(Statistic and review by PocketFives.com)

RANK: 1. M8kingmoves – Chad Batista

Age: 27
Address: Florida (willing to move to Europe if the contract is right)

Possibly the most feared online MTT player to ever grace the virtual felt. Chad "M8kingmoves" Batista constantly puts pressure on his opponents, and is not afraid in the least of risking his entire tournament life to accumulate chips.

Outright winner of the FullTilt $1 Million Guaranteed, PokerStars $1k Super Tuesday, FullTilt $1k Monday (twice), and the FullTilt New Year's Resolution. Also known as "lilholdem954," Chad won a total of 21 high-stakes online tournaments in 2007, and shows no signs of letting up in 2008.

Huge ROI
Online winnings close to 3 million

Also have some great live results with 5 final tables out of 11 attempts (1 win), all of them wsop circuit events.

RANK: 2. mr. menlo – Isaac Baron

Age: 20
Address: California

WestmenloAA on Stars. the guru 11 on Full Tilt. Playing lower volume than many of the other highly ranked players, Isaac "mr. menlo" Baron has been able to rack up some highly impressive results, including multiple wins in the Stars $100 rebuy, and outright wins in the Sunday Million and FullTilt $750k.

Isaac also took down the FullTilt Sunday Mulligan in February 2008. "Mr. Menlo" is known for his ability to objectively make crucial decisions during crunch time.

Huge ROI
Online winnings close to 2 million

RANK: 3. P0KERPR033 – James

Age: 25
Address: Massachusetts

Came on strong in 2006 as one of the top all around players on the Net. His most impressive wins include the $200 rebuy on Stars and the Sunday Million, which he chopped for $180k! In 2007, P0KERPR033 chopped the WCOOP Event #5 2nd Chance and captured a win in the FullTiltPoker $1k for $70,000.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

RANK 4. rdscrsn – Russell

Age: 25
Address: Toronto

After placing 4th in the FullTilt $2,500 FTOPS event for $148k in November 2007, "rdcrsn" won the PokerRoom $1k tournament for $141k, placed 3rd in the FullTilt $500 for $83k, and won the PokerStars weekly $215 rebuy for $46k... all in a one-week period!

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

RANK 7. AJKHoosier1 – Alex Kamberis

Age: 21
Address: Bloomington

Making most of his money on Stars, AJKHoosier1 has wins in the $200 rebuy as well as several other events. Also has much success on Full Tilt and UB. In late 2007, AJKHoosier1 went on a tear and began dominating the online tournament scene at PokerStars. He also has a 3rd Place finish in the FullTiltPoker $1k weekly tournament. PocketFives.com Contributing Writer.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

RANK 8. djk123 – Dan Kelly (will move up 1-2 spots due to latest results)

Age: 19
Address: Maryland

mhrep on Absolute, FTP, and UB. Chopped the WCOOP 2nd Chance $215 rebuy on PokerStars, and has won the $100 rebuy and nightly $100k Guaranteed on the same site. Also won the $300 $40k Guaranteed on FullTilt. Had well over $150,000 in online tournament cashes in January 2008.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

RANK 12. shaundeeb

Age: 22
Address: New York

Known as an extremely high-volume player, he won the FullTilt $1k Monday for $84,000 in October 2007. Shaun also has an outright victory in the coveted PokerStars $100 rebuy tournament, but is probably best known for placing nearly $1 Million in wagers (over a period of one week) on UltimateBet blackjack.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

Rank 13. GBecks

Age: 23
Address: Gardner

Has won the FullTilt Online Poker Series Event #5 (for $102,000), the PokerStars Wednesday $150k Guaranteed (for $48k), the UltimateBet $200k Guaranteed (for $45k), and the star-studded PokerStars $100 rebuy tournament. Also won the FullTilt $100 rebuy tournament in January 2008.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

Rank 15. Tmay420

Age: 23
Address: n/a

The original number 1 ranked player in the new PocketFives.com automated rankings. He absolutely crushed Paradise and Party, leading up to those sites closing to US customers, but has since won the PokerStars $100 rebuy, the FullTilt $55k Guaranteed, and the FullTilt 50/50.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

Rank 19. DuckU

Age: 28
Address: Oregon

Shocked the online poker world in April 2007 when he won the FullTilt Sunday major two weeks in a row! Also has victories in the FullTilt $1k Monday, the UltimateBet Online Championship (Event #4), and the Poker Stars $100 rebuy tournament. Only plays high volume on the weekends.

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

Rank 21. SN8WMAN

Age: 19
Address: Florida

WarrickDunn28 on UB, SNo0oWMAN on Stars. In January 2008, Brian "SN8WMAN" Hawkins made online poker history. His ourtight victory in the PokerStars $530 Quarterly Million Guaranteed tournament, for $278,500, was one of the largest online wins ever!

