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The 23-year-old’s first cash online was in 2006, so Houghton has achieved this lofty level of success in just two years. His multi-table tournament scores are so numerous and consistent over the last 10 months that to list them all would be onerous to read.

Some of Houghton’s big scores include $100 Re-Buys (April, $20,790); the $200 Re-Buys, $200 Heads-Up tournament & FT $1k Monday (all June, over $155,000); the Stars $5,000 Winner Takes All (August, $50,000); and the Sunday Second Chance (October, $54,480). In November, Houghton took down Event #8 FTOPS ($250 NLH) for a career-best score of $137,154.

Houghton was a regular in the old Gutshot Club (now the International Club) along with Poker Verdict’s Tony Phillips, who named Houghton as one of his favorite players. His live tourney results are not as impressive, with only seven cashes since September of 2006. Although, with his last four cashes coming in the last five months he seems to be improving his live game as well. Houghton has been carrying the label of ‘the most underrated player in the world’ for a few months now, but if he continues on his current run he won’t have that label for much longer.

Since March he’s showing over $1M in profit on PokerStars and another $600,000 on Full Tilt. Sharkscope.com has his sit-and-go profits at over $130,000, an amazing feat when you consider all the games he plays at once. So if you see “rivermanl” or “whatariver1” in a big tournament at Pinnacle Sports Poker, you should beware that it’s probably Laurence Houghton, and that you’re most likely sitting across from one of the best young players in the world.

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Plens’ largest online cash to date came on August 11 2008, when he won the Party Poker Birthday Million for first-prize money of $233,775. Three months later he won the PokerStars Sunday Million for another $189k. He also has a victory in the PokerRoom $100k Guaranteed for $30,500 along with a victory in the PokerStars $100 re-buy for another $24,600.

Plens has also been playing live events for a couple of years and has four live tournament cashes since March 2006. That doesn’t seem like much, but they total up to more than $250,000. At this past World Series of Poker he went deep into the main event and finished 42nd, earning a $154,400 paycheck for his efforts. His other big live tournament cash came in 2006 when he finished second, earning another $95,000 at the 12th Vienna Spring Poker Festival.

Many online players have difficulty adjusting to the slow pace of the live game, but Plens puts his time to good use. “Sometimes I’ll stand up to stretch and walk away from the table. However, when I have a deep run, I try to absorb everything I can.

“I don’t get a chance to make a deep run in a live event very often. When I finish, I want to be able to say that I did everything I could to give myself the best chance to win.”

Plens goes by the same username at every poker room he plays in online. The only variation is he that he drops the 9 from “therookieeqq9” on occasion. So if you’re sitting across from a player named “therookieeqq9” at Pinnacle Sports Poker, you had better pay close attention to what he’s doing.

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Stammen has had a good run in the fall and winter of 2008. His notable recent cashes include a fourth-place finish in the FTOPS Event #9 on November 9 2008 for a payday of $84,577, a fifth-place finish in the $215 Sunday Million on November 2 2008 for $55,635, and a sixth-place finish in the same event on November 23 2008 for another $39.550.

Just last month “Stammdog” cashed for another $43,920 when he finished third in the 1K Monday event on December 22 2008. He’s also had a dozen cashes of more than $10,000 since the summer months, including a $33,541 cash in the $109 re-buy event and a $58,7000 cash in the $530 NL hold’em event on PokerStars last July.

Stammen has tried to duplicate his online success in the bigger live tournaments but thus far has not been able to break into the ranks of the elite live tournament players. He has a dozen live tournament cashes, but only one of them is over $20,000. He cashed four times at the 2008 WSOP, but those cashes totalled just over $50,000. Stammen stated in an interview that he would be playing $100,000 worth of buy-ins at the 2008 WSOP, so it looks like he’s still losing money on the live game circuit.

This rising star plays in most poker rooms under the name “Stamdogg”, and also goes by the name “Stamdizzle” on occasion. So if you run into either of those usernames in a tournament at Pinnacle Sports Poker, forewarned is forearmed.

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Sagstrom’s internet success eventually led to live games. He’s played mainly Euro events with winnings totalling over $168,700. On the live circuit he’s known as the “King of Ding”, and hasn’t had a notable cash in two years. He was involved in creating a poker room called PokerChamps.com with Gus Hansen and Tony Guoga. He was also the player who played Liz Lieu in a three-game, $200,000 head-to-head match in 2006.

It`s unknown how much he’s won playing online cash games, but Sagstrom has been reported to be killing the games for years. Figures that get thrown out there have him averaging a cool million in winnings a year, a testament to his game and his ability to adjust to the ever-changingonline poker scene.

