Aaron Gustavson finished third in the PokerStars Yearly TLB behind winner ‘ismo<3seppo'[/caption]
In a historic showing, ‘ismo<3seppo' won the PokerStars Yearly Tournament Leaderboard for the third straight year. The Finnish player is the first to win the PokerStars Yearly TLB three times.

For winning the yearly leaderboard, ‘ismo<3seppo' gets $50,000 in prizes, including $35,000 in cash, one years' worth of Sunday $215 tickets, $5,000 worth of major online series tickets, and entry into a $75,000 freeroll. During the course of 2015, ‘ismo<3seppo' piled up 61,859 points for the PokerStars Yearly TLB. He logged 109 tournament wins, the most of anyone in the top five, and 567 top-10 finishes. Three-thousand points behind him on the leaderboard was Allen ‘Sifosis‘ Bakke, who is ranked #15 in the world on PocketFives. Bakke amassed 83 tournament wins and 693 top-ten finishes during the year. Bakke was #122 on the PokerStars Yearly TLB in 2014 and final tabled the Sunday Million last April for $115,000.

Third place went to Aaron ‘aguskb‘ Gustavson, who had 56,823 points for the leaderboard and compiled 73 tournament wins and 477 top-10 finishes. Gustavson finished 23rd in the Yearly TLB in 2014 and for back-to-back top-25 finishes. He finished second in the PokerStars Super Tuesday in June for $52,000, his largest MTT cash last year.

Fourth place went to ‘MARCIN123‘, who had 54,130 points. The Leeds, UK resident had 35 wins during the year along with 275 top-10 tournament finishes. Like Gustavson, ‘MARCIN123’ hit it big in the Sunday Million last year, winning it in April for $230,000.

Rounding out the top five was Estonia’s Markku ‘markovitsus‘ Koplimaa, who had 56 tournament wins and 462 top-10 finishes. Koplimaa took 44th in the 2015 Yearly TLB and just passed $2 million in PocketFives-tracked scores..

According to PokerStars, the Yearly TLB, at least in its current state, is coming to an end for good. The site said in a press release, “2015 was the last year of the Yearly Tournament Leaderboard in this format. Instead, PokerStars plans to use this budget for another promotion aimed at top tournament players this year. Full details will be announced in the coming months.”

The first PokerStars Yearly TLB ran in 2004, with ‘teecoy‘ being crowned the winner. The next year, former #1 ranked player Cliff ‘JohnnyBax‘ Josephy took it down. Josephy was the #1 ranked online poker player in the world on PocketFives from April of 2005 to September 2006, a 74-week run, the longest reign by anyone thus far.

In 2006, ‘tnetter‘ took down the Yearly TLB before giving way in 2007 and 2008 to Shaun Deeb. Deeb is the only other multi-year winner of the PokerStars Yearly TLB and was ranked #1 in the world on PocketFives for two weeks in 2008 as well as six weeks in 2009.

Patrick ‘aprilsfool‘ Carron wrestled the title away from Deeb in 2009. He took second in the Sunday Million that year for $176,000 and has logged almost $2 million in tournament cashes for his career.

In 2010, ‘AltyAA‘won the TLB thanks to victories in a $530 No Limit Hold’em tournament, the $109 Rebuy, and a WCOOP Second Chance event for over $200,000 total. The following year, ‘wizowizo‘ was the PokerStars Yearly TLB champion.

In 2012, David ‘dhilton12‘ Hilton earned TLB gold after capturing victories in both the Sunday Second Chance and Big $162 that year. ‘ismo<3seppo' was the TLB champ in 2013, 2014, and 2015.