2022 PokerStars Year in Review
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Another PokerStars year is in the books, and what a year it’s been.
After a two-year hiatus, PokerStars live events roared back in 2022 with not only the European Poker Tour breaking records, but also the regional tours putting up numbers like never before.
Here’s a recap of 2022.
JANUARY
Just as it had been for most of 2020 and all of 2021, online poker remained our prime focus as we entered the new year.
The Winter Series kept us all entertained throughout the first half of January, with Ognjan “cocojamb0” Dimov, a former EPT Main Event champion and now high roller crusher, and Gleb “Ti0373” Tremzin, one of Russia’s most feared tournament players, taking down Main Event titles.
As for the rest of the month, the poker world–and the world at large–was obsessed with a new game, so we took a deep dive into solving Wordle.
And there was exciting news for poker fans who also love Formula 1, as PokerStars and RedBull announced a global partnership.
FEBRUARY
By February, poker home games were back in business around the world. To help spice things up, we took a look at 8 unique poker variants to try at your next home game.
But if home games weren’t enough to scratch your live poker itch, we didn’t have to wait long for the EPT to announce its comeback: Welcome back to the EPT — making Prague a trip to remember.
GPI Awards 2022: We congratulated PokerStars Team Pro Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg who enjoyed a fantastic night at the GPI Poker Awards, winning Best Streamer, while James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton’s Poker in the Ears podcast took down the Best Podcast award.
Plus, a new Bounty Builder series was announced and to help players prepare, we put together a bountiful bundle of strategy articles on how to play PKOs:
- How Bounty Builder events work and why you should play them
- What’s the difference between KO, PKO and TKO poker?
- Getting to grips with the mathematics of bounties
- The 5 tips you need before playing Bounty Builder Series
- KO Poker: The 5 players to target (and the 5 players targeting you)
- PKO Primer: Improve your Progressive Knockout tournament results in 30 minutes
- The Complete Guide to Knock-Out poker
MARCH
The European Poker Tour returned in March with EPT Prague. While there wasn’t the festive feel and winter weather we’re used to in the Czech capital, thousands still flocked to take part, producing some massive tournaments and big-name winners.
PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton outlasted a 57-player field to win the €10,200 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty High Roller for €80,360, plus plenty of €5,000 bounties along the way.
And Poland’s Grzegorz Glowny took down the Main Event for €692,252 (we spoke to Glowny at December’s edition of EPT Prague).
Plus, it was in Prague that Dare2Stream winner Sebastian “peace&loove” Huber was officially welcomed into the PokerStars Team Pro fold. Grafton was on hand to patch him up.
Meanwhile, on the virtual felt there was a little tournament known as the Sunday Million 16th Anniversary, a $215 buy-in event that boasted a $10 million guaranteed prize pool. 52,210 entries took part and in the end, it was a 31-year-old student from Germany known as “BlackBeaty” who took it down, winning a staggering $931,885.
APRIL
April brought big news as the highly-anticipated second edition of the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) was officially confirmed for the Bahamas in January 2023. Plus, at the same time, we also found out that the PCA was relaunching.
In London, James Rann was busy running away with the UKIPT London Main Event, which he won for £86,000.
And at the end of the month, EPT Monte Carlo began its first run since 2019.
MAY
May is always a busy month on the poker calendar and 2022 was no different.
Over in Monaco, we saw the biggest names in the game battle in huge tournaments at EPT Monte Carlo:
Magnificent Mateos adds Monte Carlo Super High Roller title to Main Event crown
Brazil finally cracks it! Mesqueu wins first EPT title for South Americans in Monte Carlo
Then our attention turned to the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2022, one of the most prestigious online series there is.
PokerStars Team Pro Fintan “easywithaces” Hand got off to an incredible start, winning his third title right off the bat. “It’s a bit weird,” he told us. “I’ve never had a big score so early in a series before!”
Other notable wins throughout the series included high stakes beast Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt turning a $109 Phase into a $230K Titans SCOOP title.
Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser won his seventh SCOOP.
And Ole “wizowizo” Schemion got the job done yet again.
JUNE
SCOOP continued into June and the series ended with a bang.
Austria’s “WElcomeINnferNO“ took down the biggest prize, winning the $10K Main Event for $1.141 million.
You can check out all the numbers from the thrilling series here.
Plus, Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg took us behind the scenes during his trip to the World Series of Poker 2022.
And PokerStars officially launched in its hometown of Ontario.
JULY
As the WSOP 2022 continued in Las Vegas, there was exciting news from across the pond:
EPT London was to return after an eight-year absence, with at least two Platinum Passes to be won.
AUGUST
In August, Adam Maxwell took down the UKIPT Nottingham Main Event for £98,150. Overall, the festival paid more than £1 million in prizes.
And PokerStars Team Pro Mason “pyefacepoker” Pye was on hand to vlog the entire event for us.
Then we headed to EPT Barcelona, one of the most beloved stops on the circuit.
There, Mikita Badziakouski added a second Barcelona Super High Roller crown to his mantle after an epic clash against Erik Seidel.
Mason Pye took down his first live tournament, winning the HORSE for €17K.
SEPTEMBER
Over on PokerStars Ontario, PokerStars Team Pro Arlie Shaban was dominating. We spoke to him about his stupendous string of wins.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world was rightly focused on the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2022, the most prestigious online poker series in the world.
It was the first WCOOP in which Sebastian “peace&loove” Huber was representing the red spade, and he did so brilliantly, taking down a title.
One of the biggest winners in online poker history, Joao “Naza114” Vieira, took down his ninth WCOOP title.
And Player of the Year Rui “RuinF” Ferreira put on a breathtaking performance, winning four titles in 2022.
OCTOBER
Unfortunately, the WCOOP Main Events were postponed until November and WCOOP Take 2 was announced.
In the meantime we headed to EPT London:
Ian Hamilton roared back from the dead to claim the EPT London Main Event title and £664K.
Check out our interview with Miller here.
Plus, we spoke with two of online poker’s top players in 2022: Pedro “pvigar” Garagnani and Alex “FutureofMe” Kulev.
NOVEMBER
WCOOP 2022 finally reached its conclusion in November with Take 2 and another $28 million added in prizes.
But it was Luis “luis_faria” Faria who claimed the most coveted trophy of them all, winning the $10K WCOOP Main Event for $1.29 million.
DECEMBER
Our last stop of the year was EPT Prague and its usual December timeslot didn’t disappoint.
Brazil’s Rodrigo “seijistar1” Seiji won the €50K Super High Roller for €667,120, having already taken down the €10K Mystery Bounty for €95,880. We spoke to him after his victories.
Then Jordan Saccucci made his chip lead count, winning the Main Event for €913K.
With the PSPC just weeks away, here’s to a fantastic 2023. Happy new year, all! Back to Top
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