mrickett’s Blog

It’s been a while since we’ve taken a look at the Full Tilt Leaderboards and a lot has taken place. As it pans out in almost every month, several players who are expected to appear in the final top ten have lived up to our expectations showing complete and utter dominance over the average up and down player. It wouldn’t be a game without these players spicing up the board and it’s an honor covering their progress. Tonight we’ll take a look at the changes that have taken place over the past couple weeks and bring you the Top Ten Winners for June across all three Full Tilt Leaderboard categories.

Remember, FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the FTP Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the Full Tilt network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar. Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing. It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (a whopping 250 recorded places) click here: June 30th Leaderboard Results.

Let’s take a look!

Top Ten MTT Leaders – June Winners

1 dinkydoofus 7903.70
2 Rounder63 7299.70
3 CBrink_Man 7030.40
4 Geldi28 6499.10
5 rtkoss 6485.30
6 bowser125 5905.90
7 Sveden House 5902.70
8 creig 5852.60
9 tedsfishfry 5204.50
10 easymisi 5171.70

The last couple weeks of June proved to be a long and hard road for dinkydoofus, but somewhere along that road dinky hit gold and managed to climb his way up to the top of the board for a 1st place win. On June 10th, when the leaderboard was last covered, dinkydoofus sat in 117th place, well below any recognizable position. Just below him in 2nd place overall is Rounder63. Yearly, Rounder63 could quite possibly be considered the best overall player on Full Tilt in the MTT category. So far this year, Rounder has spent 79 days in the top ten!

CBrink_Man is also a great MTT player on Full Tilt but has a lot of up and down swings. He stayed pretty steady this month, climbing a few positions in the final couple weeks for June, landing him an overall 3rd place this month. For the 4th place win, Geldi28 scores his first top ten leaderboard position since I’ve been covering these leaderboards! Two short weeks ago Geldi sat in 38th place, not too shabby of a climb to say the least.

rtkoss is another player who is arguably considered one of the top three MTT players on Full Tilt today. Scoring 5th place for June, rtkoss finally made the leaderboard after sitting just below the cutoff point two weeks ago on June 10th in 11th place. bowser125 is yet another player consistently scoring top ten wins. He may not be at the top of the leaderboard every month, but he certainly knows how to consistently make an appearance. It amazes me how these players rise to the occasion in the knick of time.

In 7th place for June is Sveden House. There’s not much to be said about Sveden except for the fact that in the final two weeks this player rose from 197th place to 7th overall, an impressive leap! Creig, a player I do not recognize also made a somewhat decent jump from 31st place to 8th overall. tedsfishfry made a last minute climb to 9th place from 176th, something not uncommon among his abilities. ted is certainly one of the regulars on the MTT Top Ten. Lastly, easymisi climbed the ranks from 24th to 10th, his first top ten victory since I’ve been covering the leaderboard.

Top Ten High Limit SNG Leaders – June Winners

1 time4sumakshun 24135.90
2 moneyinthebank1 22727.30
3 jeppg1111 22401.70
4 0king_high0 20192.30
5 Mement_mori 17451.90
6 adb235 17374.80
7 PokerLex777 16288.80
8 222apples 15154.60
9 beanmo 15042.10
10 hoppashoppas 13931.50

I absolutely love covering the high limit SNG leaderboard because the competition stays consistent among the best of the best as they return fighting each month for the number one spot. Reclaiming his dominant position, time4sumakshun nailed another 1st place win over moneyinthebank1 who comes in a little short at 2nd place. First place was nabbed from time4sumakshun last month by Mr Wite who has failed to make a reappearance in the top ten this month. Moneyinthebank1 earns a well deserving 2nd place just over jeppg1111 who is right on his heals, only 300 chips less.

Oking_high0 has dropped one place in the last couple weeks but has remained consistent nonetheless for a 4th place victory. Mement_mori was our first place contender on June 10th but has dropped a few positions to 5th overall for June. It is adb235 who makes our first climb among the top ten contenders into 6th place overall after sitting in 10th.

PokerLex777 dropped a spot over the course of the second half of June and still manages to seal a comemndable 7th place win. 222apples, one of the newer players to grace the high limit SNG leaderboard, sat in 5th place on June 10th and has made a slight drop to 8th. Surprisingly, beanmo has slumped to 9th place overall after sitting pretty in 2nd place a couple short weeks ago. It’s unusual for beanmo to lose grasp of such a high position after he’s made it so high on the board. Hoppashoppas makes their first appearance in the top ten at 10th place overall after their previous 23rd place.

Top Ten Low Limit SNG Leaders – June Winners

1 bunnydynamics 19153.80
2 M3nte 17939.10
3 ecued 15479.50
4 gerdim 14262.20
5 silky1969 14148.70
6 einsammy 13578.30
7 Arngrim 12492.30
8 kokmus 11199.50
9 Stickit69r 10730.40
10 LDCrayne 10614.90

There’s a certain level of consistency that follows the low limit SNG leaderboard too. I’m not sure why, but it tends to vary a bit more than the high limit board. It’s still interesting to see the battles unfold between these reappearing low limit players. Bunnydynamics has dominated the 1st place position all month, securing himself a 1st place overall win for June, in the end. M3nte wasn’t terribly far behind with about 1,000 in chips less than bunny. M3nte has demonstrated more skill over the time I’ve been covering the leaderboard but bunny’s all-month-long dominance definitely has something to be said for bunny’s abilities.

