Winter Festival Highlights + Yafish’s Sunrun & $15K CoinRaces Here to Stay

We closed out the biggest tournament series in CoinPoker history, smashed our Winter Festival guarantees, and saw Yafish’s familiar face dominating the tables.

Now, we’re making the boosted $15,000 daily CoinRaces permanent, throwing another Newsletter Freeroll, and recapping some nosebleed PLO action with VeniVidi.

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❄️ Winter Festival Highlights: +160,000 Entries, Guarantees Smashed

The Winter Festival was a huge success. We saw massive participation from the community, and that brought increased value and prize pools for the players.

Originally, the entire Winter Festival series had a $10 million guarantee. The final stage alone paid out $9.5 million, far above the planned $8 million. 

🔥 Record-Breaking Winter Festival Numbers

🔹 Events: 690
🔹 Satellites: 1,673
🔹 Entries: 162,447
🔹 Total Prize Pool: Over $11 Million

Regulars Yafish and RustCohle dominated the festival. Yafish recorded 13 wins, three CoinMasters Coins, and over $80,000 in winnings after playing 315 events. RustCohle accumulated 10 titles, PEPE CoinMasters Coin, and the most cashes with 268. 

Fluidmanatee won the most from the Winter Festival, netting themselves $97,041 in cashes. $60K of that came from winning the $500 Main Event, where they topped a 763-strong field.

Top 5 – Most Cashed:

Player	Cashed
Fluidmanatee	$97,041
Yafish	$83,170
Wolfstradamus	$66,499
Papapoor	$56,715
RustCohle	$54,331

One player, JamesPenguin, somehow managed to play 559 events out of the total 690. RustCohle was close behind, with 548 events played. We’re still not sure how they found the time. 

Top 5 – Most Events Played:

Player	Cashes
JamesPenguin	559
RustCohle	548
jaja259	477
Charles1	351
sk0in13x	330

The final Sunday of the Winter Festival brought $1,065,000 in guarantees, and players pushed it even higher with $1,321,913 paid out.

The $150 CoinMasters BITCOIN Event also set a new record, drawing 1,262 players for a $175K prize pool.

🏆 Winter Masters Series Main Events

• $15 Main Event: 1,655 entries · $23K prize pool
• $75 Main Event: 1,329 entries · $92K prize pool
• $500 Main Event: 763 entries · $359K prize pool

The $15 Low Main Event was the biggest tournament of the series with 1,655 entries.

🥇 Winter Masters Main Event Winners

• $15 Main Event: 321MeinsTV for $3,486
• $75 Main Event: inghetata for $14,213
• $500 Main Event: fluidmanatee for $60,910

📈 Winter Masters Leaderboard Winners

There was also an additional $100,000 in Winter Masters Leaderboards up for grabs, and payouts are on the way.

PapaPoor won the High Tier for a $15,000 top prize, Yafish took the Medium Tier crown worth $7,500, and Mikenificent shipped the Low leaderboard for $2,500.

Top 3 Winter Masters Leaderboard Winners:

Tier	Buy-Ins	Prize Pool	🥇 1st	🥈 2nd	🥉 3rd
Low	$5–$15	$10,000	Mikenificent $2,500	MinhaVida $1,500	0XNONOX0 $1,000
Medium	$22–$75	$30,000	Yafish $7,500	RustCohle $5,000	DrSen $4,000
High	$88–$500	$60,000	PapaPoor $15,000	jajo259 $10,000	BomberCrypto $7,000

🪙 Yafish’s Incredible Heater During the Winter Festival

One man is currently overshadowing the entire CoinPoker tournament community.

Winning tournament after tournament, online crusher Yafish went on an unreal heater, not just at the Winter Festival, but across CoinPoker as a whole.

Within just two weeks, he achieved something incredibly rare by winning three unique CoinMasters Silver Coins (PEPE, SHIBA, DOGE).

Event Wins	Total Cashed	Events Cashed In	Events Played	Leaderboard Winnings
13	$83,170	167	315	$10,000

At the Winter Festival alone, Yafish won 13 events and played in 315 tournaments. He also finished first in the Medium Tier of the Winter Masters Leaderboards for $7,500, and eighth on the High Tier Leaderboard for $2,500, adding $10,000 to his winnings.

