Ole Schemion Banks $224K and PokerStars New Year Series Main Event Title

The three New Year Series No-Limit Hold’em Main Events concluded at PokerStars on January 13, and it was Ole “wizowizo” Schemion who emerged with the largest prize of the festival. Schemion took down the $5,200 New Year Series Main Event for $224,424, defeating Brazilian Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi heads-up.

The $5,200 Main Event drew in 230 entrants who created a $1,150,000 prize pool. Day 1 ended with only 15 players in contention for the title. Three-time Sunday Million champion Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov led the final 15 back into battle, with Germany’s “assel007” closely behind.

Schemion sat down tenth in chips on Day 2, with the 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Martin “M.nosbacoJ” Jacobson bringing up the rear.

$5,200 New Year Series Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

It took around 15 minutes for the final table to be reached. “SerVlaMin” was the first to fall, followed by Aliaksei “ale6ka” Boika, Andras “probirs” Nemeth, Casimir “Ceis25” Seire, and Damian “pampa27” Salas .

Michael “imluckbox” Addamo popped the final table bubble, running his suited ace-queen into the dominating ace-king of “whaleptt.” The Big Slick held, Addamo busted, and the surviving nine players headed to the final table.

_{Final table action starts at 25:45 on the above video}

A battle of the blinds during the first ten minutes of the final table’s action resulted in “stek94” bowing out. From the small blind, “stek94” limped with ace-king, and Vezhenkov checked his nine-trey of clubs. The flop fell nine-queen-six with two diamonds, “stek94” checked and Vezhenkov checked behind. The queen of clubs landed on the turn, pairing the board and putting two clubs out there. “stek94” fired a half-pot bet before calling the raise from their opponent. “stek94” checked on the ace of clubs river before calling all-in when Vezhenkov jammed. Vezhenkov’s flush was good, and “stek94” was gone.

“assel007” started Day 2 second in chips, but they ran out of steam and had to make do with an eighth-place finish. Their deep run ended when they committed the last of their stack with ace-eight and couldn’t beat the pocket jacks of “99dm84” despite flopping a flush draw.

Seventh place went to Jacobson, who three-bet all-in for nine big blinds from the big blind with ace-ten suited after Vezhenkov min-raised from early position with king-jack. A jack on the flop was enough to win the pot for Vezhenkov, who climbed to the top of the chip counts as Jacobson faded to black.

Bosnia’s “99dm84” was the sixth-place finisher. They were down to three big blinds when they opened with queen-jack of diamonds. “Phemo” called on the button with ace-nine, and Schemion put in calling chips from the big blind with king-five. A deuce-five-ten flop saw everyone check to “Phemo,” who bet a mere 350,000 into the 3,070,000 pot. Schmion called, and “99dm94” called off their tiny 213,021 stack. Schemion led out tiny on the ten of clubs turn, and “Phemo” folded. The river was a three, safe for Schemion, and “99dm84” was gone.

The five remaining players headed on a break immediately after the previous elimination. Upon their return, nothing went right for Vezhenkov. The Thailand-based Russian was the chip leader at the start of five-handed play, but became the fifth-place finisher. First, they lost a chunk when “Phemo”‘s ace-four of spade flopped a flush to beat their ace-king. Then a cruel run-out saw Vezhankov improve to a king-high straight on the river when “whaleptt” hit Broadway on the same card.

They then jammed 30 big blinds with ten-nine of clubs in the small blind and lost to Schemion’s ace-ten, which left the once-leader with only five or so big blinds. Vezhenkov’s last three big blinds went into the middle with queen-jack, which lost to the ace-king of “Phemo.”

Fourth place and the last five-figure prize went to “Phemo,” although their $99,418 haul was essentially worth six figures. Down to eight big blinds, “Phemo” called a min-raise with king-six of spades while in the big blind. A six-seven-deuce flop saw “Phemo” check, “Schemion fire a quarter-pot sized bet and call “Phemo’s” check-raise all-in. Schemion showed nine-eight for two overs and an open-ended straight draw. The latter came in on the turn to eliminate “Phemo.”

At the start of three-handed play, Schemion held over 29 million chips, while Bruschi had 23 million in his stack. ” Whaleptt ” was on life support with eight big blinds. Unsurprisingly, “whaleptt” was the next player heading to the showers.

“whaleptt” busted at Schemion’s hand, committed their micro stack on a six-eight-ten flop with two spades while holding king-trey of spades. Schemion’s jack-eight held, eliminating “whaleptt” in third for $130,416, and sending the $5,200 New Year Series Main Event into the heads-up stage.

The champion-elect held a 34,719,779 to 22,780,221 chip advantage going into the one-on-one battle with Bruschi, but the contest was far from over because there were 115 big blinds in play. A near-30-minute battle ensued, and it was Schemion who eventually claimed all of the chips.

The final hand saw Bruschi limp with pocket sixes, Schemion raise all-in with ace-four, and Bruschi call all-in. An ace on the flop proved enough for Schemion to become the tournament’s champion and recipient of $224,424, leaving Bruschi to console himself with a $171,081 runner-up prize.

$5,200 New Year Series Main Event Final Table Results

Other PokerStars Results From the Weekend

The $1,050 edition of the New Year Series Main Event also awarded a six-figure top prize. Poland’s “DrawindDead” defeated Austria’s “chrisgoataui” heads-up to walk away with $140,670, with $61,096 of that bankroll-boosting sum stemming from bounties.

Shout-outs also to Blaz “Scarmak3r” Zerjav for winning a $40,832 prize by taking down the $1,050 NLHE PKO and to Brazilian ace Alisson “heyalisson” Piekazewicz for becoming the $530 NLHE PKO champion and banking $32,842.

*includes bounty payments

It won’t be long until PokerStars announces its next big festival. Trust us, it’s going to be a doozy! Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the PokerStars and other poker news you can handle.

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.