Steven ’SvZff’ van Zadelhoff’s time in the top spot was short-lived as Swedish superstar ‘C Darwin2’ ascended this week to, once again, claim the Worldwide #1-ranking to close out 2017.

‘C Darwin2’s sixth-place finish in a PokerStars $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event which brought him 270.88 PLB points and a $37,520 payday, in addition to aging scores, was the big difference maker this week. In fact, the Swede went on a post-holiday heater that had him best a 659 player field in a PokerStars $500 No Limit Hold’em tournament to take home an additional $72,833.

After celebrating his first time atop the rankings last week, van Zadelhoff retreats to the #2 spot. His total PLB score took a hit and now the top-tier pro finds himself 683.14 PLB points behind ‘C Darwin2’.

As has become custom over the past month, the #3 and #4 spots have remained the same. Sweden’s ‘lena900′ along with one of the rising superstars of 2017, Russia’s ‘josef_shevjk’, maintain their respective positions. As for ‘lena900’, he’s sitting comfortably in the #3 rank with an over 1000 PLB point buffer. ‘josef_shevjk’ on the other hand is going to have to make some moves if he wishes to remain in the Worldwide #4 spot (and as the #1-ranked Russian) due to the resurgence of fellow countryman ‘veeea’, who has catapulted back into the Worldwide Top 5.

Russia’s ‘veeea’, a former #1-ranked player, found himself sliding down the leaderboard, losing his title as the #1-ranked Russian player and slipping out of the Top 10 in early December. However, in recent weeks, he’s been back on the grind and back on the climb, ascending into the #5 spot and trailing only 58.9 PLB points behind ‘josef_shevjk’. Despite a limited holiday schedule, ‘veeea’ managed a pair of qualifying cashes including a win in the partypoker High Roller Warm Up for over $7,300.

‘hellohellohello’, the third of the three Russians in the Top 10, has held steady at #6 thanks to a trio of cashes on December 27 that, in total, brought him nearly $42,000 and over 562 qualifying PLB points.

The rest of the name in the Top 10 remain the same, only their positions have changed.

Uruguay’s Fabrizio ‘SixthSenSe19’ Gonzalez rose two spots to end the year at #7 while Andreas ‘r4ndomr4gs’ Berggren also jumped two spots to claim the #8 position. Berggren scored a pair of qualifying cashes, the largest of which, netted him over $16,000.

Sweden’s ‘Sheater’ took the biggest step backward this week, falling four spots to #9 on light volume and Johannes ‘Greenstone25’ Korsar, who celebrated $10 million in lifetime earnings in 2017, will finish the year rounding out the Top 10.

Most of the positions in the Top 10 are particularly precarious headed into 2018. While #3 ranked ‘lena900’ has a 1000 PLB point lead over the #4 spot, there is only a 384.68 point difference between #4 and #10. That’s a gap that can be bridged by any of these high-level pros in any given week. For example, Berggren is a scant 10.54 points behind Gonzalez and ‘Sheater’ is only 71.58 points behind Berggren. Should anyone cool off or take a break there’s a number of grinders both inside and just outside the Top 10 who can work their way back into the hunt for #1.

Other notable top 25 moves include Sweden’s Jerry ‘perrymejsen’ Odeen leap from #32 to the #14 spot and Argentinean pro ‘rayastar’ jumping four spots into the #25 spot. Germany’s #1-ranked pro ‘nilsef‘, who touched a career-high ranking of #16 this year, falls out of the Top 25 this week as does Kenny ‘SpaceyFCB’ Hallaert.

The PocketFives Rankings Top 25