Zerjav Leaves Stars in His Wake En Route to New Year Series Victory

The New Year Series is nearing its conclusion, and Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav seems determined to finish strongly. Zerjav was one of 539 entrants in the $530 No-Limit Hold’em Progressive Knockout Sunday Warm-Up and was the last man standing after 12 hours of play.

Dozens of household names navigated to the top 63 places where the regular prize pool was distributed. They included Benjamin “BC1989RF” Chalot, Audrius “Stakelis24” Stakelis, Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph, Andrey “ThePateychuk” Pateychuk, and final table bubble boy Timothy “1BigAceHole” Ulmer.

As expected, the final table was a star-studded affair featuring top-tier online poker grinders. The waters became less shark-infested after Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson was relieved of his chips in eighth place, a finish good for $4,302 with bounties included.

Any of the final four would have not looked out of place in a tournament costing ten times as much as this event’s $530 buy-in. Scott “Aggro Santos” Margereson was the first of this talented quartet to bust. Margereson walked away with $11,084.

Simon “Simon1471” Higgins busted in third for $17,315, leaving Stevan “random_chu” Chew heads-up against Zerjav. Both players locked in $20,829 from the regular prize pool, leaving the now substantial bounties to play for.

The final battle went Zerjav’s way, and he added $27,450 from the bounty prize pool to his haul, taking his total winnings to $48,280. Chew closed down his table having banked $23,946 in total.

NYS 93-H: $530 NLHE PKO Warm-Up Final Table Results

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Estonia’s DingeBrinker Captures First PokerStars Titans of 2025

The $5,200 Titans Event returned to PokerStars’ Sunday schedule on January 5, and Estonian superstar “DingeBrinker” is delighted it did. A field of 61 entrants created a $305,000 prize pool, and the Estonian took home the lion’s share of the pot, $82,322.

The top nine finishers finished inside the money, so spare a thought for tenth-place finisher and bubble boy Niklas “Lena900” Astedt. With the Swedish poker legend done and dusted, the nine surviving players combined on the final table having locked in $9,508 for their efforts.

Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky bowed out in ninth for $9,508. However, the Ukrainian fired three bullets, so they actually left money on the table. Denmark’s “starswins :)” fell in eighth for $10,886, with “lgammil€120” collecting $14,534 for their seventh-place finish.

Austria’s “P0KERPR02.0” turned their $5,200 investment into $19,405 after busting in sixth, while “Zorkkin” of Brazil banked $25,908 after their deep run ended in fifth.

Another Austrian, Leonard “Grozzorg” Maue, crashed out in fourth for $34,590. Maue enjoyed an incredible 2024 with his results including a victory in the PokerStars Titans Event in March and July. It seems Maue is carrying on his recent form into the new year.

The tournament progressed to the heads-up stage when “I Attack95” was eliminated in third for $46,182. “DingeBrinker” found himself in a one-on-one battle against Belarusian “Alister307” in what was essentially a near $21,000 heads-up sit & go. As he has done countless times, “DingeBrinker” came out on top, reeling in another $82,322 and resigning the runner-up to a $61,659 consolation prize.

$5,200 Titans Event Final Table Results

Other PokerStars Results (January 5, 2025)

Big scores were the order of the day on January 5, especially for “PeroQmaloQoy,” who won $38,981 in a $215 NLHE New Year Series event.

There were also victories for Daniel “dani aziz” Aziz ($22,712), Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren ($13,395), and Berggren’s fellow Swede Anton “WhatIfGod” Bergstrom ($10,796).

*Includes bounty payments

Get Your 2025 Off to a Flying Start PokerStars Tournament Again

Follow in the footsteps of the winners in this article by heading to PokerStars and jumping into one of the many multi-table tournaments running each day. You can use the PokerNews Online Tournament Calendar to plan your attack. Our free-to-use tool lets you see upcoming and in-play tournaments at several online poker rooms, including PokerStars. You can even take advantage of a PokerStars sign-up bonus. You can apply filters to narrow your search, including buy-in, game type, and even prize pool guarantees, enabling you to find your perfect online poker tournament in seconds, all without leaving PokerNews!

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.