🔥 Player Turns $50 Into $28,800 at the Winter Masters Main Event

Ch1dd3nl4y3r satellited into the $500 Winter Masters Main Event for only $50. He then went on a deep run all the way to the final table.

He finished 3rd for $28,800, the 8th-biggest cash of the entire series.

Small buy-in. Big stage. Massive score. This is why we play and why CoinPoker satellites can change your poker life.

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🏎️ Boosted $15K CoinRaces: Now Permanent

Six daily leaderboards. Four-hour resets. Great cash game value.

If you’ve been playing the $15,000 Boosted CoinRaces leaderboard, nothing changes, except that the prize pools are permanently staying at 25% bigger.

$15,000 is to be won every day, split across six four-hour cash game leaderboards. No opt-in. Just sit down and play.

You’re automatically entered by playing NLHE, PLO, or PLO5 cash games. Live leaderboards update every 60 seconds, and payouts land within 72 hours.

Two tiers keep it fair:

• $100+ buy-ins: Top 10 paid
• Up to $50 buy-ins: Top 15 paid

Peak hours bring bigger prize pools. Off-peak windows often mean softer fields. Either way, there’s always a race running.

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🪙 CoinMasters Update: Last Week of January

The chase for the CoinMasters Championship Final Table and the $100,000 poker career is heating up.

Last week, we interviewed GamblersFallacy and Symmetry. If you haven’t checked out the interview yet, we highly recommend hearing what the two CoinMasters leaders have to say.

Here are the other players who won coins this week:

• NachoTheKat won the $25 DOGE for $2,212 (2nd coin)
• Junli shipped the $88 PENGU-ASIA for $2,656 (3rd coin)
• User53 took down the $100 PEPE for $4,830 (2nd coin)
• Jorgiii won the $88 FLOKI-ASIA for $2,226 (2nd coin)
• CrabMentality won the $122 BITCOIN-ASIA for $11,866 (1st coin)
• MagicHat shipped the $150 BITCOIN for $26,993 (1st coin)

CoinMasters Standings in the Final Week of January

• 5 Unique Coins: 2 players
• 4 Unique Coins: 8 players
• 3 Unique Coins: 17 players
• 2 Unique Coins: 87 players

Coins are stacking fast, and the race is getting tight.

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🎥 The Craziest High Stakes Poker Hands of 2025

2025 delivered some truly spectacular moments at CoinPoker’s high stakes tables, and there’s no better player to break them down than online PLO legend Dirk “venividi1993” Gerritse.

Joined by Martin Rose, he dives into the craziest PLO and PLO5 pots of the year, providing elite poker strategy advice in real time.

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😂 The 3 Funniest X Posts of the Week

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🎉 $300 Newsletter Freeroll: Free Shot at Value

No buy-in. No gimmicks. Just value.

🗓 Saturday, January 30
⏰ 17:00 UTC
💰 $300 prize pool
🏆 Top 20 paid (20 × $15 tournament tickets)
🔑 Password: FROSTY

Seats are limited. Register early.

New to CoinPoker? Getting started takes minutes.

1. Register your CoinPoker account: It takes less than a minute.
2. Claim the 150% Welcome Bonus: Use bonus code FREEROLL 
3. Get Weekly Rakeback: 33% rakeback fixed straight away.

Join Us At The Tables

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🗣️ Help Shape This Newsletter

This newsletter is built for our players. Tell us what you want more of and what we should cut. 

Strategy. Freerolls. Promos. Community moments. Hand breakdowns. Whatever it is, your feedback decides what stays.

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🧠 Poker Strategy: Useful Guides to the Game

No theory overload. Just some poker strategy advice you can use right away.

• Poker Equity: What Is It and How to Use It to Improve Your Poker Game
• Mastering Value Betting in Poker: How to Maximize Your Wins
• Poker Variance Explained: What It Is and How to Manage It

Raise your edge, one session at a time.