Ecued is a player I don’t recognize, coming in at 3rd place overall for June. Ecued has demonstrated an interest in both high and low limit SNG has he has appeared on both leaderboards. Granted he’s proving to do much better on the low limit end of things at 5th place on June 10th and today’s 3rd place, he rose from 176th place on the high limit board to 45th place overall.

Gerdim sat in 8th place a couple weeks ago, and stepped it up in the remaining days earning him a nice 4th place victory for June. Below him is silky1969, a player I’m unfamiliar with so far. Silky isn’t doing too bad for himself as he’s spent the entire month holding a top ten position. He started the month off stronger in 3rd place but has since fallen to 5th.

Einsammy is one of my favorite players, popping in and out of the top ten as if it’s his own side game. This month sammy has scored himself a 6th place victory after sitting in 19th a couple weeks ago. Arngrim has dropped one place over the last couple weeks to 7th. Kokmus didn’t appear in the top ten on June 10th and sat just below the cutoff point in 11th place, but has recovered and climbed a few places to 8th overall. Kokmus has enjoyed many days in the top half of the top ten and has even scored a 1st place win in the past. Both Stickit69r and LDCrayne have remained unchanged in the final couple weeks of June in 9th and 10th, respectively.

With all the excitement emanating from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, it can be difficult to pay attention to much else - especially in the realm of online poker. It has been a while since our last PokerStars Leaderboard update and a lot has happened. Despite the time elapsed without an update, many of the same players have reappeared week after week, giving us plenty of things to talk about. While all players that make the leaderboard are considered top notch players, it is the pure elite that have the audacity to continually take down a top ten position. The top ten is currently home to several well known players, but there are even more well deserving players well below the cutoff this week. Let’s take a look!

Remember, FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the PokerStars Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the PokerStars network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar. Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing. It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (100 recorded places!) click here: June 28th Leaderboard Results.

Current June 28th Top Ten MTT Leaders:

1 b00k0fMud0ra 6384.59
2 rage4dorder 6201.94
3 rbeckwith 6184.93
4 DESS66 6038.85
5 anfo500 5613.94
6 FouTight 5550.02
7 ROONEY_DIVES 5374.25
8 ICuRaRook 5319.23
9 bjolla 5242.82
10 NeverScaredB 5035.47

B00k0fMud0ra delivers this week’s first surprise as he continues his reign on first place for the entire three weeks that haven’t been covered. He started out the month with a dominant chip lead over second place and is nearing the end of the month with a dangerously close chip stack to the current 2nd place holder, rage4dorder. Rage has also returned firing this week staying in 2nd place for all three of the previous weeks since PokerStars was last covered.

Our first change in rank is shown with rbeckwith in 3rd place. Rbeck has been making a steady rise for the top for the past three weeks and has doubled their previous position from 6th to 3rd. Though anything can happen, I doubt rbeck will be able to muster up the needed points in the remaining two days before the positions are capped and the winners are announced. DESS66 is the first player to appear in the top ten that wasn’t previously featured. In fact, at the time of our last update, DESS sat in 31st place, well below the top ten cutoff.

Anfo500 followed DESS66’s lead and even more impressively climbed every single PokerStars leaderboard rank up to 5th place. In our last update anfo didn’t appear anywhere in the 100 recorded places for PokerStars. FouTight is in the same boat as the last two and climbed up to 6th from June 9th’s 58th position. ROONEY_DIVES has risen to 7th from 53rd.

ICuRaRook is another player who occupied the top ten in the leaderboard in our June 9th update and has remained there ever since. Today he comes in at 8th place, one position higher than three short weeks ago. Bjolla makes an appearance today in 9th place after having sat in 26th on June 9th, and NeverScaredB has risen to 10th from 16th.

Places 11 through 26 contain a few other noteworthy players.

11 dcatcher 4958.14
12 annachung 4942.79
13 jitterbug777 4859.00
14 crisbus81 4816.88
15 fcs_82 4725.99
16 PurgerD 4719.46
17 twirlpro 4713.19
18 z 0 0 t s 4698.55
19 ThaDiamond 4672.85
20 bluntman82 4672.77
21 J Darnielle 4636.82
22 LakersGTD 4624.69
23 swishes2000 4573.36
24 Ex-Eli 4550.66
25 stacksanchez 4528.78
26 ILS007 4520.12

Annachung has fallen to 12th place this week. On June 9th Anna was sitting in a very comfortable 3rd place but has been unable to hold any notable position. Several slots below her sits J Darnielle, a player who is not unknown to the PokerStars top ten, but has been struggling the past couple months to gain a top ten position. Further yet is ILS007. ILS has appeared in the top ten here and there, and even sat in 8th place just three short weeks ago. A trend seems to be forming though as each time he hits a top ten position he’s unable to hold it and slouches several positions lower.

