topping 152 entries in the $320 Deep Stack (#96-H). The Brazilian collected $10,390 for the win.

The day’s biggest prize went to “1EP3” of Moldova. They took down the $530 7-Max PKO (#97-H) for $14,517, including bounties.

Wednesday, January 14

“Sintoras” won two titles on Tuesday night, taking them up to three wins for the series (tying Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv). The German player already had a win in the $530 Bounty Builder High Roller (#74-H) for $26,080 total, and last night added a $1K PKO title (#82-H) for $28,539, and a $215 5-Card PLO (#83-H) win for $4,484.

Massive amounts of respect must go to Brazil’s “miioon”, who now has two New Year Series titles in huge-field, low-stakes events. Miioon won a $5.50 PKO for $3,811 at the beginning of the series, topping 5,464 entries. Then, on Tuesday, they took down an $11 PKO for $5,659, besting 5,765 entries.

Leonard “Grozzorg” Maue is also a two-time champ, adding a second $530 Bounty Builder High Roller (#90-H) title for $12,899. The Austria-based German won the same event last week (#67-H) for $13,982.

Tuesday, January 13

Huge congratulations go to Malta’s “Alavirien” who topped a massive 7,130-entry field in the $75 PKO Sunday Special (#75) to bank $39,570, including bounties.

The biggest winner from the weekend was Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane. The Brit navigated his way through a 40-entry elite field in $5K Titans (#77-H) and picked up $73,348 for his efforts.

Shout-out to Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov, who joined the multiple champions list for this series. The Bulgarian’s second title came in the $109 PKO Warm-Up for $27,263, a nice follow-up to his Sunday Million win for $138,495 last week.

Friday, January 9

Fintan “easywithaces” Hand has kicked his new year off right, taking down the $530 Bounty Builder High Roller (#51-H) for $14,443 (including bounties). The former PokerStars Ambassador topped a field of 148 entries.

Great start to the year for Hand

Other winners on Thursday night include 2023 SCOOP Main Event winner Felipe “lipe piv” Boianovsky, perennial leader board crusher “king153246”, and Jonathan “Proudflop” Proudfoot. The latter was the evening’s biggest winner, banking $28,088 for winning the $1K Thursday Thrill (#53-H).

Thursday, January 8

The biggest winner on Wednesday was Romania’s Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu, a longtime crusher and multiple-time Super Tuesday and SCOOP winner. Nedelcu topped the 72-entry $530 Copacobana Mystery Bounty (#47-H) for $20,720, more than three-quarters of which came from bounties.

Wednesday, January 7

Tuesday’s New Year Series action saw Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky win the $1K Super Tuesday (#41-H) for $22,224, topping a 93-entry field. The Ukrainian ended last year’s New Year Series with three titles, so don’t be surprised to see him back in the headlines soon.

Speaking of headlines, “B4NKR0LL3R” is now a double champ this series, joining Pavel “SilentM0de” Plesuv as the only players to win more than one title (Plesuv has three!).

Their first came in a $215 NLHE event (#24) with 889 entries, which B4NKR0LL3R won for $29,547. A couple of days later, they took down the $109 Super Tuesday (#41-M) for $15,007, besting 903 entries.

Tuesday, January 6

Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov is the big winner in the New Year Series so far. We’re used to seeing the Bulgarian crusher bank big scores in high roller events, but this weekend Dimov took down a massive regular edition of the Sunday Million (9,236 entries), turning $109 into a monstrous $138,495. That’s an incredible start to the year for anyone.

It took one $109 entry for Dimov to make $138K

The other big story is Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv, who has already taken down three New Year Series titles for a combined $34,206. He technically won two editions of the $530 Bounty Builder High Roller (#10-H and #18-H) on January 3rd, as the first tipped over into the early morning hours, while the next day wrapped before midnight. His third title was in a $55 5-Card Pot Limit Omaha poker event.

Pavel Plesuv has been on fire

We don’t have any other multiple champs yet, but other notable winners include Leo Worthington-Leese, “leow-l” on PokerStars, who took down the $22 Deep Stack (#09-M) for $13,696, topping a 4,808-strong field.

Vladimir “SerVlamin” Minko is also on the winner’s sheet. The Mexico-based Russian picked up $73,983 for his $5K Titans victory, besting 33 of the game’s best.

RESULTS SO FAR

Updated 16/01/2026

MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

Here’s the full list of multiple champs so far:

THREE TITLES

Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv
“Sintoras”
“king153246”
“KAgoulAKboul”

TWO TITLES

Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov
“.COM??LOL”
“Goldi9202”
“raiurocj”
“B4NKR0LL3R”
“jaimico00793”
Narcis “Narcisus90” Nedelcu
“miioon”

ABOUT THE SERIES

We’ve highlighted a few of the standout events below, but know this: there’s at least $1 million in play multiple times throughout the series, including in the $109 Mystery Bounty Main Event on January 18.

The New Year Series has created some incredible stories in recent years. For example, in 2024, a Power Path qualifier turned $11 into $152,142 in a New Year Series event. There’s no reason it couldn’t happen again, and no reason why it couldn’t be you that does it.

Before we go into more detail on all of that, here’s the key info for diaries.

*Just kidding. These are great resolutions, and you should definitely still do them.

NEW YEAR SERIES KEY INFO

Dates: January 1 – 20, 2026
Events: 144
Tournaments: 317
Guaranteed: $18 million

Each event has a low, medium and high buy-in tier, just like in SCOOP and WCOOP.

Key Events:

$109 Sunday Million, $1M Gtd on January 4
$22 Mini Sunday Million Mystery Bounty Special, $350K Gtd on January 4
$75 Sunday Special (PKO), $400K Gtd on January 11

Main Events commence on January 18:

$109 Main Event Low (Mystery Bounty), $1M Gtd
$1,050 Main Event Med (PKO), $500K Gtd
$5,200 Main Event High, $500K Gtd

NEW YEAR SERIES SCHEDULE

HOW TO QUALIFY FOR CHEAP

You don’t need an enormous bankroll to battle in the New Year Series. PokerStars offers various affordable routes allowing players to book their seats in the biggest events without breaking the bank.

It’s well worth trying these avenues, as we’ve seen in previous editions. UK player “baller139” used a $109 Power Path Bronze Pass to enter the New Year Series Main Event Low and ended up winning it for $152,142 – the biggest cash won by a Power Path qualifier at that time. They won their $109 Bronze Pass by playing a $11Step 3 tournament, so that’s quite the spin.

Players can qualify for New Year Series events via:

• Power Path from $0.50 (players get a free ticket daily)
• Satellites from $1.10
• Special Edition Spin & Go’s from $0.75

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2024/2025?

Schemion took down the Main Event in 2025

The 2024-2025 edition of the New Year Series came to an end on Tuesday (January 14), completing 24 days of non-stop action that saw almost $36 million awarded in prizes.

Ole “wizowizo” Schemion captured not only the $5K Main Event title but also the largest overall prize of the series, winning $224,425 after besting a 230-entry field made up of poker’s best and brightest. Brazil’s Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi was the runner-up and banked $171,081.

But Schemion wasn’t the only Main Event winner. Poland’s “DrawindDead” took down the $1K PKO edition for a total prize of $140,670, while “blackprecise” of Belarus topped the $109 Mystery Bounty edition for $63,330. That event came with a top mystery prize of $100K, of which Belgium’s “buldegah” was the lucky recipient.

Both Renan “Aziz.Mancha” Aziz and King153246 took down a staggering four titles each, while Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky and Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjev nabbed a hat trick a piece.

GET A FULL RECAP FROM THE 2024/2025 SERIES HERE