There have been a slew of accolades recently by members of PocketFives.com. Some of the elite players in the online poker community have won Full Tilt Online Poker Series events, taken down the Sunday Million, and dominated tournaments on Bodog. Here’s another one to add to the list. Brent bhanks11 Hanks recently took down the $100 rebuy on PokerStars twice in the same week. In addition, Hanks also won the Full Tilt Poker $100 cubed (one rebuy plus one add-on) two days after winning his second $100 rebuy. All told, he’s added over $100,000 to his bankroll and shot up from #22 to #17 in the PocketFives.com Worldwide Rankings. The feat caps off a month in which Hanks has been on a roll in both live and online events.

On August 10th, Hanks won the PokerStars $100 rebuy for $50,700. On the 15th, he won it again for an additional $25,116. All told, he dominated the $100 rebuy during the five-day span. He commented about his run: “For me, I’m still relatively unknown in terms of playing style to the regulars who play the $100 rebuy. I’ve only started playing in it during the last year or so. A lot of guys are going to have a hard time adapting to my style, especially if I keep switching gears.” On what his style is in the $100 rebuy, he elaborated, “I have a tendency to gamble during rebuy period. My goal is to get to a 12,000 to 15,000 chip stack at the end of the hour. If I get that, I think I have an edge over others in that tournament.”

He’s ranked 17th on the PocketFives.com Worldwide Rankings, up eight spots this week over last week. It represented a significant jump, especially in the upper echelons of the Rankings. He discussed what gives him an edge over other top poker players on PocketFives.com: “I’m 26, so I’m slightly older and probably a little bit more mature in terms of the game and how to handle things that happen. I had a teaching job for three years and have always been proud of my people skills. There’s something to be said for figuring out who people are in online poker.” His former career was teaching fifth and sixth graders after obtaining a history degree from college.

His people skills have also propelled him to excel at live poker. He made the final table and finished fifth in a $2,500 no limit event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. His reward was $178,327 in his first ever WSOP cash. He transitioned well from online to live poker: “I was very comfortable during the WSOP. Even before I decided to take poker to the next level, I played in a lot of smaller casino events. I don’t know what it is about sitting around the table with people, but I’m very comfortable. I have a tendency to keep my poise and play my best game. One of the keys for me is having knowledge of your opponents’ stack sizes. Never once did I have to ask for a chip count. For some reason, I had a tremendous amount of respect and a tight-aggressive image.”

Despite his recent success in live play, he has very little familiarity with $10,000 buy-in events. However, you can expect to see Hanks at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open and the North American Poker Championship at the Fallsview Casino. His original poker experience stems all the way back to when he was a child and his dad hosted split pot home games. He noted, “I would sneak in sips of beer and watch them play. By 15 or 16 years-old, I got into the game. I wasn’t a winning player, but I learned. The Moneymaker boom came and I was hooked. I knew I could win. I felt like I had an edge in it.”

Online and in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, he’s competing against the very best of the best. We asked Hanks to tell us whose game he respects the most online. His response: “There’s a small group of players who are elite: AJKHoosier1 and moorman1. Those two are on an elite level. Some of the other guys who understand poker well are Akat11, who is more of a live player, and bdbeatslayer.”

Other notable cashes for Hanks include a win in the Sunday Million in February for $278,000. One month before, he took down the Nightly Hundred Grand and $55K Guaranteed. His Full Tilt $100 cubed win was worth $21,348. He also won the $100 rebuy on July 10th. That month, he amassed $58,171 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives Rankings.

Congratulations to Brent bhanks11 Hanks, the master of $100 rebuy tournaments. Check out the rest of the PocketFives.com Rankings by clicking here.