Benjamin "beastishngry" Juhasz Wins PokerStars New Year Series PLO Main Event

The PokerStars New Year Series is rapidly approaching a thrilling conclusion, with the three No-Limit Hold'em Main Events shuffling up and dealing on January 15. We will not know the champions of those events until January 17 because they are three-day affairs, but we already know the Pot-Limit Omaha Main Event champion, Hungary's Benjamin "beastishngry" Juhasz.

The $215 buy-in PLO Main Event saw 646 players enter, leaving a substantial overlay on the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool, not that the 95 in-the-money finishers cared because it meant extra value for them. The likes of Team PokerStars' Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, Lucio "WizardOffAz" Lima, Johannes "Greenstone25" Korsar, Niklas "Lena900" Astedt, and "jokkee_apart" cashed but fell short of the seven-handed final table.

New Year Series 126: $215 PLO Main Event Final Table Results

Four of the seven finalists saw their $215 investment swell to a five-figure haul. Austria's "rObertOblancO" was the first casualty of the final table, crashing out in seventh for $4,634. "gee-f#1" of Canada and the United Kingdom's Tom "Jabracada" Hall were the next two players relieved of their chips; they collected $5,814 and $8,292, respectively.

Kenny "SpaceyFCB" Hallaert saw his deep run end in a third-place finish worth $11,825 before Brazilian "NbL21" busted in third for $16,865, which sent the PLO Main Event into the heads-up stage.

Juhasz and "7561363" of Estonia locked horns and butted heads in the final battle for the lion's share of the prize pool. The $10,000 difference in payouts did not phase either player, and no deal was discussed. Juhasz finally came out on top and got his hands on $34,302, resigning 7561363 to the $24,052 runner-up prize.

Gavin Cochrane Shines in the $1,050 NLHE Event

The New Year Series 129-H was a $1,050 No-Limit Hold'em tournament that saw 350 of the world's best poker players flock to PokerStars. When the dust settled and the curtain came down on proceedings, Gavin "gavz101" Cochrane was the man sat there behind all the chips. His reward? The title of champion and $55,882 in prize money.

The top 48 finishers won a slice of the $350,000 prize pool, with such luminaries as Ivan "Negriin" Luca, Damian "pampa27" Salas, Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, Matas "bebaimis777" Cimbolas, and Niklas "Lena900" Astedt seeing a return on their investment. Chris "Moorman1" Moorman popped the final table money bubble when he could not progress deeper than tenth place.

New Year Series 129-H: $1,050 NLHE Final Table Results

*reflects a heads-up deal

Any of the nine stars who navigated their way t the final table would have made a worthy champion, but the night belonged to Cochrane. "WhatIfGod" of Sweden, "AchoBogdanov," Allan "allan sheik" Mello and Daan "DaanOss" Mulders' exits left the waters slightly less shark-infested.

Brazilian duo Brunno "botteonpoker" Botteon and Renan "Internett93o" Bruschi then ran out of steam, the latter reeling in a $26,210 score for his fourth-place finish. Heads-up was set when "Heidegger807" busted in third from their Canada home.

Cochrane and Pedro "gusmaa" Gusma paused the tournament clock and discussed a deal. Originally, first and second-place awarded $64,612 and $47,830, but the deal agreed upon resulted in Gusmaa padding his bankroll with $56,560, slightly more than Cochrane's $55,882, despite Gusmaa busting in second place.

Other PokerStars Results

"Harada110" helped themselves to a $49,045 score, including bounties, when they took down a $530 NLHE 8-Max PKO New Year Series event. A similar prize of $48,587 went to "bkzmee" who won a $530 NLHE 7-Max PKO affair.

*includes bounty payments

The New Year Series wraps up on January 17. In addition to the three No-Limit Hold'em Main Events that are currently in place, 23 tournaments with buy-ins from $2.20 to $2,100 are waiting to crown their champions over the next couple of days.