January 7, 2026 UPDATE:

New Year’s Knockout Leaderboard Winners

• MikeLavin – 1st
• Goodbye Toby – 2nd
• MoZZyNJ – 3rd
• marie1113 – 4th
• BabyMama8888 – 5th

What should you do on the final days of the year? And how should you ring in 2026? Sure, you could go out and spend a lot of money. But BetMGM Poker has another option. You can stay in, play online poker, pick up bounties in knockout tournaments, compete for leaderboard bonuses, and grab your piece of $177,000 in guarantees. And you can play a New Year’s Eve freeroll with $15,000 in its prize pool!

It’s your choice, really.

New Year’s Knockout Series at BetMGM Poker

To help solidify your plans for the last days of 2025 and first of 2026, we have the details of the BetMGM Poker New Year’s Knockout online poker tournament series. All of the events are progressive knockouts, and there is a range of buy-ins to provide something for everyone.

• When:  December 30 to January 2
• Where:  BetMGM Poker online
• How many:  15 tournaments
• How much:  $177,026 guaranteed

The PKO mania will provide several tournaments each day. Here’s the schedule, which will be available in the tournament lobby:

• • Event 1 / Dec 30:  $500 buy-in PKO ($40,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 2 / Dec 30:  $100 buy-in PKO ($10,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 3 / Dec 30:  $25 buy-in PLO PKO ($3,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 4 / Dec 30:  $50 buy-in 40-Stack PKO ($10,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 5 / Dec 30:  $250 buy-in PKO Turbo ($15,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 6 / Dec 30:  $25 buy-in PKO Turbo ($3,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 7 / Dec 31:  FREEROLL ($15,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 8 / Jan 1:  $250 buy-in PKO ($30,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 9 / Jan 1:  $20.26 buy-in PKO ($2,026 guaranteed)
  • Event 10 / Jan 1:  $50 buy-in PLO PKO ($5,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 11 / Jan 1:  $25 buy-in 40-Stack PKO Turbo ($3,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 12 / Jan 2:  $250 buy-in 6-Max PKO ($20,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 13 / Jan 2:  $100 buy-in 40-Stack PKO ($10,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 14 / Jan 2:  $50 buy-in PKO ($8,000 guaranteed)
  • Event 15 / Jan 2:  $25 buy-in PKO Turbo ($3,000 guaranteed)

Note that all of the tournaments have evening start times except the highlighted freeroll event, which begins at 4:05 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. (Registration begins at noon that day.)

Leaderboard Contest

The New Year’s Knockout series will track everyone’s play for the four days of action and award points based on in-the-money finishes. The point system will calculate the number of entries in an event divided by a player’s finishing position, and the corresponding formula will assign points. When the series ends, the top five point earners will win credits to be used on BetMGM sports bets:

• 1st place:  $500 bonus dollars
• 2nd place:  $250 bonus dollars
• 3rd place:  $150 bonus dollars
• 4th place:  $50 bonus dollars
• 5th place:  $50 bonus dollars

All winnings will be credited to the top finishers within 24 hours of the series completion. The sports bonus bet dollars will then be valid for seven days.

Satellites Have Begun

The full schedule is now in the BetMGM Poker lobby. Click on any tournament in the lineup to find its qualifiers. For example, there are $50 satellites running daily for the $500 buy-in opening event, and the most inexpensive qualifiers start at just $2 for the $25 buy-ins.

If you’re still unsure about your New Year’s week plans, take a shot at some satellites and win your way into some tournaments! 

Plan Your Series Now on BetMGM Poker

The action on BetMGM Poker will be incredible through the end of 2025 and into 2026. Not only is there the New Year’s Knockout series and relevant qualifiers, there are satellites for live events like the Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City and the Beau Rivage Heater in Biloxi – two major live event series set for January. Of course, there are round-the-clock cash games, too, all available for real-money poker on BetMGM. Use a special online poker welcome bonus if you’re setting up a new account, and you can start playing today.