PokerStars Sets the Tone for 2026 With Its New Year Series Return

On-line poker large PokerStars is losing no time heading into 2026, with the New Yr Sequence set to launch on January 1 and run throughout a 20-day schedule to open the 12 months.

The 2026 New Yr Sequence comes with $18 million in assured prize swimming pools throughout 144 numbered occasions, most of that are provided in three buy-in tiers: Low, Medium, and Excessive, following the acquainted WCOOP and SCOOP construction. In complete, the collection options 317 particular person tournaments, with buy-ins designed to go well with a variety of bankrolls, beginning at $2.20 and climbing to $5,200.

This would be the fourth straight 12 months the New Yr Sequence has been staged on the dot-com platform, having changed the Winter Sequence within the calendar. Not like earlier editions that overlapped Christmas and the New Yr, the upcoming collection will probably be performed solely throughout the New Yr window.

PokerStars New Yr Sequence 2026 Overview:

Runs from January 1 to twenty, 2026
$18 million in ensures
317 particular person tournaments
Purchase-ins from $2.20 to $5,200
Three Essential Occasions with a mixed $2 million assure
$300K price tickets to be distributed by way of Fortunate Dip promotion

As anticipated from a PokerStars flagship event competition, the schedule provides some of the numerous choices of codecs and variants in on-line poker. Alongside the usual NLHE and PLO occasions, gamers can discover Omaha H/L, 5 Card Omaha, Stud, Draw video games, and Combined codecs resembling 8-Recreation and HORSE.

A powerful emphasis is once more positioned on bounty codecs, led by Progressive Knockouts. PKOs account for 192 of the 317 tournaments, representing greater than 60% of the schedule. Thriller bounty occasions additionally function prominently, with 17 tournaments making up roughly 5% of the lineup, whereas the remaining 108 occasions are non-bounty codecs, accounting for about 34%.

Extra selection comes by means of codecs resembling Zoom, Complete KO, Final Man Standing, Adrenaline, Deepstacks, heads-up, five-handed, and 7-handed occasions, alongside the extra conventional 8-handed and 6-handed setups. Re-entry guidelines additionally fluctuate, with some tournaments permitting a single re-entry and others allowing three, 4, or 5.

Among the many headline tournaments, the Sunday Million returns on January 4 in a non-bounty format, retaining its $1 million assure and $109 buy-in. Working alongside it’s a $22 Mini Sunday Million, introduced as a thriller bounty occasion with a $350,000 assure. On January 11, the common Sunday Million steps apart, making room for a $75 Sunday Particular PKO that includes $400,000 in ensures.

The collection reaches its peak on January 18 with three Essential Occasions priced at $109, $1,050, and $5,200. The $109 Low Essential Occasion runs as a thriller bounty event with a $1 million assure. The $1,050 Medium Essential Occasion carries a $500,000 assure and is performed in PKO format, whereas the $5,200 Excessive Essential Occasion additionally provides a $500,000 assure.

NYS 2026 Schedule Highlights

January 4

$109 buy-in Sunday Million — $1M GTD
$22 buy-in Thriller Bounty Particular — $350K GTD

January 11

$75 buy-in Sunday Particular (PKO) — $400K GTD

January 18

$109 buy-in Essential Occasion Low (Thriller Bounty) — $1M GTD
$1,050 buy-in Essential Occasion Medium (PKO) — $500K GTD
$5,200 buy-in Essential Occasion Excessive — $500K GTD

“We’re excited to start out 2026 with a collection constructed round accessibility, massive ensures, and codecs our gamers love,” stated Steve Clarricoats, Director of On-line Poker Expertise at PokerStars. “From Thriller Bounties to the $1M Sunday Million and a full vary of Essential Occasions, the New Yr Sequence is the proper method to kick off the 12 months with high-value tournaments and loads of methods to qualify.”

$300K in Tickets to Be Awarded All through the Sequence

As with this 12 months’s SCOOP and WCOOP festivals, PokerStars will help the New Yr Sequence with a Fortunate Dip promotion, handing out $300,000 price of collection tickets. The promotion capabilities as a each day leaderboard, the place each entry right into a New Yr Sequence event triggers a random draw, providing gamers an opportunity to win an extra NYS ticket valued at as much as $5,200 or a Gold Energy Cross price $10,300.

Every time a participant registers and performs any NYS occasion, they’re assigned a random Fortunate Dip rating starting from 1 to 1,000,000. The rating is generated after the participant performs their first hand within the event.

Gamers can monitor their place by way of the leaderboard part, which shows present rankings and the prizes obtainable. Getting into extra New Yr Sequence tournaments will increase the possibilities of touchdown the next leaderboard spot, though outcomes should not performance-based, which means gamers don’t have to money or win occasions to obtain a Fortunate Dip rating.

On January 4, 11, and 18, which fall on Sundays through the collection, leaderboard prizes will embrace NYS tickets alongside Energy Path passes and step tickets. Separate leaderboard durations operating from January 16 to 17 will award Essential Occasion tickets and satellite tv for pc entries.

“The New Yr Sequence has change into some of the enjoyable durations on the net poker calendar,” stated PokerStars ambassador Ben “Spraggy” Spragg. “Whether or not you’re firing a number of low buy-ins through the vacation break or leaping into the deeper Essential Occasions, it’s an effective way to start out the 12 months. I can’t wait to dive in.”

As well as, gamers can have a number of qualification routes, with direct satellites obtainable from as little as $1.10. Energy Path will even be in play with buy-in beginning at 50 cents, providing devoted New Yr Sequence Energy Cross Packages that embrace Gold and Silver Passes together with New Yr Sequence ticket bundles.

The qualification system has already produced main success tales. Throughout final 12 months’s collection, a Energy Path qualifier turned an $11 funding into $152,142 in New Yr Sequence winnings. Energy Path has since established itself as considered one of PokerStars’ simplest and common routes into main on-line and stay tournaments.

The upcoming competition marks the fourth version of the New Yr Sequence. The earlier version ran from December 2024 into January 2025 and was a lot bigger, that includes 359 tournaments and paying out greater than $36 million in complete prize cash. Since then, PokerStars’ international participant pool has contracted barely following exits from gray and unregulated markets, because the operator continues to concentrate on regulated and growth-oriented jurisdictions.

PokerStars has additionally already locked in dates for SCOOP 2026, confirming that the flagship collection will return earlier within the 12 months with a March slot, operating from March 1 to 25, 2026.