Renato ‘bauruzito’ Valentim could be the next Brazilian player to hit #1 in the world (PokerStars photo)

Every Sunday The PocketFives Milestone Report looks at the online poker players who are achieving career-best achievement or reaching new heights in the rankings

Another Brazil Superstar in the Making

Brazil has a long history of being one of the most dominant countries in the online poker scene. Four different Brazilians have held the #1 rankings on PocketFives and dozens more have found their way into the top 10. The next player to fit that criteria just might be Renato ‘bauruzito’ Valentim.

Valentim climbed from #34 in the world to #18 in the PocketFives Rankings just one week after hitting a career-best score in the PokerStars Super Tuesday. He’s now the #2-ranked player in Brazil behind only Joao ‘joaosimaobh’ Simao, who is #14 in the world.

Career High Rankings

Brazilian players have a strong history, but so do the Swedes. Half of the current top 10 players are Swedish and they could soon be joined by one more. Going from #219 to #22 in the world, ‘Minzopug’ recently finished runner-up in the 11th Anniversary Special Edition PokerStars Sunday Million for a career best $785,999 cash and 2,204.7 PLB points.

Other players to hit career high rankings in the top 100 included Diego ’MrBittar’ Bittar of Brazil (#45), ‘Sphinx87’ (#48) and Adrijan ‘adrijan_s’ Sinishtaj (#61).

The Million Dollar Club Continues to Grow

There were six players this week to break through the $1 million mark this past week, bringing the total number of tracked players with seven-figures worth of career earnings to 1,637. The six newest members are Troubaduren, AcePheres, NikAs, LeoJose, gringenkov and JaNdRo27.

There were 12 players who hit the $500,000 earnings mark, highlighted of course by ‘Minzopug’. The other 11 were: th9nip, slowpla16, Kaktus26rus, gruzasim, ZoMbiE2808, chaimito f, fill_zed, panpankracy, biszibosz, preTu.ras and delfina_47.

Daniel ‘RedsoxNets5’ Sewnig Moving On Up in New Jersey

While players outside of the United States were hitting milestones left and right this week, an American player also broke through to grab one of his own. Daniel ‘RedsoxNets5’ Sewnig now has over $500,000 in lifetime earnings after finishing fifth in the PokerStarsNJ BIG Sunday Special for $6,108.