The most recent Full Tilt Online Poker Series Main Eventwas lucrative to many players. In fact, it ended in a three-way chop that saw longtime PocketFives member Steve Illini213 Barshak (pictured) walk away with $261,000, the largest amount by far given away in the tournament and the equivalent of almost 16% of the prize pool.

I feel pretty much as good as you can feel poker-wise,” Barshak told PocketFives in an exclusive interview about the chop. “It always feels incredible and so random to have that breakthrough giant score come out of nowhere. It’s what we all play for in tournament poker and when it finally hits, it’s the most rewarding and awesome feeling ever. It really makes all of the long hours feel worth it.”

This was Barshak’s largest tracked online MTT score to date, edging out a PokerStars WCOOP victoryin 2012 for $241,000 officially and a Sunday Warm-Up win the same year for $131,000. He admitted, “$100,000+ scores are rare to come by. We don’t get many chances a week at even $50,000+ scores, so being able to get a massive score like the FTOPS Main Event is pretty unreal in the poker environment nowadays.”

“I was super focused as we got deep in that tournament,” Barshak said of the FTOPS Main Event. “I got 26th in the $2,000 FTOPS event earlier in the day where I had some very bad luck, so I was determined to make this an epic day. I decided to play very aggressively deep in the tournament and try to exploit the massive pay jumps against the more random players in the field.”

Barshak held the chip lead three-handed and, with “a ton of money on the line,” he was willing to deal. He recalled, “I figured if we did a chip count deal, I could probably get a really good deal since I had over twice the second place stack. I wanted to see what the chop looked like and it looked amazing for me, so I pretty much only wanted to do a chip count deal.” The other two players involved received $199,000 and $207,000.

In October, Barshak won a WSOP Circuit ring in Hammond (pictured) in a $1,125 No Limit Hold’em tournament for $51,000. He said winning a live tournament like the Circuit event is a far different experience than chopping a major online event: “It’s pretty amazing how different live poker and online poker are, especially the US live poker scene compared to online poker. They are different worlds.”

“The play is much tighter in the Circuit events,” Barshak said, “even the one I was deep in.” He compared, “The FTOPS Main Event is definitely much more satisfying and had a much tougher field, but I am starting to enjoy live poker much more than I did before and am feeling as comfortable as ever in any deep-stacked tournament. The only thing that beats a huge online high-stakes win is a huge live high-stakes win.”

In the coming months, he plans to camp and take time off from poker. He also wants to return to Costa Rica for a while and then head to Amsterdam (pictured). On the latter journey, Barshak explained, “I am hoping to settle down somewhere, probably in Europe, but it’s tough, so I’ll see what we can do. Costa Rica is an amazing place, but I get a little too lazy sometimes when I am out there. It’s a little too relaxed at times. It’s a nice place to be when you are young, but I don’t think I can stay there too long. Hopefully, one day there can be poker in the US again and I’ll be in Colorado for sure.”

Barshak formerly played basketball and said nowadays he’s a fan of lifting weights and running: “I do whatever I can when I’m traveling to stay in shape. It is definitely huge to maintain a good exercise routine for a positive outlook on poker and life.”

FTOPS runs quarterly on Full Tilt Poker. If you don’t already have a Full Tilt account, sign up through PocketFives’ links to get a free $25 in most locations plus one free month of PocketFives Training. Get started here.

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