Keith ‘donnysack’ Donovan Stays #1 in New Jersey Amid Sea of Change
Spring is supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb but thanks to May’s PokerStars New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker series in New Jersey, that was not the case. Over $1,000,000 was up for grabs through nearly 60 events, offering a wide range of buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools. Those events saw hundreds of players hit the virtual night after night and when the dust settled, the New Jersey Online Poker Rankings had a very different look to them.
Except at the top, as Keith ‘donnysack’ Donovan still holds a sizable lead at the peak of the leaderboard, thanks to a massive late month victory. Donovan won $30,000 guaranteed ’The BIG Deal’ on WSOP.com to close out the month, good for a nearly $13,000 score. He also recorded a runner-up finish in a $300 Six Max NLHE NJSCOOP event earlier in the month, which was good for just under $7,500.
While ‘donnysack’ keeps the status quo at the top of the leaderboard for a third straight month, ‘Jermz’ makes the jump up to the podium spots after a white hot stretch of results. ‘Jermz’ won 14 times throughout the month of May, including two nightly WSOP.com majors and a mid-month $50,000 Sunday Major win on BorgataPoker.com. Add in another two dozen podium finishes and ‘Jermz’ had one of the best months in New Jersey through the first half of 2016.
It’s just “one of the best months” because Michael ‘Gags30’ Gagliano might have had a better May than ‘Jermz’. Gagliano opened the calendar with a $50,000 Sunday Major win on BorgataPoker.com and then followed that up with three NJSCOOP wins on PokerStarsNJ. Add in a win for #TeamGags as part of the PocketFives communities NJSCOOP Draft and Gagliano is streaking into this summer’s World Series of Poker.
The WSOP will likely skew the New Jersey Online Poker Rankings slightly for a few months, as a handful of players will be in Las Vegas for the duration of the summer. Jake ‘jtsnakes’ Perry will likely not be attending the majority of that series meaning that he could push himself even further up the charts. He’s now sitting forth, thanks to one of the biggest recorded wins on PokerStarsNJ. That came in the $1,000 buy-in NJSCOOP High Roller, where Perry outlasted a field of the best New Jersey has to offer to take home a nearly $30,000 result.
Yong ‘ykwon17’ Kwon, Daniel ‘RedsoxNets5’ Sewnig and Steven ‘7douche’ Madara are all likely going to be staying on the East Coast for the summer as well, while Mike ‘Lav519’ Lavenburg will be spending the next few months in Vegas for the WSOP. He’s fallen near the bottom of the top-ten, where Mike ‘JohnnyDrama’ Haberman and Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo, who is new to the rankings, hold down the 9th and 10th spots.
After the shakeup that was NJSCOOP, it should be interesting to see how the next few months could alter how the New Jersey top ten looks come the end of summer but as it stands, the New Jersey Online Poker Rankings:
The New Jersey Rankings Top 10
- donnysack – 3,499
- Jermz – 3,065
- Gags30 – 2,887
- jtsnakes – 2,809
- ykwon17 – 2,779
- RedsoxNets5 – 2,758
- 7douche – 2,728
- Lav519 – 2,724
- JohnnyDrama – 2,682
- centrfieldr – 2,664
