‘C Darwin2’ is the #1 ranked online poker player in the world and locked up the Monthly PLB title for a second consecutive month in December. It was a close race to end the year. ‘C Darwin2’ edged out worldwide #2 Steven ‘SvZff’ van Zadelhoff by only 55 points and managed to escape with a win.

December finished with ‘C Darwin2’ holding 3,283.45 points and an average of 164.17 per result. ‘C Darwin2’ completed their month with a flourish by winning a $500 MTT on PokerStars on December 28. The win came with $72,833 and 664.83 PLB points. 2017 concluded with ‘C Darwin2’ winning five PLB titles and they are already working on the first of 2018.

The reigning WCOOP Main Event winner van Zadelhoff started his December strong in the PokerStars High Roller series. van Zadelhoff earned the silver medal in the $500,000 guaranteed Progressive KO event to add $89,818 to his account. The hardware included 517.39 PLB points. The Maltese-living van Zadelhoff wrapped up his 2017 with a month of 13 podium finishes and three wins. van Zadelhoff won September’s PLB title thanks in large part to his Main Event win.

Former PocketFives #1 from 2017 ‘lena900’ had the third-best December. ‘lena900’ won PLB titles in January and March and took in 3,125 more points to end the year. The best performing result for ‘lena900’ came at an opportune time on December 1. ‘lena900’ placed second in the $400,000 guaranteed Six Max event in the High Roller Series to start their month with 421.42 points on the board.

The third Swede in the December rankings is Jerry ‘perrymejsen’ Ödeen. The four-time Triple Crown winner closed out 2017 with a consistent month and a hair over 3,000 PLB points. Ödeen reached as high as #12 worldwide in 2017 and will look to break into the top-10 as January moves forward.

The legendary Jon ‘apestyles’ Van Fleet joins in at #5. Van Fleet won the partypoker MILLIONS Online for $1.027 million and put his career earnings within striking distance of $10 million. The win produced 2,266 points for Van Fleet and allowed him to ease off the gas for the rest of the month. Van Fleet is the only player who calls Canada their virtual home to make December’s top-10.

Brazilian ‘sitpro2011’ is in the PLB top-10 for the first time in their career. The second-ranked player from Brazil used a win in the Half Price Sunday Million to accumulate 1,377.43 points. ‘Sitpro2011’ defeated a field of 18,973 and an award of $197,163 for their efforts.

The second former PocketFives #1 to earn elite PLB status is Michael ‘telks’ Telker. Telker averaged 140.93 points in December and used seven wins to carry him to the finish line along with a high volume rate.

‘hellohellohello’ ended November third in PLB points and wrapped up December in the eighth position. The first Russian player on this month’s list won the Sunday 500 to achieve their highest point total for December. The 406.82 points racked up by ‘hellohellohello’ came along with $30,836.

The trend of former #1s ending the year strong continues with Andreas ‘r4ndomr4gs’ Berggren. The worldwide #6 is the fourth player from Sweden to appear on December’s PLB rankings. Berggren missed the top-10 in November, placing 11th, and comes back in after placing ninth in October.

United Kingdom’s top dog Conor ‘1_conor_b_1’ Beresford completes his second consecutive month of PLB prestige. Beresford’s top December score of 369.70 came in the December 28 $2,000 event on PokerStars. The former worldwide #2 currently ranks 10th in the world.