47 shaundeeb 4300.91

Shaundeeb is one of the best and most profitable MTT players on PokerStars, but lately rough waters have been steering him clear of any top ten position, unfortunately.

One of the best ways to get laws changed in the United States is by using the power of numbers.  Organizations such as the Poker Players Alliance have the ability to pool together masses of like-minded individuals for the purpose of lobbying for their cause.  A big realization needs to be made by online poker players in the U.S. of their potential to shape politics through means such as  the PPA.

A great venue to flex this power would be in the upcoming Presidential election.  Rich Muny, from the PPA, has attempted to grade the Presidential candidates on their positions regarding issues of concern for members of the Poker Players Alliance.

John McCain has a history of voting against any sort of legalization of sports gambling.  For that, Muny has given McCain a D.  On a neutral note, this Republican candidate does not have very strong views regarding online gambling or poker per se.  In fact, when the pro-UIGEA statement was being circulated by anti-gambling proponents, McCain did not sign.

The Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has announced himself as a poker player and has voiced support for a legislative study on online poker and other types of online gambling.  Muny graded Obama a C.  The main reason for this grade is due to Obama’s votes against gambling initiatives while in the Illois Senate.

Naturally, the Libertarian candidate was graded an A+.  It is a consistent view of Libertarians that citizens should have the freedom to determine their own choices.  Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, is strongly in favor of the legalization of online gambling and the right for U.S. citizens to play online poker.

Chuck Baldwin is the the Constitutional Party’s Presidential candidate.  Pastor of the Crossroads Baptist Church, Baldwin is completely opposed to not only online gambling but all forms of gambling as well.  Baldwin and his Party see gambling as immoral and hurtful to family values.  His strong views opposing all forms of gambling have earned Chuck Baldwin an F.

Whatever the case, if online poker players are looking for change they’ll need to make their presence felt in the upcoming election.  Political pressure is key.

We’re nearing the halfway point in the month of June here on the Full Tilt Leaderboards and more unfamiliar players than ever are seasoning all three categories.  Make no mistake though, each of the three leaderboard categories are sporting a few of the regular veterans, especially in the two SNG boards.  I’m sure we’ll be in the midst of many battles as we continue to cover Full Tilt’s tournament players throughout the heat of June.

FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the FTP Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the Full Tilt network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar.  Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing.  It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (a whopping 250 recorded places) click here:  June 10th Leaderboard Results.

Let’s take a look!

Current June 10th Top Ten MTT Leaders:

1     th_IN_kB4Urail      6744.10
2     JaspudUF     6267.90
3     Robbieoz     5832.90
4     Rounder63     5731.10
5     ANIMAL5050     5577.40
6     CBrink_Man     5172.00
7     sampson724     4797.30
8     Wretchy     4582.00
9     thebattler33     4418.60
10   Petie_BigStacks     4126.70

Covering the MTT Leaderboard too early in the month can prove to be rather pointless.  Positions early on generally don’t last, and it’s too difficult to make any predictions without players having a solid foundation.  For instance, this week’s top leader is th_IN_kB4Urail.  Last week, th_IN_kB4Urail didn’t have enough leaderboard points to even land him a spot in the top 250 contenders on the MTT board!  Well he’s turned his luck upside down and is sitting in first place with a comfortable chip lead over JaspudUF in 2nd place.  JaspudUF made a dashing leap from last week’s 34th place.

Robbieoz was in 1st place last week.  He can’t be too disappointed losing the top spot because he’s still going strong in the top ten and many players drop right off the leaderboard after getting knocked out of first early in the month. Beginners luck, I suppose.  Rounder63 is hovering around the same position he held when May reached its end, nabbing him a 5th place overall win.  Today he sits in 4th place, 46 positions higher than last week!

Animal5050 makes a return this week rising 5 positions landing a spot in 5th place.  Last week he sat in 10th place just barely above the cutoff.  CBrink_Man is a name I haven’t seen on the leaderboard top ten in quite some time.  The last I remember of him was back in March when he hovered around the 6th place position.  I have however noticed that CBrink placed 104th in the FTOPS VII Event 11, netting him a nice $386.57.

sampson724 is the only other player I remember seeing before, and even that is a fairly vague memory.  Last week he sat in the number 6 spot but has fallen a place to 7th for today.  Wretchy has fallen from last week’s 2nd place down to 8th tonight.  thebattler33 is sitting on the top ten today after having no position in the 250 recorded spots last week, and Petie has risen to 10th place today as opposed to last week’s 17th.

Current June 10th Top Ten SNG Leaders – High Limit:

1     Mement_mori      13389.10
2     beanmo     10342.10
3     0king_high0     7083.30
4     time4sumakshun     6610.80
5     222apples     6451.90
6     PokerLex777     6202.40
7     moneyinthebank1     5884.80
8     Gnoschbeudel     4726.30
9     Snuffie381     4701.90
10    adb235     4580.90

This may be Mement_mori’s month to shine as he’s currently sitting on top of the pack with a MONSTER chip lead.  His closest competitor is beanmo who is about 3,000 chips short of Mement.  Mement_mori has spent a lot of time in the top ten of the high limit leaderboard, but he’s never sat so comfortably in first place.  beanmo is nothing short of a threat though, as he is certainly one of the best SNG players on Full Tilt.  He seemed to suffer a little bit last month sitting below the top ten, but he was way up there on the leaderboard nonetheless.

