Keith ‘donnysack’ Donovan Remains #1 Ranked Player in New Jersey
The trend of the last few New Jersey Online Poker Rankings updates has been minimal changes at the top of the leaderboard, as a few players have seemingly cemented themselves on the podium spots over the last few months. That’s not the case heading into May, as a handful of players shot themselves not only into the top ten, but into the top half of those rankings.
Keith ‘donnysack’ Donovan has kept himself in pole position, helped by a handful of medal finishes through the month of April. If consistency was what moved Donovan atop these rankings through the second half of winter, it’s what’s keeping him at the top, as he notched over two dozen scores in the last month. Those results include a WSOP.com High Roller win and a runner-up finish in the partypoker Mega Tuesday.
While Donovan has seemingly gone quantity over quality, Mike ‘Lav519’ Lavenburg has combined those two themes. Lavenburg recorded three Sunday Major victories through April, including a win in the $50,000 Sunday Special on PokerStarsNJ for just over $12,000. There is still about a 250 PLB point differential from first to second and there is a similar gap between Lavenburg and #3-ranked Steven ‘7douche’ Madara.
He’s pushed himself into the podium spots after a very high volume month that saw him notch over 35 scores in April. Four of those runs ended in the winner’s circle including a Sunday High Roller Six-Max victory on PokerStarsNJ for $9,000 and a WSOP.com Nightly $10,000 win.
If players are going to move into the top three spots, players need to fall out and that’s what’s happened with both Yong ‘ykwon17’ Kwon and Daniel ‘RedsoxNets5’ Sewnig. They’ve fallen to 4th and 8th respectively and while they were and still are in the top ten, ‘phatchoy888’ is making his NJ Online Poker Rankings debut this month after recording a dozen victories in April, he is now sitting 5th..
There isn’t much to separate the middle portion of the top ten though, meaning the next few months, when some players may jet off to Las Vegas to participate in the World Series of Poker, could separate the men from the boys. Maybe it won’t be that dramatic but with just 150 PLB points making the difference between 4th and 10th place, where ‘AvonBarkz’ rounds out the leaderboard, there could be a lot of movement through the summer.
The rest of the top ten remains similar to what we saw last month, with Michael ‘JohnnyDrama’ Haberman sitting 7th and Daniel ‘wildman75’ Buzgon holding down 9th. Michael ‘Gags30’ Gagliano isn’t present though but he won’t be complaining that much, after coming off one of his best career live scores, $128,000, via a podium finish in Borgata’s Spring Poker Open Championship.
As mentioned, the next few months could play a major role in how the New Jersey top ten looks come the end of summer but as it stands, the New Jersey Online Poker Rankings:
- donnysack – 3,240
- Lav519 – 2,911
- 7douche – 2,712
- ykown17 – 2,596
- phatchoy888 – 2,503
- ol muggins – 2,467
- JohnnyDrama – 2,461
- RedsoxNets5 – 2,456
- wildman75 – 2,440
- AvonBarkz – 2,438
