When it comes to online poker, there’s no doubt about it: Russia is a superpower. While there’s plenty of popular players that call Russia home, includingVitaly Lunkin, Max Altergott and 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Ivan Demidov – Russia is churning out online players that are dominating the PocketFives Worldwide Rankings top 100.

Russia claims 12 of the top 100 online players in the world, tied with the United Kingdom and Sweden for first in that stat. Russia also currently sits in the #2 spot, right behind Sweden, in the PocketFives Country Rankings.

Having spent the last four weeks as the #5 ranked player in the world, ‘hellohellohello’ sits on top of the Russian rankings. A regular crusher at the high stakes that the online poker world has to offer, ‘hellohellohello’ regularly binks five-figure scores. He did just that in the partypoker $200K Super High Roller on February 18 for just over $50,000. He’s also no stranger to six-figure paydays, such as when he won Event #12 of the PokerStars High Rollers Series for $101,912 and a massive 728.01 PLB score. He followed that up with a near career-high cash in January of 2018 for $103,380 in the partypoker Powerfest series. He has over $5.8 million in lifetime career earnings and with his talent and high volume schedule, is likely to eclipse $6 million any week now.

In the #2 spot is ‘josef_shvejk’, one of the breakout stars of 2017. Having touched as high as #4 in the worldwide rankings earlier in 2018, the #14 ranked ‘josef_shvejk’ rocketed up the rankings thanks to big scores like his first-place finish in the $1,050 PokerStars Super Tuesday for 500 PLB points and $48,687 in November of 2018. He’s a high volume grinder, constantly ranking up cashes, including 5 five-figure scores in the calendar year so far.

30-year old professional from Moscow, ‘NoPlanB’ checks in at #3. He racked up his highest PLB score of the current year when he took down a $519 PokerStars No Limit Hold’em tournament at the end of 2017 for $42,463. Ever since he’s been on a heater accumulating enough PLB points to place him back in the top 25. Even though he plays a moderate schedule he’s cashed for over $73,000 so far in February alone.

‘Flat’ is ranked #4 in Russia and #23 in the world. He is currently at a career-high ranking and less than $200,000 away from eclipsing $4 million in lifetime career earnings. He recently strung together a pair of big-time five-figure scores in February. The first, on February 8, was a victory in the PokerStars Thursday Thrill for over $30,000. The next came ten days later with a win in the PokerStars $530 Bounty Builder for $41,492.

The top 5 is completed by online poker legend, ‘veeea’. The former #1-ranked grinder has over $7.6 million in lifetime earnings and is currently ranked #25 in the world. One of the only reasons the veteran online player has slipped in the rankings is because of his light volume for the better part of the past month. There’s little argument that when he’s on the grind, he’s one of the best of all time.

Moscow’s ‘papan9_p$’, ranked #6 in Russia, is mostly a mid-stakes grinder and he just picked up his highest PLB score of the period by taking down the PokerStars Thursday Thrill on February 15 for over $28,000 and 388.59 PLB points.

Ranked #37 in the world currently, ‘drupalucker’ (#7)  has been searching for his first really big score of 2018. His last five-figure cash came in late December 2017 with a third-place finish in a PokerStars $2000 tournament for $35,225.64.

Right behind him in the #8 rank is ’nsmirnov’. He just recently surpassed $2 million in lifetime earnings propelled by over 55 four-figure scores in 2018 alone.

Playing out of the city of Perm, Russia’s #9 ranked player ’zinka’ is also on the verge of topping $2 million in lifetime earnings, sitting just short of $30,000 of the mark. He recently took first in the 888poker Volcano on February 6 for $17,500.

The current tenth ranked Russian is ‘Ti0’. He posted his session high PLB point total back in September of 2017 by taking down Event #203 of partypoker’s Powerfest $100K Gtd for over $30,000 and 292.88 PLB points.  Today he sits ranked at #87 in the world.

Russian Federation’s Online Poker Rankings Top 10