PocketFives.com‘s top ranked players showed up in a big way this weekend, taking down first prize in two of the major $200+ buy-in Sunday tournaments. Highroller48 (madhattter on PokerStars) won about $23k for first prize in the UB $200+15, and The Grinder, fresh off his 5th place finish in the Tunica WPT, won first place in the PokerStars $500+30, taking home about $90k.

The action was exciting this weekend, particularly on PokerStars, where there was so much tension over the size of the prize pool that play was actually stopped three times as players attempted to make a deal. They finally were able to make one, and if you are interested in the exact details, check out our Poker Discussion Board. We were proud to see our friend Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi take down the title—he is a machine. PocketFives.com interviewed him about a half hour before the tournament started, and that interview will be published later in the week.

In the UB $200+15, two ranked players made the final table, as Lucky Egg was able to carry his short stack all the way to 9th place. 12th ranked DoubleLucky came close to the final table, finishing 16th overall. Earlier in the day on UB, P0ker H0 inched to the final table of the $500+30, finishing 10th overall. Gator93, DoubleLucky, and KUJayHawk08 all made the money but narrowly missed the final table.

On Paradise, none of our ranked players made the final table, but NSXT2 did finish 19th.

In the Friday night $200+15 on PartyPoker, Loewa79 finished 21st out of nearly 700 entrants, and on Saturday night on PartyPoker, JohnnyBax made it all the way to 6th place out of the nearly 1,300 who entered! Also on Saturday, gator93 pulled out a 19th place finish.

Congrats to all of PocketFives.com's ranked players who had such strong results in the weekend tournaments! The rest of the final table finishers and payouts are listed below:

Jan. 28, 2005
PartyPoker $200+15
689 entrants – $137,800 paid out to 70 spots

GveMeMoney – $30,316
Take_That – $20,670
Brenner101 – $12,402
Kevinsts – $8,268
DuffMcGuire – $5,512
Ten9slutted – $4,134
Phoenixtl – $2,756
KY_Empire – $2,067
Zombie666 – $1,378

Jan. 29, 2005
PartyPoker $200k Guaranteed $200+15
1,238 entrants – $247,600 paid out to 140 spots

CrazyMike7 – $51,996
Pokerkurt2 – $28,969.20
Lock8 – $19,808
StinkyFeet – $14,856
Gambiano1 – $12,380
JohnnyBaxter – $9,904
Hibbs08 – $7,428
JJBEN – $4,952
Toitlkatgr – $3,714
SteveSoCal – $2,476

Jan. 30, 2005
PartyPoker $250k Guaranteed $200+15
1,643 entrants – $328,600 paid out to 180 spots

machine0001 – $69,006
tysonduke23 – $35,160.20
browns82 – $26,288
d_o_o_b – $19,716
Dr_Zoidberg2 – $16,430
Nutznboltz – $13,144
Tomstra – $9,858
Jackiemike – $6,572
Life2short – $4,929
Youareme – $3,286

Jan. 30, 2005
Paradise $100k Guaranteed $300
443 entrants – $132,900 paid out to 50 spots

SoBeDude – $30,234.75
Eddymoosh – $18,140.85
7talife – $12,093.90
Barnstorming – $9,070.42
Thehofff – $7,861.04
JeffPG – $6,651.65
Sage Grouse – $5,442.25
Technova – $3,628.17
Yoda-Man – $2,116.43
Card Diva – $1,511.74

Jan. 30, 2005
PokerStars $500k Guaranteed $500+30
1,400 entrants – $700,000 paid out to 135 spots

(payouts reflect 5-way deal at the final table, although The Grinder actually did “win” the tournament after a certain amount of the prizepool was locked up)

RTFirefly – $90,000
The Grinder – $89,020
Ijsj2003 – $82,680
LucKat – $80,000
FoxyPlayer – $58,000
Bryan Bevis – $30,100
Glenmorangie – $23,100
Reddog133 – $16,100
-BBJ- – $10,500
cosmoba – $5,600

Jan 30, 2005
UltimateBet $500 +30 KrazyKanuck Challenge
101 entrants – $50,500 paid out to 20 spots

bad_jim – $15,150
Bernti – $10,100
Aguy2no – $6,565
Stillearnin – $3,939
2good4you – $2777.50
debo34 – $1,868.50
Cobra_Kai – $1,515
Lelli – $1,262.50
ThatGuy – $1,010
P0ker H0 – $757.50

Jan. 30, 2005
UltimateBet $65k Guaranteed $200+15
388 entrants – $77,600 paid out to 40 spots

highroller48 – $23,287.76
dean1278 – $15,046.64
4cryinoutloud $9,700
jerrod – $5,664.80
WOLFDEN – $3,724.80
DanLids82 – $2,716
Numberboy – $1,940
Big Donkey – $1,552
Lucky egg – $1,164
Tiltamus – $776