This week's featured guest on the PocketFives Podcast is United Kingdom native Ben benwa1 Warrington, who is currently ranked #68 worldwide at online tournament play. Ben, who has lived in Valencia, Spain for the last year, took down the Full Tilt Poker $1 Million Guarantee ($600+40 NLHE Rush) monthly flagship event for $185,000 on July 18th after outlasting fellow PocketFiver Ross zestfulyclean Myers in a heads-up battle.

Ben is a Triple Crown winner who has accrued over $1,000,000 in online poker tournament cashes in events tracked by PocketFives.com. His first major score came in April '09, when he finished runner-up in the PokerStars SCOOP-01-M ($50+5 NLHE 6-max with rebuys) for $70,500. His victory this June in the Full Tilt $200k Guarantee ($150+13 NLHE Sunday rebuy) was good for $70,600, and he final-tabled the Stars Sunday 500 major event last November for another $35,500.

The Podcast interview begins with benwa1 providing insight into how his poker career began. "I originally got into poker, like a lot of other Brits, around 2004-2005. There was a program on TV called Late Night Poker that was really popular in the UK because it explained poker very well and had a lot of big personalities, like "Devilfish" Dave Ulliott (pictured) and Phil Hellmuth. From then, poker began to blow up a lot, and people decided to play live games and tournaments online. I went to university and played a lot online and live. I had some good results, but unfortunately I had really terrible bankroll management, and as a result always seemed to end up going broke. About 2008, I decided to take three to four months off the game to re-learn how to play and try to come back bigger and better. I joined sites like PocketFives. A lot of the discussion in Poker Discussion about hands was very informative."

When PocketFives member decamps asked who in poker has helped him to become a successful online tournament player, Ben replied, "I used to watch Annette annette_15 Obrestad (pictured) a lot. She was crushing a lot of tournaments. I sent a few hand histories to her, and she really opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong. I was calling off far too high a percentage of chips pre-flop for my stack, and (she) really helped me plug a few leaks."

The monthly flagship tournament on Full Tilt Poker received a make-over on July 18th, capping off Rush Week with a $600+40 NLHE Rush Poker format event. When asked about the adjustments he had to make during the tournament, Ben replied, "I was a little worried at first, because I played one or two and I found it hard to play it properly multi-tabling, so this Sunday I decided to play a slightly lighter schedule. I was basically (only) six-tabling it for the whole time, so it gave me an opportunity to give my whole poker skills to the tournament. The actual format is really interesting. I chipped up through three-betting a lot of people from mid-position, and making use of them being able to quick-fold. The fact that you're changing tables every time so no one can really get a table image on you."

To hear more insight from the 68th ranked online tournament player in the world, click the Podcast Module located on the PocketFives Front Page.