Sagstrom operates under “Erik123”, “the Salmon”, and the “King of Ding”. He could be playing under other names that haven`t been revealed yet, so if you run into him at Pinnacle Sports Poker you likely won’t know it at the outset.

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring young players, Sagstrom said, “Poker will always be there, there’s no rush to get up in stakes. Start low and stay low until you feel secure enough to move up in stakes. Then you have to try to be objective enough to see if you have a talent, and if not, maybe don’t take it too seriously.

“Play a lot of small buy-in tournaments and develop your own style. Stay aggressive, and if you’re a good player see the flop often – most people won’t know how to play the flop. To make money online you have to concentrate and develop in one game – be a specialist.”

Keep an eye on this star, and if you see his username pop up at Pinnacle Sports Poker make sure you’re ready to cope with the thrill of playing against one of the online world’s dominant young players.

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Since July of this year, Turmezey has had cashes of $43,000.10, $23,460.00, $17,556.00, $32,016.00, $31,378.50, $19,147.81, $37,500.00, $28,890.00, $15,295.00, $91,250.00, $72,100.00, $18,112.50, $16,155.00, $15,050.00, and $196,024.50; not to mention many other smaller cashes.

It’s only recently that Turmezey’s name has become available to the public, and he’s mainly kept to himself and avoided the limelight. He goes by “breeth” at some online poker rooms, but his username at another site is “twirlpool”. Up until recently Turmezey played mainly online action, but his recent success has led to him playing more live events. He has three cashes in Euro events totaling over $39,000, and added a 31st-place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $46,086.

At the tender age of 22, Turmezey will be on the scene for many years to come. Not only is he crushing the online multi-table tournaments, but he’s also an accomplished pot-limit Omaha and $10/$20 hold’em cash-game player. He’s easily Hungary’s top-ranked online player, and if he keeps up this pace he’ll take over “AJKHoosier1” home atop the online rankings.

Turmezey has recent victories in the $109 re-buy event on PokerStars, the $40,000 Guaranteed re-buy event on Full Tilt Poker, the Sunday Million on PokerStars – again in the $109 re-buy event – plus $65,000 guaranteed on PokerStars, the $40K guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker, the Sunday 500 on PokerStars and the Sunday Brawl on Full Tilt Poker.

Expect to see Turmezey in live events over the next couple of years. He hasn’t made the move to Vegas yet, but the challenge of playing the best card players in the world will eventually beckon to him. He’s only recently turned of age to play poker in Vegas, so we should see more of him as time moves forward. He certainly has the bankroll now to travel to any game at which he desires to sit.

Keep an eye on this rising star, and if you see his username pop up at Pinnacle Sports Poker make sure you’re ready to cope with the thrill of playing against one of the online world’s dominant young players.

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Other recent cashes include a second-place finish in the $215 Sunday Warm-up $750,000 guaranteed event on PokerStars. He pocketed $75,000 for that finish back on October 5. He also won the $109+R No Limit Hold’em, again on PokerStars, for another $36,245 on November 18. In fact, since June 2008 he’s had 15 online cashes of over $10,000.

Fineman’s live-event career is doing well too. He’s had 12 cashes in live events over the last two years, including a second-place finish in the $5,150 No Limit Hold’em Championship at the WSOP Circuit Event. That was held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and he walked away with a $257,585 payday. He also made the final table at the 2007 WSOP in the $3000 No Limit Hold’em event, but finished fifth and had to settle for a cool $100,431.

His rise from 82nd place on the pocketfives.com online poker ranking (where he debuted in August) has been fueled by 15 solid finishes in the last three months, elevating him to his current ranking of 43rd. At the pace he’s going he could crack the top ten online players by June of 2009, if his luck can hold up until then.

Fineman goes by the name of “bfineman” at several online poker rooms, but he’s called “bmf823” on others. He has also used the alias of “CherryWaves” and “RaeCarruth” at some other online poker rooms. So if you come across any of these names at Pinnacle Sports Poker you should watch out; you’ll be sitting across from one of the hottest online multi-table tournament hold’em players in the world.

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JohnnyBelow, or Stabell as he’s known at some online tables, has averaged more than one money finish every day over the last two years, and has taken down numerous cashes of over $20,000 in that timeframe. His recent big cashes include a win in the $215+R NL Hold’em [$250,000 guaranteed] on PokerStars on October 19, earning $48,750.00; a win in the $240 buy-in Sunday Brawl on FullTiltPoker on July 6 for $61,533.00; and another win in the $300 buy-in, Big Deal $150,000 on PokerRoom on September 7 for $40,650.00.

