Each week members of the PocketFives.com community hit career highs in money earned and positions in the Worldwide Top 100.

Every week The PocketFives Milestone Report looks at the online poker players who are achieving career-best achievement or reaching new heights in the rankings

Steve ‘Illini213’ Barshak Makes It $7 Million

Former Worldwide #2-ranked player Steve ‘Illini213’ Barshak used the last week of the calendar year to work his way up over the $7 million lifetime earnings mark. A pair of four-figure cashes on partypoker helped put the longtime grinder within reach of the massive sum. He scored $2,500 for a runner-up finish in the Title Fight on December 26 and the very next day finished in the same position in the Big Brawl Warm Up for another $2,024.

Barshak, a former WCOOP winner, had quite the December accumulating 14 four-figure cashes in total as a part of over $43,000 in earnings. Barshak, who hails from Illinois but plays out of Costa Rica, is currently ranked #143 in the PocketFives Worldwide rankings.

Major Victory Pushes Bernardo ‘bedias’ Dias Over $6 Million

After outlasting a tough field of 662 runners in the PokerStars $500 No Limit Hold’em tournament on December 27, Brazil’s Bernardo ‘bedias’ Dias raced past the $6 million lifetime earnings mark. The first place payout of over $72,000 gave him the post-holiday push he needed to get the job done before the end of the year.

The score was the second five-figure cash of the month for Dias as he also banked $21,948 during the PokerStars High Rollers Series in Event #19.

Two For $3 Million

Malta’s #2-ranked player, Pim ‘joppiesaus’ de Goede and Brazil’s ‘fred_volpe’ both celebrated surpassing the $3 million lifetime earnings mark this week. de Goede made the final table during the partypoker $100K Gtd High Roller for a $2,255 score that both put him both over the milestone as well as helped him to knock on the door of entering the Worldwide Top 100, as he currently ranked #106.

‘fred_volpe’, who was the previous holder of the #106-ranking player on PocketFives, now currently sits in the Top 100 at #68. That rankings leap, as well as his money milestone, was thanks to his first place finish in the PokerStars $50 No Limit Hold’em on December 27. Outlasting a field of 4865 runners, ‘fred_volpe’ turned his $50 into $39,215 and 572.36 PLB points, while not a career high cash it was a career-high points score.

Other notable career-high earnings include the Austria’s #1-ranked player ‘rolandbauer’ as well as Russia’s ’papan9_p$’ topping $2 million lifetime.

Javier ‘Ofbravetight’ Swett Swings Into Top 100

Unlike past two weeks, this week there are plenty of players who spent the last week of year climbing to career highs in the PocketFives Top 100. One of those players is Chile’s Javier ‘Ofbravetight’ Swett who not only made his debut in the Top 100 this week at #86, but jumped 68 spots to do so with the help of a trio of qualifying cashes including a victory on PokerStars for early $39,000.

Also of special note is the career-high ranking of ‘papan9_p$’ who clawed his way up one spot to #28 in the same week that he, as we just mentioned, eclipsed $2 million in lifetime earnings.

Career High Rankings In Top 100