When the latest calculation of the PocketFives Online Poker Player Rankingstook place on Wednesday, Ireland’s Jono EMSGAWA9Crute (pictured) popped up at #96. It marked his first appearance in the top 100 worldwide and came in part due to having the 90th best Sliding PLBtally in the shire. He just topped $1 million in tracked cashes and sat down with PocketFives to celebrate his big accomplishment.

“It means a lot, as it was actually one of my goals for the year coming in,” Crute told PocketFives when asked how it felt to make the top 100. “The PocketFives PLB system really rewards hard work and I just wanted to put in a lot of hours this year.” In mid-April, Crute chopped the Big $109 on PokerStars and officially cashed for a healthy $19,000, a finish that bolstered his Sliding PLB tally even more.

On why making the top 100 in the world was so significant, Crute explained, “It’s a good gauge of where you’re at and much as I love tournaments, it’s important to find other ways to motivate myself after playing so many of them over the last few years.”

With a renewed drive, Crute sounded energized and, like a kid in a candy store, eager to grind out the rest of the calendar year: “The rest of the year is going to be more grinding online, continuing to work with players in my stable, and heading out for the WSOP Main Event, as it’s the first one I’m 21 for. I want to enjoy myself apart from that. I have a big American road trip adventure planned for September, so I want to grind hard until then.”

The 2012 WSOP schedule begins at the end of May and features over 60 bracelet events in the Nevada desert. For Crute and other poker hopefuls, this year will mark their first opportunity at live poker glory after turning 21. Crute told us that he “won a package. I thought you could take cash for it, as I hadn’t planned to go, but we’ve decided to make a bit of an adventure out of it and are going to Austin for three nights, which I am looking forward to.”

Crute arrives in Las Vegas at the beginning of July and potentially never envisioned himself on poker’s biggest stage competing for what was last year nearly a $9 million top prize.

“I got started in poker after watching it on TV when I was 17,” Crute shared. “I started playing online after that and joined poker forums. I have gotten so much help from various people since then, but early on, Jon EMSBas Spinks (pictured) really helped my game a lot. I started playing full-time in January 2010 after an adventure to Tokyo with $400 to my name, which was a terrible idea but worked out well.”

If you haven’t deduced by now, Crute is an avid traveler: “I really enjoy traveling and meeting people. I tend to grind very hard at home and then go on adventures. This year, I’ve been to Boston and Hong Kong and did a Michigan/Chicago unplanned road trip with Gareth ggarethh Cash. Most of my non-poker time tends to revolve around the pub too.”

His largest recorded cash came in February, when Crute final tabled the PokerStars Big $109 for nearly $40,000. Last July, he made the top two of the PokerStars Sunday Supersonic for $15,000. Also in February, he booked his very first online poker Triple Crownafter snagging victories in $10,000 prize pool tournaments on PokerStars.fr, PokerStars.com, and PartyPoker within a seven-day period. He was one of a dozen PocketFives members to claim Triple Crowns that month.

See who else cracked the top 100 of the PocketFives Rankings.