The holiday season brought plenty of gifts and treats for online poker players. A few bigger names found the winner’s podium during a hefty international online poker schedule.
PokerStars, GGPoker, and 888poker all held major series with big scores coming from players like Chris Klodnicki, Christian Rudolph, and Dan Wilson all finding some nice wins.
Poker Podium once again takes a look at some big online poker winners from December.
GOLD COINS for $10
PokerStars
The New Year Series kicked off at PokerStars on Dec. 25 and runs through Jan. 17. The festival features 140 winter- and holiday-themed tournaments with $40 million guaranteed.
AS of Tuesday, the series had already produced big numbers including:
- Tournaments completed – 119
- Entries – 467,648
- Prize pool total – $16 million
- First-place payouts – $2.3 million
The New Year’s Day Sunday Million was one of the marquee events so far and came with a special buy-in of $202.30. The normal $1 million guarantee remained intact.
The tournament saw 5,362 entries with Switzerland’s “Scoops 2022” scooping the first-place payout of $143,479, Scoops locked up the largest score of the series so far.
In other action, Dan “NukeTheFish!” Wilson topped the field in the $530 NLHE Six-Max for $32,659. This player from Ireland has $1.5 million in live tournament winnings as well as a doctorate in astrophysics.
The $530 NLHE Six-Max Deep Stack saw Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph, of Austria, rise to the top for $39,298. He has more than $5 million in live tournament winnings and also now another online score to add to his poker resumé.
In 2020 Rudolph grabbed a World Series of Poker bracelet online at GGPoker as well. He took down the $25,000 Poker Players Championship for $1.8 million.
Brazil’s Bruno “great dant” Volkmann Event took down a $320 NLHE event for $26,897. The New Year Series continues this month. For a complete preview, click here.
PSPC next up for PokerStars
The Stars action next heads to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which runs from Jan. 22 – Feb. 3 at the Baha Mar Resort.
The $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship is also part of the festivities. The company has awarded numerous Platinum Passes over the last year, which includes a complete tournament and travel package.
Stars ambassador Nicholas Walsh recently awarded a pass to one lucky winner – quite a Christmas gift.
Congratulations to @PaddyDat on winning a @PokerStars #PlatinumPass live on @PSTwitch earlier today!
Very excited to be able to give something back to our incredible moderators.
See you in #TheBahamas buddy! pic.twitter.com/V8mUlzEZtn
— Nicholas Walsh (@NickWalshTV) December 23, 2022
GGPoker
Plenty of World Series of Poker championship ring action was underway at GGPoker in December. The Winter Circuit awards 18 championship rings and offers $150 million guaranteed throughout the series, which runs through Jan. 9.
Nick Maimone was already on a roll last month. He bagged a $1,050 Sunday Main Event High Roller for $80,332 and then took the title in the $1,500 Sunday Saver High Roller Hyper Turbo for another $34,090.
If that weren’t enough, he then came out on top in the $1,050 Naughty or Nice Bounty, which was part of the Winter Circuit. The tournament saw 1,399 players for a $1.4 million guarantee. Maimone pocketed $157,755 and his first WSOP Circuit ring. He has more than $2 million in live tournament winnings to go along with plenty of cashes online.
He wasn’t the only big name grabbing gold in December. Chris Klodnicki vanquished the competition in the $320 GGMasters Bounty Winter Freezeout. The event saw 1,421 players for a $422,037 prize pool.
Forget partridges in pear trees, you've got GOLDEN RINGS to claim!#WSOP #Winter #Circuit #ThanksGG #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/3A7rlICqvj
— GGPoker – World’s Biggest Poker Room (@GGPoker) December 25, 2022
Klodnicki picked up $40,590 for his efforts, adding to a deep poker record. In a career stretching back to 2005, Klodnicki has $10.1 million in live tournament winnings. That now includes two circuit rings and a WSOP bracelet as well.
Plenty of action remains in the Winter Circuit at GGPoker. Click here for a complete preview and click here for the WSOP.ca/GGPoker series in Ontario, Canada.
GOLD COINS for $10
888poker
This site got in the spirit of the season in December with the Happy Holidays Sale series. The festival was a thank you to players and offered half off the tournament buy-in with the same normal guarantees.
888 awarded more than $300,000 in the series with players from the United Kingdom topping the leaderboard with three titles. Brazilian players grabbed two titles and the other event victories went to those in Malta, Ireland, Finland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Belarus, and Montenegro.
All tournaments saw a total of 9,410 entries with $301,755 paid out. The $55 Mystery Bounty Main Event kicked off on Christmas Day and guaranteed $100,000. The tournament saw 1,618 players with 485 rebuys, topping the guarantee for a $105,150 prize pool.
In the end, “Laszlo_Szucs” took the top spot for $7,192 plus $258 in bounties for a total of $7,450.
The tournament also featured a top bounty of $10,000. Canada’s “Josieviolet” scooped that prize, finishing 113th for a total of $10,094.
In the $265 Mystery Bounty High Roller, Montenegro’s “Ognian1988” found the win for $12,034. The tournament produced 148 players, 37 rebuys, and a $46,250 prize pool, easily topping the $40,000 guarantee.
The tournament also features a $4,000 top bounty prize up for grabs, which went to Finland’s “Inflaatio.” The bounty winner finished sixth for a total payout of $8,957.