It took a big week at the online tables by #1-ranked ‘lena900’ in order for him to hold on to his spot in the PocketFives.com Worldwide Rankings again this week.

Though the majority of the top 10 remain in the same spots they occupied last week, the online action was plentiful. For ‘lena900’, he turned in a big-time performance on Sunday, August 19 that brought him two victories, over 900 PLB points and over $80,000. The highlight of his week was his victory in the bwin.com Sunday Big Bounty Hunter where he took home over $37,000 of his $80,000.

It turns out that ‘lena900’ needed every PLB point he could muster. What was once a 2000 PLB point lead just weeks ago over fellow Swede ‘C Darwin2’ has been slimmed down to just over 169. ‘C Darwin2’ is one good week away from recapturing the throne that he held on to for most of 2018.

‘C Darwin2’ celebrated surpassing $10 million in lifetime earning this week. He did it in what may have seemed like a trivial result to the online high roller. He crossed the milestone with a 15th place finish in the August 18 edition of the PokerStars Omania High Roller for $1,647. The was by no means ‘C Darwin2’ best score of the week as he booked three tournament victories this week, two of which for five-figures. This included a win in the PokerStars $215 Monday 6-Max for $17,942 and 318.43 PLB points.

On the morning of Monday, August 20, it looked like Russia’s ‘hellohellohello’ was going to finally reach the top spot in the rankings.  After all, he had just defeated 5957 runners to win PokerStars’ flagship weekly tournament the $1,000,000 Sunday Million for a career-high cash of $160,888 and 1,091.60 PLB points.

Even with his win, the Russian didn’t slow down. He booked two more victories this week as well as two more five-figure scores. In total, ‘hellohellohello’ racked up  1,461.02 PLB points and only sits 489 points behind the #1 spot. He has yet to reach that marker in his career and while he’s sat in the #2 spot once before, he’s never been so close in terms of PLB points.

The rest of the top 5 remain the same as Matt ‘GINS FINEST’ Stone retains his #4 spot. Unlike last week, he did fire up the online client this week, however, he was unable to pick up any additional PLB points. Right behind him sits Jonathan ‘proudflop’ Proudfoot, the UK’s #1-ranked player. Like Stone, Proudfoot fired a few tournaments but his results this week didn’t do anything to add to his pursuit of a new career-high ranking.

Both #6-ranked Ramiro ‘Ramiro’ Petrone and #7-ranked Andres ‘probirs’ Nemeth continue their vacation from the online grind, perhaps getting ready for the two online super series which begin in under two weeks.

It’s another return to the top 10 for former #1-ranked partypoker Ambassador Patrick ‘pleno1’ Leonard. Leonard pulled in some valuable PLB points this week including his runner-up finish in the partypoker Sunday Second Chance High Roller for $9,800 and 156.13. Leonard jumped up three spots this week to land at #8.

Will Roman ‘Romeopro’ Romanovsky return for the World Championship of Online Poker? That’s the big question hanging over the world’s #9 ranked player. He hasn’t been seen in online tournaments since May and it’s a testament to his incredible previous scores that he’s maintained a top 10 presence for so long without playing.

Wrapping up the top 10 this week is another Swedish sensation as ‘Ariados’ looks to make another Rankings run. He booked a massive win in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-up for $34,431 and 460.65 PLB points.

Other Top 25 notes: With WCOOP right around the corner it’s fitting that the reigning, defending WCOOP Main Event Champion Steven ‘SvZff’ van Zadelhoff returns to the top 25, jumping eight spots to #22. Joining him is Jerry ‘perrymejsen’ Odeen who used a victory in the Hotter $109 on PokerStars to leap back into the top 25, rising 12 spots to end up at #24. If two people enter the top 25, then two must exit and this week that falls to ‘kofi89’ and Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen who both remain right around the top 25 bubble.

PocketFives Worldwide Top 25