0king_high0 is sitting with a decent chip stack in 3rd place.  Last week 0king didn’t appear anywhere on the leaderboard, so he’s made a massive leap over the course of the week.  All eyes should be on time4sumakshun as he held 1st place for the majority of the month of May and had it snatched out of his grasp by Mr Wite at the last second.  time4sumakshun has definitely shown the most amount of heart and consistency on this high limit leaderboard and I would put my money on him climbing up to one of the top two leading spots.

222apples is a player I have never seen before today on the leaderboard.  Last week apples sat in 8th place and has made a modest jump to 5th today.  PokerLex777 has made an appearance here and there but nothing ever very special.  moneyinthebank1 is another player that others should be cautious of.  moneyinthebank1 has spent almost the same amount of time at the very top of the leaderboard as time4sumakshun, an accomplishment worth recognizing.

Gnoschbeudel, another player new to me, and also seemingly German, is up one position from last week in 8th place.  Snuffie381 rose to 9th place today from 27th last week.  Last but not least we have adb235, yet another newer player.  adb235 made an awesome leap in the leaderboards from last week’s 119th place to 10th today.

Current June 10th Top Ten SNG Leaders – Low Limit:

1     bunnydynamics      5795.10
2     moneyforrent     4532.60
3     silky1969     4233.30
4     FDSaussure     4207.50
5     ecued     3870.50
6     Arngrim     3822.10
7     PokeHerTit     3548.50
8     gerdim     3369.30
9     Stickit69r     3296.70
10   LDCrayne     3263.30

bunnydynamics is fairly new to me, although I do vaguely remember seeing bunny somewhere in the top ten a long time ago.  bunnydynamics must be doing something right though, because this bunny has hopped yet one more position from last week up to 1st overall with a great lead.  Next to him is moneyforrent, a regular here on the low limit SNG leaderboard.  moneyforrent hasn’t landed a 1st place victory yet but it looks like he’s doing much better this month.  silky1969 is staying consistent with last week and has remained in 3rd place for the second week in a row.  FDSaussure has risen from the edge in 10th place up to thi sweek’s 4th overall.

ecued, although unfamiliar to me, has made a respectable jump from 29th place last week to 5th today.  Another player I’ve been seeing a lot on this leaderboard is Arngrim.  Arngrim never participated much when I first started covering the Full Tilt Leaderboards, but over the last couple of months this player has been sure to land a top ten spot.  Today Arngrim is in 6th place, after last week’s 12th.  PokeHerTit doesn’t only have an interesting player name, but remains in the top ten for the second week in a row sliding down two positions to 7th place.

gerdim, like Arngrim has been appearing much more frequently in the upper portion of the FTP Leaderboard.  Gerdim has slipped below the top ten positions a number of times though, so it’ll be interesting to see if this player does any better this month.  Stickit69r has risen to 9th place after having no position in the 250 recorded places last week.  Also making a pretty big leap for an SNG leaderboard, LDCrayne has climbed up to 10th place from last week’s 68th place.

A lot of big names are returning on the PokerStars MTT Leaderboard this week, edging their way up to the top where they likely belong.  Last month was full of action and several heated battles for a top ten position.  In the end, ten well deserving players sealed themselves a win.  Despite the number of well recognized players, probably the two most deserving players on the leaderboard are nowhere to be found within the top twenty positions.  Shaundeeb and PearlJammer, who have both enjoyed a lot of success on the MTT leaderboards have some climbing to do if they’re going to make the top ten by the end of the month!

FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the PokerStars Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the PokerStars network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar. Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing.  It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (100 recorded places!) click here:  June 9th Leaderboard Results. 

Let’s take a look!

Current June 9thth Top Ten MTT Leaders:

1    b00k0fMud0ra    5477.09
2    rage4dorder    4894.96
3    annachung    4326.44
4    NeverScaredB    3917.96
5    mdry93        3896.69
6    rbeckwith    3866.53
7    snake497    3852.09
8    ILS007        3802.22
9    ICuRaRook    3678.03
10   BongBob        3676.77

b00k0fMurd0ra kicked it into high gear over the course of the week, rising to 1st place from last week’s 8th.  This is the first time I’ve seen him hold the first place positions and it’ll be interesting to see if he can hold onto it for the better part of June.  Right below Mud0ra is rage4order, a player I’m familiar with on the PokerStars MTT leaderboard.  rage didn’t show his true potential last month, but still managed to secure a nice spot in 21st place overall for June.  Well this month is looking to be a lot more promising for rage as he’s sitting in 2nd with a comfortable lead over annachung.

annachung made a huge leap from last week, jumping all the way up to 3rd place from her previous held 78th place.  This is also the first I’ve seen of her, so I’ll keep an eye on her as well.  Following in anna’s footsteps is NeverScaredB who jumped from 59th place last week to his current 4th place position.  I should make it clear that early in the MTT leaderboard month, huge gains can happen because players still don’t have massive chip leads on each other, so it tends to be a lot more common.  As the weeks progress it gets tougher to make these huge leaps but is definitely still possible as I’ve seen it done several times before.

