On the first day of September, Kyle thetruth503 Zartman turned in a chop in the CEREUS Network $1,000 buy-in $150,000 Guaranteed. The tournament, which plays out on the USA-friendly sites Absolute Poker and UB.com, drew a field of 159 players. Zartman raked in $35,000 following a two-way chop, adding to a career that already includes wins in the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday in December and the site’s $150 rebuy in May. Those two cashes were good for nearly a $150,000 combined bankroll boost.

Zartman built his stack in the CEREUS $150,000 Guarantee around the money bubble. With less than a dozen players remaining, Zartman got it all-in with pocket tens against Ryan gutshtallin Welch’s (pictured) pocket rockets. Despite being a 4:1 underdog, Zartman watched as a ten hit on the flop to take down the pot and double up. From there, “I took a good stack to the final table, made a few nice hands, and was able to build chips and get to three-handed play pretty effortlessly.”

In June, Zartman chopped the Absolute Poker $100,000 Guaranteed, also a $1,000 buy-in tournament, for $25,000. On the same day, he won the Full Tilt $100 rebuy for another $27,000. On how the $1K on the CEREUS Network compares to its counterpart on Full Tilt, Zartman told PocketFives.com, “I think the UB $1K actually has a bit better and deeper play at the final table, but the $1K on Full Tilt generally is a bit tougher. I think the $1Ks aren't incredibly huge value, but you gain a lot by playing with so much competition and getting put in a lot of tough spots.”

Zartman recorded two cashes in this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) for a combined $12,000. All told, he has about $25,000 in WSOP earnings to his name. During the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event, Zartman bubbled the televised final table and collected $44,000, his largest live cash to date.

On his live game, he admitted, “I did really well playing cash games at the Rio during the WSOP, so I can't complain that much. I would like to do more live traveling and playing, but the live tournament lifestyle is so unhealthy and I hate being on the road all the time and living out of hotels.”

Out of high school, Zartman received a golf scholarship to Southwestern Oregon, but disliked the location and ended up leaving after a semester. He added, “Then, I spent two years playing almost strictly live poker at local card rooms before I really got into online poker.”

Watching poker videos and perusing the forums have been invaluable to his success as a player: “I used to watch hours of videos a day, mostly cash videos, just trying to get a better understanding of how to think about poker properly. I have learned by far the most about how to think and treat poker like a profession from Phil Galfond (pictured) and his site.”

Galfond’s poker training site is Bluefire Poker, which features WSOP November Niner Jason PBJaxx Senti (pictured) as one of its instructors. On the instruction he’s received at the site, which once issued a heads-up poker challenge to U.S. President Barack Obama, Zartman told PocketFives.com, “Phil is hands down the best teacher out there. He is so good about conveying all of his ideas and thoughts in a manner that most people can understand.”

Every poker player has a catchy screen name. For Zartman, it’s thetruth503 on PocketFives.com and bluffdeez503 on Absolute Poker and PokerStars. Zartman explained its origins: “We used to play NBA Live a lot when we were just out of high school and every time I would smash on my friends, one of my buddies would say, ‘That’s why they call him the truth.’ It just kind of blossomed from there.” The 503 refers to his local telephone area code.

He recently purchased a swank home in Tualatin, Oregon with his poker earnings. Visit UB or AbsolutePoker today.