Poker Central Power Rankings: Love in LA - Maria & Rainer Cash In

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

	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.

	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!

	Last Week	This Week
Ali Imsirovic	5	10

After his win at the U.S. Poker Open and a WSOP Circuit event in Las Vegas, Ali Imsirovic topped out at fifth on the weekly Power Rankings. Imsirovic came close to nabbing a High Roller win in Los Angeles but that honor went to Rainer Kempe. Imsirovic nearly dropped out of the Top 10 and he will need a score next week to remain among these greats.

On The Bubble

See ya later, Dan Bilzerian. As irrelevant as his recent Instagram posts were, they somehow carried weight for him to be ranked, but now that this has faded, we are possibly another few weeks removed from him popping up again. Falling just short of making it into the Top 10 this week were John Smith and David ‘ODB’ Baker who made big runs at the LAPC.

If it wasn’t for these rankings being due on Wednesday, Jason Koon would’ve for sure made the Top 10, as he currently sits in 14th place. New players that received points this week were Paul Phua, Mike Matusow, Christopher Soyza, Peter Jetten, Tom Dwan, and Gabe Patgorski. The Triton High Roller Series will likely dominate, but who will take the top spot?

Tune in again next week for the latest Poker Central Power Rankings! Until then, listen to Brent Hanks and me discuss this week’s rankings on the Poker Central Podcast. Looking to watch the latest live and on-demand poker action? Subscribe to PokerGO right now.