Last month, BenFazcame away with a third place finish as part of a chop of the PokerStars WCOOP Sunday Warm-Up, which attracted over 8,000 entrants. He walked away with $164,000, the second highest total of anyone, and boosted his lifetime winnings to over $800,000 online.

“I’m feeling super happy,” BenFaz told PocketFives. “However, it still really hasn’t sunk in. I think once I actually get the money, it might hit me.”

BenFaz brought up the topic of a chop when there were four players remaining. He was second in chips at the time and explained what went down: “I got offered $164,000, which I was very happy about. I didn’t feel the need to go for the win, as $164,000 for third and $200,000 for first are both ridiculous amounts of money. I’d have been happy with either one. If I didn’t deal and came in fourth for $80,000, I would have been slightly upset, so I feel it went pretty well. I knew GadMO, who took fourth, was capable of causing some havoc. gregor7878, who won it, is a good player too.”

He claims he’s going to be “sensible” with his newfound riches and will put a significant portion of it toward his mortgage. He added, “I have a decent list of things I am going to buy as well and I will be going to Las Vegas next year, which should be fun. It’ll be nice to meet a lot of people I have met through playing.”

In addition to chopping the Warm-Up, over the years he has final tabled the Sunday Second Chance and won the Hotter $44, $22 Cubed, and $1 Rebuy, just to name a few. Accordingly, we asked BenFaz what advice he’d give to players trying to hit it big in large-field tournaments. He responded, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t get your hopes up either. I have been on many swings due to the fact that I mainly play massive field-events and sometimes play badly, but the variance is huge in them too.”

On the variance, he said, “The last two times I played the Warm-Up, I came in 40th and 20th, so I was jokingly saying I am due a top-five finish. It doesn’t hurt to pretend anyway and then somehow get there.” He said he got aces quite a few times down the stretch as well, which certainly did not hurt.

When he first got started in poker, BenFaz final tabled the Big $55 for about $5,000. That success seemed to put him on the fast track to success: “I managed to spend that $5,000 within two weeks thinking I was a poker god. Once that had run out, I got myself a backer through PocketFives, mcandrews3rd, and he helped me progress. I have had a steady two or three years of playing since, have learned a lot along the way, and will continue to learn.”

You won’t see the user name BenFaz on PokerStars, by the way, as he plays as fabaz, and he’s the lone PocketFiver with a PLB score in the town of Coleshill, UK.

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