One week he won the Full Tilt $65k Guaranteed for $16k and then made the final table at both the PokerStars Wednesday Hundred-Fifty Grand and the Full Tilt $1k Monday. Those two scores were worth a combined total of $38,000. Most of his bigger cashes have come over the last eight months, and the next couple of years will show how talented the young JohnnyBelow is. If he continues to cash at this rate it won’t be long before he cracks the top 20 of the online rankings.

He currently ranks No. 42 on the poketfives.com online multi-table tournament rankings, as he has steadily climbed up over the last two years and continues to improve how deep he goes into tournaments. Stabell started playing poker seven years ago after a friend introduced him to the game. He’s strictly a multi-table tournament specialist, and only plays small stakes Omaha and limit hold’em to break the monotony of the tournament grind.

Stabell says that his success lies within his patience. He’s a very good small-stack player and can pick his spots well when there’s an opportunity to make a move. His favorite hand is pocket tens; with which he claims to never have lost. Outside of poker he’s a fanatic about the game of football (soccer).

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That’s an average of almost one every day. Mitchell is currently ranked 45th on the pocketfives.com online tournament rankings, mainly because of his first-place finish in the FTOPS $1060 No Limit Hold’em on November 11, for a payday of $322,500.00.

Mitchell’s other recent notable scores include another first-place finish in the $109+R NL Hold’em ($70,000 guaranteed) at PokerStars on August 3 for $62,287.50. Another win came in the $109+R NL Hold’em at PokerStars on September 22 for $30,250.00. Back in August he also had a second-place finish in the 1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker for another $65,410.

Mitchell has also had 11 other finishes of $10,000 or more this year, bringing his multi-table tournament total earnings to over a half-million dollars this year. His all-time total online earnings are $817,886.00; pretty lucrative success for a young player who is only 20 years old.

Mitchell earned his way up through the ranks, slowly climbing the blind levels since 2005. He commented on his climb in an interview with pocketfives.com: “I used to be a really low volume player,” said Mitchell. “I didn’t usually play more than six tournaments at a time. I had a bad run and realized that there are a ton of tournaments out there with a lot of value and I was missing out on them. Now, I put in a lot of full days.”

His success has come from a dedication to playing as many tournaments as he can. “I’ve been in a groove,” noted Mitchell. “I played a lot during the WCOOP. I started to make deeper runs and then finally got a few wins.

“A lot of it for me is just desire,” he added. “When I actually want to be playing, I seem to get in a groove, but it’s hard to play when you really just want to be doing other things.”

Watch the continued rise of this accomplished young player, and watch out for Mitchell when you’re sitting down to play at Pinnacle Sports Poker.

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Online he’s known as both “Sbrugby” and “Aba20”. Townsend continues to be successful in cash games online, once reporting winning over $1.2m in one day’s grinding. He prefers online play, mainly for the convenience, but he’s been showing up at some live events of late. His live tournament earnings were only around $35,000 until he finished 15th in the main event of the World Series of Poker Europe on Oct 1. He pocketed just under $90,000 for his efforts.

Townsend plays an aggressive style that’s based on sound mathematical decisions. The money doesn’t seem to matter to him anymore, but he continues to play his best game every time he sits down. He even got a shot at a High Stakes Poker appearance last season, where he lost $100,000 over three episodes.

Townsend also got a lot of press when he admitted to cheating online when he was younger. It was discovered that he had multiple user accounts, and he was suspended from play for six months and later offered a public apology for his actions. All of that seems to have faded away, now that he’s established himself as a world-class player who’s comfortable at any table anywhere.

If you don’t know who Brian Townsend is, you will soon enough. He’s only 26, and unless he gives up on playing live poker, you’ll see him on your television for decades to come.

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This past August Van Til had a cash of $46,305 in the PokerStars Super Tuesday and one for $32,700 in the Absolute Poker $100K Pro Bounty Guarantee. In June he had a first-place finish in the Sunday PokerStars $200 with re-buys for another $40,680. Then he had another win in the Full Tilt Poker $100K Guaranteed Re-buy event for $30,416.

In May, Van Til won the Full Tilt Poker $90,000 Guaranteed for $36,366. In March he had a second-place finish that earned him $51,350 in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-up, and a fifth-place finish that earned him $26,507 in the same event two weeks earlier.

Van Til has earned over a half million dollars in online tournaments so far, and he’s just getting warmed up. It was rumoured that he won over 20 WSOP main event satellite seats last year. Like most successful online players he intends to take his skills to the live games, so you likely won’t run into him on Pinnacle Sports Poker just yet.

Van Til recently made this telling statement about his future plans: “I’m going to play a lot of live events the next couple of months. The extremely slow pace of live poker compared to online poker is something I want to learn how to deal with.”

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