The U.S. Poker Open is well in our rearview mirror as the Week 9 Power Rankings roll in, yet the players from this high roller series continue to dominate. Players from the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic – Darren Elias, David ‘ODB’ Baker, and John Smith – have made big jumps but only one of them made the Top 10. On the other hand, Rainer Kempe and Maria Ho – arguably poker’s premier power couple – both notched up wins at the Commerce to give them both huge boosts into the Top 4.
Justin Bonomo was the only player – for now – to make the Top 10 after few weeks on the fringes because of a win at the Triton Super High Roller Series, and while Jason Koon’s massive win last night came after the ballot deadline, I’m sure that next week we’ll have tons of players from that epic series taking over this list.
The Poker Central Power Rankings are voted on each week by five-panel members who use their own criteria to determine player relevance leading to a list of 25 players that score points from 65 down to 1. The criteria loosely include player results, social media influence, some good ol’ drama or other things of note that make ear perk up and our eyes grow bigger. Got beef with our decisions on a week-to-week basis? Hit us up on @PokerCentral on Twitter and jump into the conversation.
Read up on the previous weeks: Week 9 – Week 7– Week 6 – Week 5 – Week 4 – Week 3
The Week 9 Poker Central Power Rankings
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Last Week |
This Week |
David Peters |
1 |
1 |
After weeks of disrespect, David Peters jumped from nothing into the top spot last week due to his win in the $100,000 Main Event at the U.S. Poker Open as well as the overall U.S. Poker Open Championship. Peters holds onto his top spot for another week despite it being a quiet one, having built up enough of a buffer to fend off the birthday girl.
Watch more from David Peters right here, or listen to him on the latest edition of the Poker Central Podcast where Brent Hanks and myself dive deep into his life story and career. A feature interview with Peters can be found here.
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Last Week |
This Week |
Maria Ho |
14 |
2 |
Winner, winner, chicken dinner! On her birthday, Maria Ho closed one out at the L.A. Poker Classic. It must’ve been itching like crazy to play as she was the on-camera host and analyst for the U.S. Poker Open, and she found a great way to scratch the itch taking down the $25,000 High Roller for $276,690.
This marks the second biggest result of her live tournament career after finishing second to Allen Bari in a World Series of Poker bracelet event back in 2011 for $540,020. This win puts Ho across the $3 million earnings mark. Ho beat Kristen Bicknell heads up who took home $180,070 and also eclipsed the $3 million earnings mark coincidentally!