This week's PocketFives Rankings update features David Doc Sands (pictured), who ascends to the world's #1 ranking in online tournament play after taking over the top PLB spot last week. A relatively low-volume tournament player, David's run began last May when he took down the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Event #10 for $259,400. In August, he was victorious in the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $90,100 and followed that up with a win in the Full Tilt $1k Monday for $89,250 a month later. He also took down the $200 Sunday rebuy on December 27th for another $44,000. Apart from the $200 rebuy win, David Sands has three other online tournament victories since December, including a 1st place finish in the Full Tilt $125k Guarantee for $47.3k, a victory in the $50 Cubed *1r+1a* for $21.8k (January 3rd), and a win in the UB.com $80k Guaranteed Sniper event for $20,800. In an exclusive interview with PocketFives on Wednesday, Doc Sands had the following to say about his #1 worldwide ranking: "I am kind of amazed at how fast it happened. Less than a year ago I had a full time job and was just playing tourneys on Sundays. To be ranked at the top of a list of elite players less than a year later feels like the single biggest accomplishment of my life." 
Veteran PocketFiver Jon apestyles Van Fleet (pictured) is another streaking player, who moves up one spot to #5 worldwide this week. Jon picked up two cashes late last year for approximately $30k each. 
Ryan gutshtallin Welch of Tennessee (pictured) took home $80,250 from a December 21st victory in the Full Tilt $1k Monday, and is up seven to #39 accordingly. * gutshtallin Podcast - August 27, 2009 * AnteSvante of Sweden leaps 32 spots to #50 after he took down the Stars Sunday 500 over the weekend for $90,000. JoeBlazenyc is a recent Triple Crown winner and climbs 14 to #51, G8vMyLfeAway is up ten to #52, and TheRealPokerccini jumps 25 to #56 on the heels of his 3rd place showing in the PartyPoker Monthly Million earlier this month for $69,000. PocketFiver noctus is moves up 18 to #65, Gettin Daize is new at #74, and Schildy1984 is now ranked #80 in the world at online tournament play. Also new to the rankings this week are ronaldgrauer (#90), subiime (#94), CNT_CRUSHER (#95), and Derek8 (#99).* To view hi-res photos of your favorite online poker players, visit the Image Search page of PocketFivesLive.com!
---Be sure to check out the Online Poker Rankings next week for continued coverage of the world's best online tournament players. For information on how the PocketFives Online Tournament Player Rankings are calculated, visit our Rankings FAQ page.
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
