Brazil's Joao "joaosimaobh" Simao Tops PocketFives Rankings for Third Time
For the second straight week, Brazil's Joao "joaosimaobh" Simao is the top ranked online poker player in the world, according to the PocketFives Worldwide Online Poker Rankings.
Throughout the past two months, Simao and Sweden's Simon "C Darwin2" Mattsson, who currently sits second in the rankings, have been in a back-and-forth battle for the top spot.
On April 27, Mattsson, who previously held the top spot in the rankings from Feb. 10-17, once again rallied to the top of the leaderboard by supplanting fellow countryman Niklas "lena900" Åstedt, who held the top spot for four weeks straight.
One week later on May 4, Simao passed Mattsson to become the top ranked player for the first time in his poker career. Simao's first-time as the leader in the rankings was short-lived as Mattsson once again passed him one week later on May 11 to become the top ranked player for the third time this year, a spot he held for three straight weeks before Simao became the No. 1 player for the second-time on June 1.
As was the case during his previous stint as the top ranked player, Simeo was once again passed by Mattsson one week later on June 8. Mattsson's fourth time as the top ranked player lasted for three weeks until June 22 when Simeo became the king of the hill for the third time.
Not too far behind Simeo and Mattsson in the rankings is Åstedt in third place. In addition to holding down the top spot in the rankings earlier this year, Åstedt twice won the Monthly PocketFives Leaderboard in January and February.
Despite the top spot belonging to Brazil, players from Sweden are dominating the rankings, holding three of the top four spots with Swedish poker player "Pot4teUS" in fourth place.
The United Kingdom is known for producing some of the best poker players in the world, too, and right now Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford is the top of the bunch residing in fifth place in the rankings.
Two Italian poker players living in Slovenia are in the latter half of the top 10 spots, with Rocco "RoccoGe" Palumbo in sixth place and Ivan "Hurrrrican3" Gabrieli in eighth place.
Completing the top 10 are Greece's Damianos "damourinio" Aslanidis in seventh place, Russia's Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov who was also the top ranked player earlier in the year in ninth place, and Canada's Jimmy "JMolloy" Molloy in 10th place.
Here is a complete look at the top 10 in the PocketFives Worldwide Online Poker Rankings:
| Place | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joao "joaosimaobh" Simao | Brazil | 7,739 |
| 2 | Simon "C Darwin2" Mattsson | Sweden | 7,662 |
| 3 | Niklas "lena900" Åstedt | Sweden | 7,642 |
| 4 | Pot4teUS | Sweden | 7,491 |
| 5 | Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford | United Kingdom | 7,417 |
| 6 | Rocco "RoccoGe" Palumbo | Slovenia | 7,117 |
| 7 | Damianos "damourinio" Aslanidis | Greece | 6,991 |
| 8 | Ivan "Hurrrrican3" Gabrieli | Slovenia | 6,989 |
| 9 | Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov | Russia | 6,963 |
| 10 | Jimmy "JMolloy" Molloy | Canada | 6,870 |
*Special thanks to PocketFives.com for information used in this article.
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