One of the most dominant online poker players of 2008 was Alex AJKHoosier1Kamberis (pictured). Aside from his Triple Crown win in July, Kamberis struck it big by finishing third in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event for $782,000 and a mound of PocketFives Leader Board (PLB) Points. Headed into 2008, Kamberis was number seven in the Online Poker Rankings. Now, he sits perched atop a talented field of players, a spot he’s held since September 24th. Let’s take a look at how the Rankings panned out during the 2008 calendar year.

On January 2nd, 2008, the very first Rankings update of the year came out. Pacing the field was Chad M8kingmoves Batista, who held the top spot for one year. Batista took down the $100 rebuy on PokerStars in May for $43,000 and won the $1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker one month earlier. His impressive volume and aggressive play, in fact, earned him three wins in the $1K as well as a victory in the $750K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. More recently, Batista won the $55 rebuy on PokerStars in December for $28,000.

Rounding out the top five in the Rankings when the 2008 calendar year began were Isaac mr. menloBaron (second), Triple Crown winner Scott SCTrojansFreeman (third), Ultimate Bet Star Player Jim P0KERPR033Campbell (fourth), and Jon PearlJammerTurner. Cliff JohnnyBaxJosephy, who held the number one spot on PocketFives.com for over a year (the longest title reign so far), came in at number ten. Although he held the 25th best PLB score, he received the sixth best Pro Poll score behind only Baron, Batista, Freeman, Jon apestylesVan Fleet, and Annette Annette_15 Obrestad.

Batista and Baron held strong to the top two spots in the Rankings as 2008 progressed. In fact, it wasn’t until April that Baron fell out of the number two spot. He was replaced by Campbell, who won the $200 rebuy on PokerStars in January of 2008 for $55,000. Also coming on strong at the same time was Russell rdcrsn Carson, who during a week’s span at the beginning of 2008 won the PokerRoom Grand Tournament for $121,000, landed in third place in the Full Tilt $1 Million Guaranteed, and then promptly won the $200 rebuy. The three cashes earned him $270,000 total. Carson had the top PLB score for a two week stretch and eventually took over second place in the Rankings behind Batista on April 23rd.

By May, a familiar face held the number two spot. Dan djk123 Kelly (pictured), who sits in seventh place to open 2009, rose from number four to number two. In the early part of 2008, Kelly grabbed wins in the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand and $100 rebuy tournaments. In November, he’d go on to win a $216 No Limit Hold’em Turbo event held as part of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). Beginning on May 21st, Batista and Kelly held firm at 1-2 in the Rankings, respectively. On July 2nd, Kelly overtook the long-time number one player.

Rising quickly during the same time period was none other than Shaun shaundeebDeeb. In August of 2008, he took down the FTOPS Heads-Up event for $115,000. On May 11th, he grabbed a win and another six-figure payday in the Sunday Warm-Up on PokerStars. During the month of May, he logged 79 cashes in tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings for a total of $222,000. In June, he took home $87,000 from 82 in the money finishes. The high-volume player who hails from Troy, New York landed third in the Rankings by the time July rolled around. On the 9th of that month, Deeb held the second best PLB score to Kelly and one week later, emerged atop the PocketFives.com Rankings. In the July 16th standings, Batista and Carson had fallen to fourth and fifth, respectively. Debuting in the top 100 that week at #54 was Mark dipthrong Herm.

By the end of July, the top of the Rankings was in flux. After a year that had been defined by Batista’s domination of online poker, Chris moorman1Moorman, Kelly, Kamberis, and Deeb vied for the number one spot. Meanwhile, Phil USCphildo Collins held the fifth spot at the end of July. He finished third in a $100 FTOPS event in August for $62,000. The following day, he took second place in a $530 buy-in $250,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament on PokerStars. The man who lists one of his hobbies as “being a badass” is currently ranked in the 30s.

In poker’s own version of the Ryder Cup, the American (Kamberis) and the Brit (Moorman) battled against each other, finishing first or second from week to week. By October, Kelly also found himself back in the fray. Rising to the top 10 in the Rankings was Kevin BeL0WaB0VeSaul (pictured), who was sixth as of Halloween. The winner of the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup III in 2007, Saul had a pair of six-figure FTOPS cashes over a three-day period that helped propel him up in the Rankings. During the FTOPS festivities in August, Saul was the champion of the individual contest organized by Craig cjm Muir. In addition, his team also finished first.

In the first Rankings update of 2009, Kamberis held firm to the top spot. His domination is evidenced by the fact that the last time another PocketFiver was ranked number one was September 17th, when Moorman’s top PLB score vaulted him over Kamberis’ fifth best. Between September 24th and December 10th, Kamberis held the number one PLB and Pro Poll scores every week. On December 17th, Hungary’s breeth overtook Kamberis in the PLB. The month before, breeth won the Sunday Million for nearly $200,000. Breeth also won the Monthly PLB in June for 2,751 points. The Budapest native has victories in the Sunday Brawl and Sunday 500, both major weekend tournaments.

One of the hottest players at the moment is Steven PiKappRaider Burkholder, who recorded victories in the Full Tilt $1 Million and $750k Guaranteed Sunday flagship events and the PokerStars WCOOP 6-handed $500+30 rebuy tournament – all in the final quarter of 2008. Those three wins were worth a combined total of nearly $550,000 and have placed Steven in a strong rankings position for 2009.

What will 2009 hold for the Rankings? Who will overtake Kamberis and when? Stay tuned to the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings to find out.

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