Sweden’s ‘C Darwin2‘ has a chokehold on the top spot in the PocketFives Rankings. He’s been #1 since February 10, but there are several talented players nipping at his heels.

Take Vancouver’s Joel ‘jbrown8777’ Brown, for example, who moved up five spots in the rankings this week to settle at #5, two spots off his all-time high. Brown won a PartyPoker Powerfest tournament on Tuesday for $67,000 and a mammoth 635 PLB Points. That event drew a field of 808 players and had a buy-in of $530.

To close out February, Brown took third in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance for $20,000 and is closing in on $4 million in online tournament winnings lifetime. He was ranked as high as #3 in the world on PocketFives last year and is the top-ranked player in Canada.

‘jbrown8777’ has 6,796 PLB Points and trails top-ranked ‘C Darwin2’ by 600. ‘C Darwin2’, from Sweden, hasn’t recorded an online MTT win since February 7, but has put up plenty of volume and plenty of results. He finished second in the PokerStars $109 Rebuy on Tuesday for $6,100 and final tabled a Powerfest event on March 7 for $10,000.

‘C Darwin2’ has almost 30 in the money finishes so far in March and has helped lead Swedes to the top three spots worldwide in the rankings, and five of the top nine. Over the years, ‘C Darwin2’ has accumulated over 2,000 in the money finishes, 130 top-three runs, and $3.7 million in online winnings.

There wasn’t much movement in the top 10 this week. Outside of the top 10, however, players jostled for position with gusto, as ‘MiracleQ‘ rose 15 spots to #17, his highest ranking ever. ‘MiracleQ’ won the PokerStars Hot $55 on Tuesday for $9,200 and also has two victories this month in the PartyPoker Heavyweight Drago and one win in the PokerStars Hot $82. He’s the #2 ranked player in Russia.

‘philroyal888‘, from the UK, also set a personal best this week, moving up 16 spots from #54 to #38. He won Powerfest Event #87 on PartyPoker on Monday for $45,000 and 484 PLB Points, defeating a field of 469 entrants. One day prior, he finished fourth in the 888 Baby Whale. The next top-three finish he records will be the 100th of his career.

A familiar face in the rankings, Sweden’s ‘Sheater‘, was up 31 spots this week to #42. He was ranked #1 on PocketFives as recently as 2014 and has four wins already this month: the PokerStars $40,000 Guaranteed, PartyPoker High Roller, PokerStars Big $109, and PokerStars $10,000 Guaranteed. Those four have driven his career win total north of 200.

The arrow of Mexico’s ‘Blackk‘ is also pointing up after he rose 28 spots this week to #50. The top-ranked player in Mexico, ‘Blackk’ has four wins this month, including in the 888 Volcano for $23,000. Two days before that, he was the runner-up in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance. He plays as ‘Biack88‘ on PokerStars, where he just hit $3 million in career winnings, and is the owner of five PocketFives Triple Crowns.

Noah ‘dirtybrasil’ Vaillancourt hit #67 in the rankings this week, 22 spots higher than last week. He’s now 26 slots shy of his all-time high and took fifth in the FTOPS Main Event over the weekend for $17,000. Over the first weekend of March, he final tabled the Sunday Million, so he’ll look to three-peat in this weekend’s Sunday Majors.

Hungary’s ‘breeth‘ returned to the top 100 this week at #78 thanks in part to a final table in the PokerStars Bigger $55 over the weekend for $10,000. Earlier in the month, ‘breeth’ won the PartyPoker High Roller for $5,000 more than that. He’s the third-ranked player in Hungary and has more career online wins (115) than second and third places combined (98).

Finally this week, Rasmus ‘RasA’ Agerskov Larsen reentered the top 100 at #85. He was ranked as high as #40 in the world last year. Larsen won the Sunday 500 in 2014 and 2015 and came within inches of another victory over the weekend, but bowed out in fourth place for $25,000.

Current Top 10 Players:

1. C Darwin2 – 7,423 points
2. eisenhower1 – 6,953 points
3. lena900 – 6,814 points
4. MendaLerenda – 6,801 points
5. jbrown8777 – 6,796 points
6. Ariados – 6,682 points
7. SvZff – 6,665 points
8. gray31 – 6,601 points
9. DeathbyQuads – 6,369 points
10. veeea – 6,308 points