Keeping on the subject of huge gains, mdry93 has landed a top ten position in 5th place this week after occupying NO leaderboard position the previous week.  Because PokerStars only keeps track of the top 100 players, there’s no telling how far down the chain mdry was.  rbeckwith made a moderate jump from 32nd place to his current 6th.  snake497 slid down to 7th place after leading the pack in 1st last week.  There’s something to be said about still being in the top ten from the previous week though, especially with all the huge leaps.

Although ILS007 wasn’t in the top ten last week, today he sits in 8th place.  In May, ILS finished out the month with a 7th place overall win.  ICuRaRook was in the same boat as ILS and wasn’t in the top ten last week, but scored a 10th place finish for the month of May.  BongBob jumped up to 10th this week from his last week’s 86th position.

Some other notable players can be found scattered throughout 11-23rd.  Most notably is J Darnielle in 20th, pokerfun4321 in 22nd, and e4e5nf3nc6 in 23rd.

11    gparker1515    3651.13
12    bdol2103    3645.32
13    muttern3k    3585.65
14    edmunda        3582.73
15    WhatsWildAgn    3537.74
16    mikethamouth    3507.81
17    SingleFileD    3494.32
18    stacksanchez    3427.26
19    z 0 0 t s    3395.33
20    J Darnielle    3380.38
21    vic_the_pro    3354.34
22    pokerfun4321    3350.13
23    e4e5nf3nc6    3292.32

To celebrate their 1,000,000,000th hand, Ladbrokes is hosting an event called the Billionth Hand Freeroll, advertised as the world’s biggest ever freeroll, Ladbrokes will be giving away $300,000 of WSOP packages to be won!  That’s right, the top 20 players will get the chance to join Team Ladbrokes at the world’s largest tournament by winning a $14,000 Ladbrokes WSOP Package.  In addition, 200 runners up will get a second chance to join Team Ladbrokes at this year’s WSOP by winning $109 Ladbrokes WSOP Daily Final seats.

It’s easy to take part in this tournament.  All players need to do is earn 50 Player Points ON the day that the Billionth hand is dealt, and they will automatically be invited to enter this tournament.  The tournament will be held on the first Saturday that is at least 48 hours after the Billionth Hand is dealt.  Accumulating 50 Player Points is probably easier than you may think!  Simply rake $2 on fixed limit tables, $2.50 on no limit tables, or pay $2.50 in tournament fees and you’ll be a qualifier for this one of a kind event!

This milestone will surely be reached in June, so be sure to log on regularly to ensure your chance at qualifying for the event.  There are a couple vital points to be aware of.  This Billionth Hand freeroll is capped at 6,000 players and registration is held on a first come first serve basis.  If you receive an invite for this tournament be sure to get in on it early on before your spot is snatched up!  Also, if you’d rather not accept the $14,000 WSOP package, you can opt out and receive a cash alternative of $7,000.

Good luck to everyone who plays!

May has shaped up to be a pretty solid month on the Full Tilt MTT and SNG Leaderboards and the time has come to finally announce the top ten winners in each category!  There are several new players making appearances on this board each and every month, but it’ll never stop the regulars from pushing their way through to the top when they play.  On top of the well established regulars, there are several Full Tilt Professionals who have landed positions on the leaderboards, particularly in the high limit SNG category.

Remember, Flop Turn River keeps track of the FTP Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the Full Tilt network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar.  Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing.  It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (a whopping 250 recorded places) click here:  May 31st Leaderboard Results.

Top Ten MTT Players for May:

1     Halfrek      17739.00      $1000 & Entry
2     rtkoss     16597.00     $500 & Entry
3     pairdboard21     16062.10     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
4     Pimpnuho     14923.60     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
5     Rounder63     14774.80     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
6     da_professional     13741.60     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
7     cuzitsdelicious     13375.00     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
8     bowser125     13132.70     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
9     tedsfishfry     12786.10     (3) $75 Tokens & Entry
10   Ze_Gnome     11938.60     (2) $75 Tokens & Entry

Halfrek’s persistent nature has finally paid him off as he slides into the new month with a 1st place win for May on his belt.  For the better part of May Halfrek remained in 1st place, not budging for anyone on his heels.  It was only last week that Rounder63, one of the best Full Tilt MTT players, was hot on his heels threatening to steal 1st place.  Rounder has slipped to 5th place just before the top ten prizes were awarded for May.  Taking his place is rtkoss, who was just under him last week in 3rd place.  rtkoss has got to be happy with his quick jump to 2nd place as he’s nailed the nice $500 & Entry prize!

pairdboard21 also made a mad dash for 1st in the last few days of play, landing him a 3rd place position with a prize of 3 $75 Tokens & Entry into his favorite tournament.  Last week pairdboard occupied 5th place.  Pimpnuho, one of my favorite players to follow on Full Tilt, has netted himself a nice 4th place, slightly better than his 7th place last week.  da_professional finished this month a lot better than his record for the month of April.  In April da_professional scored 30th place overall.  Coming in at 6th place for May, it’s a vast improvement.

