The end of 2019 proved to be very profitable for PocketFivers over on 888poker as prominent players took advantage of 888’s generous guarantees on marquee tournaments to finish the year with big-time scores.

Russia’s current #1-ranked player ‘papan9_p$’ pulled down $51,550 on 888poker in the month of December to take the top spot on the 888poker Top Earners list.

He only had three total cashes, all at the end of the month, but he made them count. The largest cash was his victory in the December 22 edition of the $1,050 buy-in $200,000 Dragon. He bested the field of 145 entries to take home the $43,000 first-place prize. Not only was this a nice cash windfall, but it was a bit of redemption for the Russian as less than one month earlier, ‘papan9_p$’ made it to heads-up in this event but didn’t close it out and ended up finishing as the runner-up, booking a $32,000 score.

Less than a week after his victory in the Dragon, he also made a final table finish in 888poker’s spotlight Sunday Major, the $100,000 Mega Deep. His fourth-place finish added $8,250 to his bankroll.

Thanks in part to his stellar December on 888poker, ‘papan9_p$’ is currently sitting at a career-high ranking of #6 in the world. He heads into 2020 looking to build on his over $5.6 million in career earnings.

Argentina’s Ivan ‘ivanvilchez8’ Vilchez takes the #2 spot on the Top Earners list after hauling in $31,240 for the month.

Like ‘papan9_p$’, Vilchez made the bulk of his earnings with a deep run in the December 22 $200,000 Dragon tournament. He finished as the runner-up to ‘papan9_p$’ and captured $31,000 for his efforts, his largest ever score on 888poker.

Vilchez, the #7-ranked player in all of Argentina, currently sits with over $2.2 million in career earnings.

Rounding out the top three on the list is Russian crusher Arsenii ‘josef_shvejk’ Karmatckii. Karmatckii waited until the last minute to pick up a big score on 888poker when he took down the December 29 edition of the $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep for a $19,350 payday. He added another $562 score to finish off the month with $19,911 in earnings on the site.

Currently, the #11-ranked player in the world, Karmatckii picked up his first Monthly PLB title in November 2019.

888poker Top Earners of December 2019

It was a busy month for ‘Durval Santos Silva Neto’ who put in maximum volume to lead all PocketFivers with 121 in-the-money finishes on 888poker. Of those 121 cashes, the Brazilian picked up four victories for $4,223 in total earnings.

Bruno ‘AnimaleGO’ Caiado was right behind ‘Durval Santos Silva Neto’ with an impressive 91 total cashes. He added a total of $2,400 to his bankroll and now sits less than $5,000 away from hitting the major milestone of $100,000 in total career cashes.

Making it a clean sweep of Brazilians in the top three is the familiar name of Flavio ‘Flavio Felipe’ Costa who often makes appearances on the 888poker Most Cashes list. This month, Costa notched 77 cashes and took home $7,884, more than anyone else in the top 10 on this list.

888poker Top 10 Cashers of December 2019

Costa also made an impression when it comes to first-place finishes in December, topping the list with five victories. He was tied in terms of victories by Alexandre ‘Ilxandell’ Souza who also had five, but Souza’s $2,875 in earnings was second to Costa’s over $7,800.

‘Durval Santos Silva Neto’s four victories were good for third on the list and the rest of the top ten were all tied with three victories.

888poker Top 10 First-Place Finishers December 2019