The top online poker pros dazzle us each week with their ability to dominate the big prize-pool events and to go deep in the Sunday majors. These days we have the added excitement of watching them dominate live as well. Already this year we have had Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby's run of live wins, BeL0WaB0Ve's WPT title, Annette Obrestad's WSOPE main event win, and many other outstanding performances. This week was another blockbuster for Pocketfivers on the live circuit as Annette_15 finished second in the EPT Dublin and Scott "BigRiskky" Clements took the WPT title at Niagara and 1.3 million dollars. <READMORE>

This time last year Scott Clements was celebrating his win in the Canadian Poker Open in the same casino. That was also a WPT title, but a much smaller field, although he still took home over 200k. I have had the pleasure of watching BigRiskky play live and I have to say the focus and intensity with which he plays is astounding. He plays a generally tighter game than the ultra-aggressive style of many of his online peers, but he attacks every pot he enters and when the money goes in you better believe he has the best of it. It is this style of play that has brought him such amazing results on the live tournament circuit, which now include two WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles.



For a while it seemed that online poker was becoming the "minor leagues" of poker where up and coming pros went to hone their skills and build their bankrolls. The satellite feeder system in particular brought a ton of money into the live tournament scene through the trickle-up economics of millions of players buying into satellites to the World Series and other major events. Initially the highly talented online pros were lost amid a sea of online qualifiers, many of whom were typically dead money in the big events. Since then an elite group of online pros have emerged who continue to play and dominate online, but when they show up to a live tournament they are frequently buying in directly, or if they won a seat online they did so because of the great value in online qualifiers. These players are a force to be reckoned with, and as this past year has shown, they are no longer "up and comers". They have arrived.

The North American Poker Championships at Niagara was a dream tournament to cover for PocketfivesLive, and Court did an outstanding job of following the multiple storylines as five true online players and six registered Pocketfivers made the final table. Adam "Roothlus" Levy was the first to be knocked out of this group, but 9th place still earned him $77,000. ActionJeff Garza made his first TV final table, where he came in as one of the short stacks. Not one to hang around, Jeff made his move early and finished in 6th place. Still an impressive showing for the young man, and he will have many more opportunities to prove his skills on the live scene.

Kofi "redsoxsox" Farkye took 5th place for $218k. Barry Greenstein, who is by no measure an online player, but he is a registered Pocketfiver, came into the final table as the shortest stack but he outlasted his two young opponents. He managed to get his money in good with Ad9d vs K9os, but as we all know, 70-30s lose, well about 30% of the time. The final three were David Cloutier, Scott "BigRiskky" Clements and Jonathan "FireyJustice" Little. You can recap all the action at PocketfivesLive if you missed it, but suffice it to say that Cloutier was outmatched by the two sharp online pros and Little and Clements finished second and first respectively.

Both Little and Clements have been putting up huge results this year, and with this 1-2 finish they have jumped to the top of the live tournament Player of the Year standings. Little won the Mirage Poker Showdown earlier this year for $1 million, along with 5th at the PCA in January, second in a WPT championship prelim event, and has nine final tables in total, putting him in second in the POY race. Scott Clements is in hot pursuit with his latest win added to a Pot Limit Omaha WSOP bracelet this summer and several six figure cashes and wins this year. The two are separated by just 134 POY points and Little trails the leader, David Pham, by just 138 points.

Another well known Pocketfiver is in the top ten of the 2007 POY race. Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby has fallen to 8th place since his peak earlier this year, but his accomplishments have certainly earned him a good deal of recognition from the media and other pros on the circuit. He was absolutely crushing live tournaments in April, May and June. He won two preliminary events at the WPT Championships for almost $600,000 in April, he won a prelim event at the Mirage in May and took second in the WPT event at Mandalay Bay in June for $459k. He also made another deep run in the World Series main event this year. Last year he finished in the top 10% of the field, going out 812th for a minimum cash of $15.5k. This year he improved on that tenfold by outlasting 98% of the field and finishing 88th for $82k. If he continues on this pace we could see Hamby at the WSOP main event final table in 2008!

With six out of the top ten players at WPT Niagara being Pocketfivers, I have barely had time to mention Annette_15's latest accomplishment. Just six weeks ago she became the first Woman to win a NLHE WSOP bracelet and the Main Event champion of the very first WSOP Europe. Not one to rest on her laurels, Annette continues to attack tournaments unmercifully and she has followed up her historic win with another impressive result. She came into the final table of EPT Dublin with a commanding chip lead, holding 788,000 and almost 1/4 of the chips in play. Unfortunately she just barely missed back to back titles, finishing second for a nonetheless outstanding payday of $416,920.

The purpose of this article is not to brag about the success of these Pocketfivers (ok, maybe just a little bit), but it is intended to highlight the status of the online pros in the world of poker today. Not only are these people good, they are great and the rest of the world is beginning to realize it. Congratulations to all of the Pocketfivers mentioned in this article for their outstanding achievements, as well as the many others not mentioned. Keep making us proud!
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