February may seem like forever ago, but it wasn’t too long ago that the second month of 2018 saw the names of Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman, Mike ‘goleafsgoeh’ Leah, and Viktor ‘isildur1’ Blom capture the headlines. Below are PocketFives’ top five stories from February 2018, plus a look back at the February’s Monthly PLB winner.

MILESTONES: Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman Earns 27th Triple Crown

Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman is online poker’s leading all-time money earner with, at time of writing, $15.595 million in online tournament winnings. In February 2018, Moorman captured headlines when he won his record 27th PocketFives Triple Crown. Moorman achieved the feat when he scored first place in tournaments from three different sites in back-to-back-to-back days.

Moorman then went on to win two more in 2018 and bring his industry-leading total to 29.

READ: MILESTONES: Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman Earns 27th Triple Crown

Stephen Chidwick Wins Inaugural U.S. Poker Open Title

The poker world was treated to the first-ever U.S. Poker Open in February 2018. The eight-tournament high-roller series took place at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas with buy-ins ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. An elite group of poker’s best were in competition across the eight events, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Justin Bonomo, Dan Smith, and Jason Koon.

In addition to individual tournament scores for large sums of money, each player was looking to become the first overall U.S. Poker Open champion. At its completion, Stephen ‘stevie444’ Chidwick had cashed in four of the eight events to win more than $1.25 million combined and be crowned U.S. Poker Open champion.

READ: Stephen Chidwick Wins Inaugural U.S. Poker Open Title

WPT: Mike Leah Wins Fallsview Classic for First WPT Title

The World Poker Tour once again made its seasonal stop at Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, back in February. With it came a record-breaking field of 517 entries for the event and a final table that included one staunch Canadian grinder, Mike ‘goleafsgoeh’ Leah, looking for his first WPT title.

Leah entered the final day of play ranked third in chips among the remaining 20 players. From there, he went on to claim victory and his first World Poker Tour title worth C$451,821 ($359,001).

READ: Mike Leah Wins Fallsview Classic for First WPT Title

Viktor Blom Stages Huge Comeback to Win partypoker MILLIONS Germany

If 2018 was the year of anything, it’s likely the year of partypoker. The online poker giant’s live tournament offering, partypokerLIVE, delivered enormous prize pool upon enormous prize pool all across the globe, including February’s partypoker MILLIONS Germany in Rozvadov. That’s where Viktor ‘isildur1’ Blom grabbed the title worth €1 million, but not without having to overcome a greater than 6-to-1 chip deficit during heads-up play against Pavel Plesuv.

READ: Viktor Blom Stages Huge Comeback to Win partypoker MILLIONS Germany

Leon Tsoukernik’s Counterclaim Against Matt Kirk Dismissed

Speaking of Rozvadov, King’s Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik was back in the headlines in February with another episode involving his dispute with high-stakes poker pro “Aussie” Matt Kirk.

Three months prior, in November, Tsoukernik filed a counterclaim for $10 million in damages. That was followed by Kirk’s lawyers filing a motion to dismiss. At the end of February 2018, a Las Vegas judge dismissed Tsoukernik’s counterclaim it what appears to have ended a highly publicized legal tug o’ war.

READ: Leon Tsoukernik’s Counterclaim Against Matt Kirk Dismissed

‘European’ Wins February Monthly PLB Title

With 4,133.54 points, ‘European’ won the Monthly PLB title for February. ‘European’ booked 48 cashes in February, including scores of $86,000 for 707.11 points, $58,160 for 584.38 points, $56,975 for 463.68 points, $49,574 for 383.28 points, and $46,418 for 415.33 points. The $86,000 win for ‘European’ came in the $530 buy-in partypoker Powerfest #46-M: $500K Gtd NLH under the username ‘JHelppi’ when he outlasted a field of 979 entries.