New Jersey's Yong 'ykwon17' Kwon topped the June Monthly PLB. (photo Borgata)

It’s been years since an American, playing online poker inside the United States, took down the Monthy PLB award.

Sure, Alex Foxen, an American, took home the award just last month but he was playing from his home in Canada. However, since Black Friday it’s been nearly impossible for a player grinding the regulated U.S. online poker sites available to them to add a monthly PLB achievement to their resume – but in June, it happened.

New Jersey-based online pro Yong ‘ykwon17’ Kwon (3,129 PLB points) not only rose to the top of the U.S. Online Poker Rankings, but he grinded his way to the June Monthly PLB award thanks to a pair of major six-figure scores – one of which was good for a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.

The stars seemingly aligned allowing for Kwon’s June success. PokerStars‘ and partypoker’s spring series had come to an end allowing many major players to take some time away from the online grind. Additionally, many regular online pros, including the likes of ‘lena900’ and Patrick ‘pleno1’ Leonard, heading out to Las Vegas to take a shot in the 2019 World Series of Poker.

Those factors wouldn’t be enough. Kwon had to crush the month of June and he did just that. As previously mentioned, Kwon took down WSOP Event #7 ($400 NLHE Online Bracelet Event) for a career-high cash of $165,263 and a massive 1,008 PLB haul. He followed that up a week later by winning WSOP.com’s OC #35 ($300,000 GTD Player Appreciation Tournament) for another $121,730 and 799.11 PLB points. In total, Kwon registered 10 PLB-qualifying cashes all of which were good for at least four-figures bringing him over $352,000 in total earnings for the month.

His performance and results in New Jersey brought him over 3,000 PLB points and were good enough to lead the entire world in the month of June.

PocketFives June Monthly PLB Leaderboard

RANK PLAYER POINTS
1 Yong ‘ykwon17’ Kwon 3129
2 Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo 2556
3 Patrick ‘thebigdog09’ Brooks 2417
4 ‘x_zola25’ 2391
5 Chris ‘Gettin Daize’ Oliver 2165
6 Jordan ‘JWPRODIGY’ Westmorland 2090
7 Jerry ‘perrymejsen’ Odeen 1919
8 ‘Sheater’ 1877
9 ‘panic.player’ 1709
10 Doug ‘OU_dlanger610’ Lang 1707

If it weren’t amazing enough that Kwon would take the June title, another New Jersey player rose to the #2 spot this month. Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo (2,556) also leveraged a WSOP bracelet win for big time PLB points when he celebrated a victory in the WSOP Event #46 ($500 NLHE Turbo Online Bracelet Event) for $145,274 and 891.52 PLB points.

Lupo also managed nine outright victories in June for nearly $250,000 in total earnings, helping him hit a career-high worldwide ranking of #89 in the world.

The UK’s #7-ranked online player Patrick ‘thebogdog09’ Brooks (2,417) finished the month in third place. His highlight score of the month came with an outright victory in the June 23 edition of the PokerStars High Roller Club ($1,050 Sunday Warm-Up) for $31,485 and 387.30 PLB points.

Brooks put in a massive grind throughout June, registering 144 cashes for over $136,000 in total earnings. He currently sits ranked at #61 in the world, just down from his career high of #49.

The #4 spot in June went to Denmark’s #1-ranked player ‘x_zola25’ (2,391). ‘x_zola25’ had nine PLB-qualifing cashes including a victory in PokerStars UFC KO Poker Series 22 ($530 NLHE High Roller) for $18,212 and 316.23 PLB points. He also managed a pair of other High Roller victories earlier in the month when he took down the June 10 edition of the PokerStars High Roller Club $530 Daily Supersonic for $12,785 and completed the feat again on June 14 in the High Roller Club $530 Bounty Builder for another $10,966.

Closing out the top 5 for the month of June is former #1-ranked PocketFiver Chris ‘Getting Daize’ Oliver (2,165). Oliver picked up a spotlight victory in the June 16 edition of the PokerStars High Roller Club $530 Sunday 500 for $22,414 and 340.59 PLB points as one of his 11 podium finishes in the month.