Huge ROI
Online winnings 1+ million

 

(Statistic and review by PocketFives.com)

Rank 24. RandALLin

Age: 19
Address: N. Carolina

A relatively low-volume tournament player, who manages to put up some big results, including several large rebuy wins on Paradise and Stars.


From www.pokericons.com

Trond Eidsvig


Without any warning Trond took the poker world by storm in 2007.

His convincing win at the Amsterdam Master of Classic and 2 EPT final tables inside the same season is truly proof of a special talent. Trond even came close to reaching his third FT this season, only to finish just outside during EPT Copenhagen.  Trond is currently yet again doing well, this time in EPT Poland.

Trond has also established himself as a top online player and is frequently spotted at the highest tables.

He finished off the season by winning the Scandinavian "Rookie of the Year" award.

Trond Eidsvig became historic as the player with the most cashes in 1 EPT season during the 2008 EPT in Warzaw with his 8th place. This also marked his 4th (!) final table in 1 season

Kristian Kjøndal


Besides being one of the most feared online H2H players at the highest limits, Kristian has also proven himself on the live scene with some great results.

He is the most-winning player hailing from Norway on the EPT circuit, with a fourth place in the Monte Carlo main event, and a third place in the EPT Prague as his best results so far.

Kristian is the son of a priest and takes his poker very seriously!

Thor Hansen


A professional poker player from the old school. Recruited by Larry Flynt to play poker for him after Hansen played against him in Las Vegas in the mid 1990s. He has two WSOP braclets, 1 from the 1988 WSOP in Seven-card stud, and 1 in Deuce to Seven Lowball in the 2002 WSOP. He finished in the money four times during the 2006 WSOP, coming in second place in the $3,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event.

In 2007, Hansen cashed at the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event coming in 134th place out of a field of 6,358 players, winning $58,570, and finished in 8th at the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event, earning an additional $188,256.

Mike McDonald


Already rated as one of the best online players, and as soon as he set his (just turned 18) feet in the live scene he made an impact! Finishing 14th in the EPT Prague, going on to winning the 2007 EPT Dortmund as the youngest ever, and following up with no less the 2 final tables (1th and 2nd) during the Aussie Millions and also capturing a 6th place in the heads up event! Known online as the highly respected player "Timex", but this Canadian wonderboy is now focusing more on live games and what a debut season!

Bjørn-Erik Glenne


Making his mark when he beat Phil Ivey heads up in the EPT Barcelona after totally chrushing the final table.

Bjørn-Erik also finshed best out of the many Norwegians under the 2007 WSOP main event with his 65th place.

Before focusing more on live games, he reached a rank as the 7th best online (tournament) player in the world.
Known as a player that can play "any 2 cards" and make it a winning hand!

Øyvind Riisem


Yet another one of the rising stars. This 23 year old Norwegain strongly stood his ground during the 2007 WSOPE and finished as number 4 in this strongest ever field!
Øyvind is now commited to continue this live success after some time as a winning highstakes online player.
We expect to see him high up on the list for years to come.

Jarle Aasen


He is not a new name in the poker scene, being one of the first online pro’s to overcome the change to live (cash) poker many years ago.

Look out for JarleAA on high stakes games online and other major tournaments.

Jarle became the best Norwegian in the 2008 EPT Copenhagen with a strong 10th place in his first ever EPT tournament. By many considered to actually maybe be the best Norwegian player.

Michael Spegal


The 2007 World Series of Poker marked a golden wedding anniversary for Michael Spegal - it was just 41 years ahead of schedule. The 39-year-old landed his first gold bracelet for Pot-Limit Hold’em on his ninth anniversary.

But what the day lacked in romance, it made up for in cash: Spegal pulled in $252,290 for the win (beating Gavin Smith heads up), his first major tournament victory.

This former marine, living in St. Marys, Georgia, really catched the TV's attention with his great personality and game!

Andrew Feldman


Already one of the best and most-winning highstakes players, this young brit now turns his attention to live poker.

He did that by winning the 2008 UK Open for $150 000!

Andrew has despite his young age proven a mature attityde to the game, and is by many expected to be the next poker superstar out of Great Britain.

Look out for this player in the coming years!

 

John Tabatabai


Only beaten by Annette Obrestad in the WSOPE!

John went on to win the African Poker Open and yet again proved his great skills!

After great success online, the decicion to commit himself to live poker were recently taken, so look out for this player that bring a lot of action in his style!

He can play any 2 cards at any time, and is not afraid to rumble...