Cuzitsdelicious popped up into the top ten out of nowhere in the final few days leading into June, landing him the 7th position.  Only a few days prior delicious sat in 13th place, just below the top ten.  This appearance is also his first showing in the top ten for the entire month.  Below him is bowswer125.  Although bowser dropped a few places to 8th last week, he was able to hold onto his 8th place position which isn’t a total loss.  Had he kept dropping he would have probably missed the top ten cutoff.  tedsfishfry started strong early in the month but was unable to hold his own among the other driving players and fell to 9th place.  His strongest position this month was 2nd place for a short while in the beginning.  Ze_Gnome is also making his first appearance on the top ten this month, just before the start of June.  In 10th place, Ze_Gnome climbed one position from last week.

Top Ten SNG (high limit) Players for May:

1     Mr Wite      30828.00      20x Fav
2     time4sumakshun     30051.20     16x Fav
3     Whitesnake1     27373.60     14x Fav
4     beanmo     22280.60     12x Fav
5     braminc     21213.40     11x Fav
6     The Fiend 34     20357.50     10x Fav
7     moneyinthebank1     19736.90     9x Fav
8     PokerLex777     15202.70     8x Fav
9     TurtleTerror     13570.30     7x Fav
10   XOMA MOCKBA     12984.10     6x Fav

I had a feeling I was speaking too soon last week when I sealed the deal for time4sumakshun who has since slipped to 2nd place.  The way time has been playing lately, combined with his dominant reign on 1st place I’m quite surprised to see someone else sporting the 1st place victory for the month of May.  Mr Wite was the man to look out for apparently, and he must have slipped right by time4sumakshun with a comfortable 800 point lead.  Last week time was in 1st, with Mr Wite behind him with 500 less in chips.  Staying consistent with last week though, Whitesnake1 has sealed a nice 3rd place win.  Whitesnake is a great player and month after month he shows it by hovering at the top of the leaderboard.

Also consistent with last week is another great player, beanmo.  beanmo started the month off pretty slow but I had full confidence that he’d rise to the top four positions by the end of the month.  By the 2nd week he landed 4th place and has held this position ever since.

If there’s one thing the SNG boards don’t have in common with the MTT leaderboard, is the consistency which can be found in the SNG boards.  I see way more familiar players in the SNG Leaderboards.  In addition the leaderboards are more predictable as they don’t change as drastically.  In fact, the last five positions in May’s overall top ten have remained unchanged from last week.  All players, braminc through XOMA MOCKBA, have fought hard in the final days and held their positions to the end.

In addition to the top ten, I’ve included the players below.  The following players are all Full Tilt Professionals who have made an appearance in the top 250 positions of the high limit SNG leaderboard this month:

13     Nordberg     12360.90     5x Fav
83      Thomas Bihl      5031.80      1x Fav
127      Hans Vogl      4074.00
158      Steve Zolotow      3526.80
210      Roy Winston      3098.70
236      Lynette Chan      2813.30

Top Ten SNG (low limit) Players for May:

1     tcmwpti      12608.60      20x Fav
2     M3nte     12317.90     16x Fav
3     einsammy     11828.70     14x Fav
4     Arngrim     11567.80     12x Fav
5     gerdim     10586.70     11x Fav
6     LDCrayne     10303.50     10x Fav
7     Oknan     9393.90     9x Fav
8     kjh8448     8323.50     8x Fav
9     ObvFish     8171.70     7x Fav
10   tappert     7806.50     6x Fav

It has been an all month battle between tcmwpti and M3nte for 1st place as they have swapped positions back and forth right to the end.  M3nte started the month off in 1st place and lost it to tcmwpti in the second week.  tcmwpti held 1st place for quite a while, giving me the impression it was not to be lost.  By the third week I was proven wrong as M3nte stole his initial 1st place back.  In the last four days of play tcmwpti stole 1st place once again, sealing the deal on his number one win for May!  He has won 20 buyins to his favorite tournament, while M3nte has dropped to the 16 buyin prize.

The two should consider themselves lucky as einsammy was close behind in 3rd place.  If there was anyone who could have just as easily stolen 2nd or even 1st place, it was einsammy.  I always seem to get Arngrim and gerdim mixed up.  Their swapping positions in the last four days of play hasn’t helped me any either.  Last week it was gerdim sitting pretty in 4th place, but he has given it up for Arngrim as he slid down to Arngrim’s previous 5th palce position.

Positions 6 through 9 have remained unchanged since last week.  It is 10th place that has experienced the last change over the course of the week.  timo82samuel, who held 10th place last week, has dropped to 13th place just below the cutoff, ushering in tappert to score a nice 10th place win.  Last week tappert sat in 11th place and it doesn’t surprise me in the least bit seeing him climb into one of the top ten positions.  He’s enjoyed several top ten appearances throughout my time in covering the Full Tilt Leaderboards.

