PokerStars TLB: New Year, New Luck

The PokerStars Tournament Leader Board (TLB) is one of the most important online tournament ranking lists of the poker world. In the new year, we will provide you with regular updates about the leader board, and will keep an eye on active community members.

Last year, maddyhh only struggled on the finish line of the yearly PokerStars
TLB. In December, he was caught by the incredibly hot running James 'BreakRibs' Kilarjian and had to be content with the thankless fourth place in the end. Even though it was the best German and second-best European ranking of all times, the frustration couldn't be denied. Especially if you consider that the first three places receive a PokerStars Passport.

Nevertheless, 2008 was a very successful poker year for the up-and-coming talent from Hamburg, Germany. With his enormous deal of work and several top finishes, maddyhh made a mark in the online poker world.

With the new year, a new ranking has been introduced, and the cards have been shuffled anew on January 1st.

The year of 2009 is barely 5 days old, but the known online player 'e4e5nf3nc6' has already climbed to the top with 10,531.96
points. Nevertheless, 'chauncy', 'AABenjaminAA' and
'swooshdog4' are following closely behind. Especially 'AABenjaminAA' should be kept an eye on, but so much can still change.

It will also be interesting to see if the 50,000 TLB points mark can be broken this year for the first time ever. More and more participants and ever-increasing guaranteed sums already provided for a rapid increase of the top points. Community member horstheftig made it into the Top100. With 2,808.15 points, he is currently on rank 98.

Below the Top 5 for the year of 2009 so far:

PokerStars TLB 2009, State January 5th 14:00 CET
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	e4e5nf3nc6	USA	10,531.96
2	chauncy	Ireland	9,407.94
3	AABenjaminAA	USA	8,317.23
4	swooshdog4	USA	8,053.24
5	SchizoTito	USA	6,584.89

TLB 2004

In 2004, the American 'teecoy' won the first yearly PokerStars
TLB in front of 'Hamman' from Ireland, which is at the same time the best European result in the ranking as well so far.

PokerStars TLB 2004
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	teecoy	USA	22,733.84
2	Hamman	Ireland	20,817.62
3	TheBeat	USA	20,699.81
4	EARLBRY	USA	19,740.86
5	Sdouble	USA	19,411.14

TLB 2005

In 2005, the American Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy finished on top of the yearly TLB of PokerStars. Not even 1,000 points separated him from his fellow countryman 'Chris 'stealurmoney' Caruso. To this day, 'JohnnyBax' can be found with top finishes in the big online tournaments on a regular basis. In 2008, he won Event #15 of the FTOPS X and finished second in the Super Tuesday on PokerStars amongst others.

PokerStars TLB 2005
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	JohnnyBax	USA	23,546.75
2	stealurmoney	USA	22,754.70
3	Johnster	USA	22,650.26
4	pearljam1012	Canada	22,247.45
5	Andy134	UK	21,321.23

TLB 2006

In 2006, 'stealurmoney' had to submit yet again with a difference of less than 1,000 points, even though he added almost 5,000 points on top of his previous result. Tyler "tnetter" Netter from the USA won. Shaun 'shaundeeb' Deeb finished third, ending up in the Top5 for the first time.

PokerStars TLB 2006
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	tnetter	USA	28,461.72
2	stealurmoney	USA	27,425.49
3	shaundeeb	USA	26,960.01
4	BeL0WaB0Ve	USA	26,590.84
5	bdubs3737	USA	26,205.96

TLB 2007

Since his third place in 2006, 'shaundeeb' keeps on appearing in the ranking, winning both in 2007 and 2008 and thus becoming the first player to defend his title.

PokerStars TLB 2007
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	shaundeeb	USA	34,869.32
2	devinr12	USA	33,311.03
3	xthesteinx	USA	32,137.69
4	Kenny Rap	USA	31,880.04
5	lilholdem954	USA	31,504.03

TLB 2008
However, 2008 was not only the year of Shaun Deeb, but also a PokerStrategist entered PokerStars' Hall of Fame. Mario
'maddyhh' Puccini ('Pokerccini' on Stars) from Hamburg, Germany, was even competing for the win before he had to submit to the American superiority in the last months of the year. Nonetheless, rank 4 is the best German result of all times, and still a huge success for maddyhh despite the missed Passport.

PokerStars TLB 2008
Rank	Nickname	Country	Points
1	shaundeeb	USA	42,196.82
2	derek8	Canada	39,945.64
3	BreakRibs	USA	36,409.75
4	Pokerccini / maddyhh	Germany	36,121.83
5	QuasiFiction	USA	36,018.50

Each time a player finishes amongst the Top 15% of a regular Multi-Table Tournament, s/he will be credited with TLB points. The amount of points depends on the buy-in of the tourney, the number of participants and their position. For the yearly TLB, the 100 best positions throughout the year are counted. A detailed explanation as to how the TLB points are calculated can be found on the PokerStars website: TLB Explained.

The current TLB can be found in the PokerStars software under "Request".