PokerStars Welcomes 2026 with the New Year Series $18,000,000 GTD

PokerStars Welcomes 2026 with the New Year Series $18,000,000 GTD
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Vasilisa Zyryanova Blog Content Editor
Fact Checked: PokerListings
  • Updated: December 26, 2025
  • Read time: 1 min

How else can you spend the holidays except having a great time with your family? Of course, take part in the legendary Winter Series at PokerStars with all its festive events and gifts!

New Year Series Key Details

  • Dates: from January 1st to 20th, 2026
  • 144 events + 317 tournament extravaganza
  • 15 tournaments per day on average
  • Buy-ins from $2.20 to $5,200
  • All events are divided into three categories according to the buy-in: Low, Medium and High
  • $2,050,000 guaranteed in Main Events

Most tournaments are NLHE, but there are also activities for fans of non-Hold’em games:

  • 11 NLO8, 7 PLO, 3 PLO8 and 3 PLO5 events
  • 6 HORSE events
  • 6 8-Game events
  • 3 NL 5-Card Draw events
  • 3 Razz events
  • 3 Stud and 3 Stud Hi/Lo events
  • 2 FL 2-7 Triple Draw events

Four Grandiose Main Events

All main events will begin on January 18th, 2026:

  1. New Year Series 126-L: $109 NLHE [Mystery Bounty, Main Event], $1M Gtd — 12:30
  2. New Year Series 126-M: $1,050 NLHE [Progressive KO, Main Event], $500K Gtd — 12:30
  3. New Year Series 126-H: $5,200 NLHE [Main Event], $500K Gtd — 12:30
  4. New Year Series 127-H: $215 PLO [PLO Main Event], $50K Gtd — 13:05

While these events have large guaranteed prize pools, there will be other tournaments with decent prize pools prepared by PokerStars:

  • New Year Series 25-M: $109 NLHE [Sunday Million], $1M Gtd — starts at 12:30 on January 4th, 2026.
  • New Year Series 25-L: $22 NLHE [Mini Sunday Million Mystery Special], $350K Gtd — starts at 12:30 on January, 2026.
  • New Year Series 25-H: $1,050 NLHE [Sunday High Roller], $200K Gtd — starts at 12:30 on January 4th, 2026.
  • New Year Series 74-M: $55 NLHE [Progressive KO, Mini Bounty Builder HR], $200K Gtd — starts at 12:30 on January 11th, 2026.
  • New Year Series 75-M: $75 NLHE [Progressive KO, Sunday Special], $400K Gtd — starts at 13:05 on January 11th, 2026.

New Year Series Satellites

The cost of entering Steps and satellites varies between tournaments but each has a fixed minimum buy-in, depending on the type of satellite:

  • Power Path from $0.50
  • Special Spin&Go from $0.75
  • Usual satellites start from $1.10

For Power Path satellites, the room will be giving out one free ticket to players every day, so we all have a chance to qualify for the New Year’s Series without spending a penny.