The positions below include some great players who deserve some recognition.  Namely timo82samuel, kokmus, bedsore, docholiday470 and antzzor!  Any one of them could have climbed into the top ten if their full potential were reached.

11     IDropDeuces     7606.30     5x Fav
12     timo82samuel     7524.10     5x Fav
13     kokmus     7506.00     5x Fav
14     ecued     7391.50     5x Fav
15     AtomicDog239     7280.30     5x Fav
16     bedsore     6741.20     4x Fav
17     docholiday470     5906.10     4x Fav
18     antzzor     5895.60     4x Fav

We’ve made it into June after a heated month-long battle for top ten positions in the PokerStars MTT Leaderboard.  A lot of players were up and down all month long, unsure of where they would wind up in the end.  There were also a few players who stayed consistent through it all, holding their positions for dear life and coming out victorious in the end.  Surprisingly enough, several of the best players on this PokerStars Leaderboard were found in lower positions, well below the top ten lineup.

FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the PokerStars Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the PokerStars network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar. Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing.  It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (100 recorded places!) click here:  May 31th Leaderboard Results.

Let’s take a look!

PokerStars Top Ten MTT - May Winners:

1    shaundeeb    7086.96
2    grindnitout    6887.81
3    QuasiFiction    6354.40
4    BreakRibs    6156.43
5    JohnFR    5963.27
6    MickBt23    5826.43
7    ILS007    5666.81
8    just1cool    5663.05
9    thegosu2    5540.09
10    ICuRaRook    5445.51

Finally able to claim his 1st place position and prize, shaundeeb can finally relax after this impressive month-long reign on first place.  All month long shaundeeb sat on top of everyone else, undisturbed as others battled it out for the lower positions.  A congratulations is owed to him and his impressive online poker profile.  Grindnitout was not far behind in 2nd place when the final bell rang, crowning our top ten winners for May.  grindnitout surpassed my expectations with his playing and held the 2nd place position for three straight weeks in a row, almost as impressive as shaundeeb’s monopoly on first.

Coming in at 3rd place this week is QuasiFiction, a player who had not yet reached a top ten position.  Last week, QuasiFiction sat in a not too shabby 13th place, but still 3 positions away from reaching the top ten.  In the final week of play, he managed to step up his game several notches, surpassing many great players which landed him his 3rd place!  BreakRibs was hot on his heels in 4th place, just 200 chips away.  Had these players had a couple more hours of play left, there’s no telling who would have finished where - that’s how close it was.  BreakRibs was in a similar position to QuasiFiction, as he sat in 12th place overall last week.  These two players realized how close they were to reaching the top ten and went for the gold.  The only difference with BreakRibs is that early in the month he had indeed held a top ten position.  He was just unable to hold onto it for the majority of the month.

JohnFR held 3rd place last week.  In the final week of play, leading up to May’s finale, JohnFR slipped in the ranks dropping down to 5th place.  Staying consistent with last week’s position, MickBt23 comes back for the second week in a row at 6th place, scoring him a nice top ten finish for the month of May.  ILS007 slumped just as JohnFR had, and dropped to 7th place overall for May from last week’s 4th place.  just1cool and thegosu2 both dropped a few places from last week to 8th and 9th, respectively.  ICuRaRook held a top ten position early on in the month, but quickly slipped off as players headed for the top.  Just like two others in May’s overall top ten, ICuRaRook made one final leap for the top ten landing him the 10th place position.  Last week he sat in 16th place!

Some other notable players were found in 11th-21st place.  These players held top ten positions this month but were unable to hold them tight enough and slipped below the cutoff.  They are e4e5nf3nc6, highmoose, Kurt_Jara and rage4dorder.  Lastly, in 29th and 30th place are PearlJammer and J Darnielle, two well respected poker players in the PokerStars MTT community.  PearlJammer in particular has an amazing pocketfives profile and has enjoyed numerous high profile MTT wins!

11    e4e5nf3nc6    5319.24
12    the_schmenx    5284.77
13    highmoose    5262.14
14    Kurt_Jara    5195.08
15    MrCasino    5187.73
16    ael1979    5109.96
17    AQUA RAIDER    5079.89
18    Hikkespett    5064.83
19    shaihulud    4991.04
20    Chip n Twix    4951.32
21    rage4dorder    4933.78

29    PearlJammer    4709.98
30    J Darnielle    4694.91

Here are the current leaders for June:

PokerStars Top Ten MTT - Current Leaders Jun 2nd

1    snake497    3423.00
2    jotaele1    2760.91
3    bdol2103    2223.36
4    jpgk101    2136.10
5    alesanre    2112.84
6    IDOLLS    2008.35
7    TheLipoFund    1985.70
8    b00k0fMud0ra    1982.29
9    JHBrenes    1952.26
10    LifeScribe    1840.93

Just as fast as the industry seems to be growing, authorities are cracking down on illegal online casino gambling. Following suit, Turkey is cracking down and has just detained two members of Sportingbet. It is believed that Sportingbet has been involved in illegal online gambling.

