After finishing as the runner-up in the PokerStars weekly Sunday 500 in May for $63,000, Jim Mr_BigQueso Collopy (pictured at right) closed the deal over the weekend, winning the high-stakes tournament for $87,000. Also at the final table and finishing in third was Peter Belabacsi Traply, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner from Hungary. Collopy, meanwhile, is a Triple Crown winner and hails from Washington, D.C. We sat down with Collopy to discuss how he got started in poker and recap his monumental win in the Sunday 500.

On the same day as he won the Sunday 500, Collopy also emerged victorious in the Full Tilt Poker $100 rebuy for $41,000, pushing his total for the day to over $125,000. He told PocketFives.com what helped propel him to victory down the stretch on PokerStars: “I had a pretty good image deep in the tournament paired with a few well-timed hands. I was able to 4bet in a lot of really good spots and most of those hands didn't get shown down. I also had Belabsci on my direct right the whole final table and he's an animal, so that was clutch, especially when he picked up some chips.” In August, Collopy finished third in the Full Tilt Poker $150 rebuy for a cool $37,000.
On whether the $100 rebuy win, which came two hours prior to the Sunday 500 victory, helped his confidence, Collopy explained, “That was cataclysmic. The day was already an astounding success and I was very frustrated a few weeks ago.” He made deep runs in the Partouche Poker Tour’s Cannes stop and the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Barcelona event, recording his first Day 3s ever in live tournaments. Still, his lack of success down the stretch in either along with an uneventful World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) had him on a downer entering last weekend.

Here's a look at the results from the Sunday 500:

1. Mr_BigQueso - $87,681 (Mr_BigQueso)
2. newg_choier - $63,500
3. Belabacsi - $48,260 (Belabacsi)
4. caecilius - $35,357 (caecilius)
5. ryanbluf - $25,146 (ryanbluf)
6. stpauli111 - $20,066 (stpauli111)
7. ramondemon77 - $14,986 (ramondemon77)
8. Percussion - $9,906
9. Big_Nemo - $5,588

On rebounding to take down both the Sunday 500 and Full Tilt $100 rebuy, Collopy told PocketFives.com, “I’ve been playing a lot of cash recently, so I was planning on diverting my time from tournaments again after the WCOOP culminated, but it was Sunday and I had played a ton of cash all weekend, so I decided to play in some tournaments and it was just one of the days that worked out. I was very fortunate to run well in so many key moments, down the stretch especially.” Heads-up, he disconnected for 20 minutes, adding even more drama to the tournament.

Collopy is studying abroad and currently can be found in Madrid, where he noted that the internet connection had been less-than-reliable. He relived the comical scene trying to describe the disconnections to his host family on Sunday night: “My Spanish host family, in my fit of anxiety, was reluctant to break the Spanish-only pact, so it was fun trying to convey the severity of my predicament in another language.” In case you’re wondering, his $87,000 payday is equivalent to about €60,000. He wrapped up heads-up play just one hour prior to classes in Madrid.

Collopy got his start in poker in home games spread on the pool table with his older brother. Then, RPM Poker pro Dan djk123 Kelly (pictured at left) turned him onto online poker. On Kelly’s novel game, Collopy told PocketFives.com, “He coined shoving techniques in certain spots pre-flop in tournaments that were largely unconventional at the time. The math backed them up and modern online poker reflects those moves as optimal in a lot of spots.” Collopy actually backed Kelly for several years. Kelly, of course, won two events during the 2009 WCOOP and then recorded his largest online poker score to date by finishing fourth in the series’ Main Event for $643,000.

Collopy is a sponsored pro of RPM Poker, a Merge Gaming Network site that happily accepts customers from the United States. A bevy of PocketFives.com members are RPM pros, including Kelly, Mark dipthrong Herm, Aditya intervention Agarwal (whom Collopy dubs "lilbit"), and Jeff jpapola Papola. He’ll remain in Madrid for the coming months before moving on to Prague and told PocketFives.com, “I'm working very hard on my cash game, specifically heads-up, and am looking forward to making strides on a lot of the bigger European networks, padding a nice bankroll for my first WSOP this summer.”

Congratulations to Jim Mr_BigQueso Collopy for a lucrative Sunday on the online felts.