We’re halfway through the month of December and players are grinding away to hit those end-of-year goal numbers they set out to accomplish for 2009. For some this has meant nothing more than doing what they’ve been doing all year long. Others are simply in a mad scramble to get everything they can as soon as possible.

There are more players playing right now in the micro-stakes than any other level of play in the world of online poker. It was at these stakes that many of the top pros cut their teeth and built their bankrolls. For some, playing a good, solid game and massive amounts of hands is an easier ordeal to handle than playing bigger stakes games and less hands for the same level of pure dollar profit. For whatever their reasons, there’s some pretty striking numbers being pulled out of the micro-stakes games. In this article we’ll give homage to masters of the micros and see just how much money can be won there. Only players that have played 35,000 hands or more this month qualified to be mentioned in this article.

50nl – Full Tilt Poker – blonde_goddess – $3,641 in 55,212 hands

Well if she’s cute, blonde and a winner at 50nl then she’s a keeper in our books. This mega grinder is on pace for over 100,000 hands in December so there’s some good solid rakeback earned here as well. This 6.59BB/100 run probably isn’t sustainable for long periods of time but kudos to this grinder for not just playing a ton of hands but winning at a breakneck pace.

50nl – PokerStars – BreweRonnie – $3,280 in 149,842 hands

We imagine that this guy has blood in his Red Bull veins, if you catch our drift by his whopping 149,842 hands played so far this month. That works out to nearly 10,000 hands a day and a pace for 300,000 hands played for the month. Not just putting in massive amounts of hands, he’s also winning respectably at 2.19BB/100.

Honorable Mentions:
BleazyBob, PokerStars, $3,364 in 81,673 hands (4.12BB/100)
WyjebacMurka111, $2,946 in 44,465 hands (6.63BB/100)

25nl – PokerStars – zodion – $2,161 in 82,100 hands

Winning at a 5.27BB/100 rate is one thing, but doing it over 82,100 hands so far this month is in an entirely different category. He may not have put in as many hands as others in this list but he’s won almost double compared to anyone else. If he steps up his game and pace he just might win $5,000 which doesn’t include VPP benefits.

25nl – PokerStars – SharingaaN – $1,382 in 59,313 hands

Another player playing at 25nl at PokerStars is having one incredible month in SharingaaN who is winning at a crazy 4.66BB/100 rate which ranks second from the top six in total money earners for the month. This entire month has been a gorgeous 45 degree climb according to his graph playing exclusively full ring games.

25nl – PokerStars – yahai – $1,321 in 308,707 hands

One of the very few players to have both a zombie and human robot award from Poker Table Ratings, this guy has put in the most ridiculous amount of hands we’ve maybe ever seen at this point in a month. The comments on his wall will have you believe he might be one of the tightest nits in poker history which explains the less than 1BB/100 win-rate, but nevertheless, a win-rate and not a loss.

Honorable Mentions:

nestle00, PokerStars, $1,348 in 81,790 hands (3.3BB/100)
pokerlarry, PokerStars, $1,296 in 82,693 hands (3.1BB/100)

10nl – PokerStars – Filasse – $545 in 41,831

For a lot of players playing at the small and midstakes, the accomplishments of this player might go totally unnoticed and unappreciated. But winning at 6.51BB/100 over the course of over 41,000 hands is pretty impressive even if the blinds are $0.05-$0.10. This is a real turnaround story if you look at his (or her) graph with the career valley coming on November 16, 2009 and the peak on December 10th.

10nl – PokerStars – turu90 – $453 in 80,910

Another player that has played heaps of poker this month is this guy who has been winning at a modest 2.8BB/100 over the course of his hands at 10nl. This player was stuck on October 5th and stayed that way until the career valley point on November 26th. But it apparently ended there as this player has been playing steady and solid for a nice upward slant since that low point.

Honorable Mentions:

Faeborn, PokerStars, $448 in 81,396 hands (2.75BB/100)
JGold530, Full Tilt Poker, $411 in 35,740 hands (5.75BB/100)

We would remiss if we didn’t include some of the microstakes Pot Limit Omaha players in our report as well. So without further ado (15,000 hands minimum) …

$0.25-$0.50 Pot Limit Omaha – Full Tilt Poker – Cornelia Marie – $3,002 in 23,861 hands

Many people agree that the edge in Pot Limit Omaha, along with the swings, are greater in this four card game. This player has had lady luck in the palm of her hand as she’s just dominated the games at this level. The 12.6BB/100 win-rate is straight up ridiculous and for this amount of hands has to be a combination of running well and great skill.

$0.10-$0.25 PLO – Full Tilt Poker – SpyDaddy444 – $921 in 15,107 hands

Although there isn’t a ton of hands put in here the win-rate of 12BB/100 is a great hotstreak that this player is enjoying. Although this might be a pure hot streak as surmised when seeing the long breakeven stretch from October 29th to the beginning of December, this player has ridden it to a great run at microstakes Omaha tables.

Tags: BleazyBob, blonde_goddess, BreweRonnie, Cornelia Marie, Faeborn, Filasse, Hold'em, JGold530, low stakes poker, nestle00, Poker Winners, pokerlarry, SharingaaN, SpyDaddy444, turu90, Ultimate Grinder Leaderboard, WyjebacMurka111, yahai, zodion

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Featured Articles, Ultimate Grinder Leaderboard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.