Russian online poker crusher and the current #8-ranked player in the world Arsenii ‘josef_shvejk’ Karmatckii edged out Swedish superstars ‘DeathbyQuads’ and ‘C Darwin2’ for the top spot on the PocketFives Monthly LeaderBoard for the month of November.

For the better part of two years, Russia’s current #1 player ‘josef_shvejk’ has been grinding his way to the upper echelons of the worldwide rankings and in November, he put those skills to use in order to take down his first PLB title.

‘josef_shvejk’ accumulated five total PLB-qualifying cashes, the largest of which arrived at the end of the month when he took down the November 26 edition of the PokerStars High Roller Club $530 Bounty Builder for $14,298 and 275.68 PLB points. He also picked up another big-time PLB score by finishing as the runner up in the PokerStars $215 Sunday Warm-Up for another $17,653 and 247.03 PLB points.

In total, ‘josef_shvejk’ cashed for 93 times in the month, 12 of which were good for a top-3 finish. He also racked up just over $127,000 in earnings which helped push him up over $4.4 million in total lifetime earnings.

It was an incredibly close PLB race in November with Sweden’s ‘DeathbyQuads’ (1,909) falling just 41 PLB points of claiming the title for himself.

This year has been a good one for the Swede who recently hit a career-high worldwide ranking of #5 in the world and currently sits at #12.

By all accounts, ‘DeathbyQuads’ had a very nice month. He earned over $103,000 thanks to some big-time scores in the PokerStars High Roller Club series. His largest score of the month came on November 3 with a victory in the PokerStars High Roller Sunday Warm-Up for $37,494/434.74 PLB points. In fact, the Swede was on a heater for the entire week. On the same day, he took fourth in the PokerStars High Roller Club $1,050 Sunday Supersonic for another $14,980/178.21 PLB points. He then won back-to-back tournaments on November 7, winning the PokerStars $109 Bounty Builder for $8,957/234.95 PLB points and the Hot $109 for another $5,729/174.64 PLB points. His results helped put him at just over $6 million in total career online earnings.

The former #1-ranked PocketFiver ‘C Darwin2’ (1,906) finished in third in November, just 3 PLB points behind his fellow Swedish countryman.

‘C Darwin2’ is no stranger to the PocketFives PLB race. He has taken down the Monthly PocketFivles LeaderBoard eight times in his career. Even though he didn’t make November his ninth, he still had a fantastic month on the virtual felt.

Of his 28 cashes in the month, nine of them were for five-figures. This included a monthly high score in the November 5 edition of the PokerStars High Roller Club $1,050 Daily Warm-Up where he earned the $21,029 first-place prize. In total, ‘C Darwin2’ racked up over $181,000 in cashes and 10 podium finishes. Currently, the online legend sits in fifth place on the All-Tme Online Money List with over $14.3 million in career earnings.

Fourth-place PLB finisher ‘lil lolita’s whole month comes down to one huge score. The mid-stakes grinder from Belarus picked up 1,017.25 PLB points after his November 17 victory in the PokerStars $109 Sunday Million for a career-high cash of $108,071. He defeated a field of 10,348 entries to take home the title. The victory not only made him the current #1 player in his home country of Belarus, but also took him to a career-high worldwide ranking of #138.

Finishing off the top five is Tyler ‘Wonderboy222’ Goatcher from the UK. Goatcher put in some serious volume and amassed 96 cashes in November including a highlight tournament victory in the November 3 edition of the partypoker Gladiator where he won $16,364 and 273.86 PLB points.

PocketFives November Monthly PLB