The two being detained are of middle management within Sportingbet, along with around thirty other people in total who are being detained. The arrests were a result of two separate raids that took place in Istanbul. The names of those being held have not yet been released.

This is the second time that Sportingbet has been in the spotlight regarding illegal online gambling. In 2006 in New York, Sportingbet’s company chairman, Peter Dicks was arrested and made headlines. No charges were ever filed for that arrest in 2006, however. It’s hard to say if Sportingbet would be so lucky the second time around.

It is believed that the employees who were detained from Sportingbet are London based. They celebrating a holiday in Turkey and were not allowed to leave the country once they were apprehended. Sportingbet has maintained that they have not done anything outside of the law and would like the matter resolved quickly, but Turkey is holding strong on the issue.

“Turkish law seeks to make it illegal to be based anywhere in the world. Our interpretation is that Turkish law ends at the Turkish border,” said Andrew McIver, Chief Executive of Sportingbet. McIver also believes that the company could take bets from inside the country, as long as they did not conduct their operations or have any assets within the country.

Appearing in the PokerStars top ten this week is a few new players attempting to make a steal for May’s 1st place prize.  The PokerStars MTT Leaderboard is proving to be a lot more sporadic than I had imagined.  Last week I commented on the amount of new players pushing the regulars to the wayside and this week seems to be worse in that regard.  Nevertheless, there are some great players in and around the top ten this week, with shaundeeb still on top!

Remember, FlopTurnRiver keeps track of the PokerStars Leaderboard results daily and keeps them archived on the PokerStars network page which can be found here: Leaderboard-Calendar. Simply scroll down to the leaderboard section and select whichever day you feel like viewing.  It’s a great way to see how players are progressing as time goes on.

For a quick link to today’s full Leaderboard results (100 recorded places!) click here:  May 27th Leaderboard Results.

Let’s jump to it!

Current May 27th Top Ten MTT Leaders:

1    shaundeeb    7086.96
2    grindnitout    6685.27
3    JohnFR    5783.82
4    ILS007    5299.76
5    thegosu2    5280.46
6    MickBt23    5241.21
7    just1cool    5233.86
8    the_schmenx    5207.03
9    e4e5nf3nc6    5197.39
10   Kurt_Jara    5195.08

shaundeeb has secured his 1st place position for another week with a comfortable lead over grindnitout in 2nd.  shaundeeb has an impressive profile on pocketfives.com and has enjoyed many successful wins over his online poker career.  It’s only fitting that he’s leading the pack of players who are among the best of the best on PokerStars.  grindnitout also returned showing a good amount of consistency in 2nd place two weeks in a row.  grindnitout popped into the leaderboard scene out of nowhere and went straight up to 2nd place on his first appearance.  Had I jumped the gun I could have easily predicted him quickly dropping positions each day until he faded off the top ten positions.  While yes it may partly be the monster chip lead he had last week, he has remained and has overcome my expectations.

JohnFR has made a very nic stride up to 3rd place from last week’s 17th place.  If he continues the sucess he showed over the course of last week he could be scoring him a nice 1st place prize.  In the same boat as JohnFR and even more impressive, ILS007 has made a leap from the 28th position last week all the way up to 4th for today.  A nice jump right before the end of the month if you ask me.  thegosu2 has steadily increased his position without being too flashy, rising from last week’s 10th to 5th place today.

MickBt23 leaped from 12th to today’s 6th place.  The most impressive leap thus far was made by Just1cool, who climbed the ranks to today’s 7th place all the way from 68th last week!  This shows that May’s victor could really be anyone, but it will take someone special to steal it from shaundeeb and all his success.  Apparently I spoke too soon concerning the most impressive jump from last week.  In at 8th place this week, the_schmenx climbed every position on the leaderboard to land this spot.  In the previous week, schmenx couldn’t be found in any of the 100 recorded places on the PokerStars MTT Leaderboard.

e4e5nf3nc6 has continued his fall down to this week’s 9th place.  Kurt_Jara has also fallen in the ranks this week down to 10th place from last week’s 6th place.  Though there are several players in places 11 through 25 that are worth mentioning, particularly because they’ve held a top ten position this month, the last player I’d like to mention is PearlJammer.  PearlJammer also has an impressive profile on pocketfives.com, making thousands of dollars playing online poker.  Out of all the players listed in the 100 recorded places, shaundeeb and PearlJammer have the most impressive profiles enjoying success after success in several MTTs!

11    MrCasino    5187.73
12    BreakRibs    5177.30
13    QuasiFiction    5171.64
14    AQUA RAIDER    5079.89
15    highmoose    5069.05
16    ICuRaRook    4968.79
17    rage4dorder    4933.78
18    Hikkespett    4923.98
19    IronRing08    4812.18
20    dlo911        4810.18
21    docbaby        4768.59
22    Life4m        4737.79
23    killerstack    4726.39
24    FRITTS        4686.64
25    PearlJammer    4545.14