Hungary’s Marton ‘noirduck’ Czuczor won the March Leaderboard (photo credit Danny Maxwell)

Every point has been tallied, every chip has been counted and in one of the closest finishes in Monthly PocketFives Leaderboard history, Marton ‘noirduck’ Czuczor wound up on top after piling up 2,906 PLB Points during the month.

Czuczor logged five wins last month, starting with the Full Tilt Tyrannosaurus Rex on March 4 for $1,100. He won both the PokerStars Hot $7.50 and partypoker Heavyweight Clubber the same day for another $6,000 total. Two weeks later, the Hungarian hit it big in the PokerStars Saturday Super Knockout, taking the title for $25,000 and almost 400 PLB Points.

On March 20, Czuczor came in third in the PokerStars Sunday $109 Rebuy for $24,000 and was second in the 888 Whale one day later, adding another $34,000 to his coffers. He closed out the 31-day month with a bang, winning the partypoker High Roller for $35,000. The latter two were his seventh and sixth largest career scores, respectively.

After his highly successful month, Czuczor is up to 33 tracked career wins and almost $2.5 million in earnings. He became just the second Hungarian to win a MPLB, the first coming eight years ago when Peter ‘breeth’ Turmezey won it.

“I know ‘noirduck’ personally,” Turmezey said. “He is a good guy and I was very happy for his success. There are lot of players in Hungary compared to the size of the country. Therefore, most people know somebody who knows somebody who makes their living from poker.”

Turmezey actually took fourth in the Monthly PLB standings for March with 2,766 points, narrowly capturing his second trophy. Turmezey took down three online MTTs during the month: the partypoker High Roller, 888 Baby Whale, and PokerStars $109 No Limit Hold’em Turbo. The trio was worth $50,000 total and helped boost his career winnings to over $5.7 million.

Second place in the MPLB standings for March belonged to Joao ‘joaomathias’ Mathias, who had 2,877 points and trailed Czuczor by just 29. He finished third in the PokerStars Sunday 500 on March 20 for $47,000 and 365 PLB Points. That score came two weeks after he placed fourth in the site’s Sunday Warm-Up and put back $27,000.

Second place in the March MPLB went to Joao ‘joaomathias’ Mathias

Mathias has tasted MPLB victory twice before. He won the monthly races in July 2011 and January 2015 with 2,313 and 2,970 points, respectively. In fact, Mathias is responsible for one-third of the MPLB trophies hoisted by Brazilian players, and he took 12th in the February MPLB standings.

Ivan ‘ivanvilchez8’ Vilchez was the third place finisher in the March MPLB. The Argentinian had a pair of monstrous cashes during the month, the first of which came on March 8. That day, he took down the PokerStars Super Tuesday and cashed for $92,000 and 699 PLB Points. Not to be outdone, 13 days later he finished second in the partypoker Pokerfest Main Event and earned $136,000 along with 635 PLB Points.

Those were the two largest in the money finishes of Vilchez’s career. And as if those weren’t enough, he finished third in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance last month for $22,000 and also grabbed second in the 888 Baby Whale, boosting his bankroll by another $20,000. Vilchez is #53 in the PocketFives Rankings and is the top dog in Argentina.

Sweden’s ‘Discoovery‘ finished in fifth place with 2,718 points, fewer than 200 off the lead. He’s up to #56 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings, took down seven tournaments in the last four days of March, and he has since won four more to bring his career total to 25. His largest score of March was worth $13,000 and came via a fourth place finish in a Powerfest event.

Here were the top 10 in the March MPLB:

  1. noirduck – 2,906.88 points
  2. joaomathias – 2,877.76 points
  3. ivanvilchez8 – 2,784.13 points
  4. breeth – 2,766.82 points
  5. Discoovery – 2,718.94 points
  6. lena900 – 2,657.01 points
  7. DBerglin – 2,646.15 points
  8. Big Huni – 2,495.17 points
  9. Blackk – 2,426.32 points
  10. Sheater – 2,419.18 points