Canadian PocketFives.com member Kevin nollidK Dillon opened up the month of September in a big way, taking down the PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million for $48,000. The win wasn’t anywhere close to the largest cash of his career, which came as a result of final tabling the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event in May for over $200,000. He’s climbing his way up in the poker world and sat down with PocketFives.com to recap his Wednesday Quarter Million victory.

As you’d expect, Dillon was elated to come away with a "W" and pull down nearly $50,000 in cash. He told PocketFives.com that the win carried extra weight: “I had a bad few months where I couldn’t get anything going. I didn’t play too much over the summer for the most part, so winning that was great.” The Wednesday tournament attracted a field of 898 players, creating a prize pool of $269,000. The top six players walked away with five-figure bankroll boosts.

Dillon admitted that he’s only coughed up the Wednesday Quarter Million’s $320 buy-in on a handful of occasions due to its late start time in his native Newfoundland. Despite the hefty price tag, Dillon noted, “Clearly it’s full of the best of the best players, but like most other tournaments, there is still a lot of dead money.” The internet provides his best option for poker, as he described the poker scene in his hometown as “dead.” He added, “There are games at bars that might get 30 people with a $50 buy-in, but it’s just not worth it when you can play online instead.”

The FTOPS Main Event final table marked the defining moment in his poker career. In fact, it’s made up much of his $360,000 in earnings from tournaments tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings since January 1st. On the six-figure payday, Dillon told PocketFives.com, “That cash did so much, I can’t even begin to describe it. I wasn’t working at the time and was relying poker for a few months for money, so that was beyond huge for me. It made it possible for me to go to Las Vegas in July and play the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, which I never thought would happen.”

Dillon hits the virtual felts three to four times per week on average and tried to explain whether he considers himself to be a poker pro: “It’s what I rely on for money these days, so technically I guess I am a pro, but I don’t consider myself one.” Despite not playing as often as other members of the online poker community, Dillon owns the third spot in the Sortable Rankings for Newfoundland and sits in 68th for the country of Canada.

What’s been the toughest facet of poker for Dillon while coming up in the ranks? He admitted, “It has to be the downswings. I don’t play many high-stakes tournaments like $1Ks or $100 rebuys or anything, so my downswings are nowhere near the size of some people’s. You just have to stay positive and keep telling yourself that if you keep playing good, good things will happen eventually. Everyone runs bad, some more than others, but you just have to deal with it; if you can’t, quit poker.”

Seeing Chris Moneymaker upset Sammy Farha in the 2003 WSOP Main Event turned Dillon onto the game, as it did for many other young guns. He deposited online two years after Moneymaker scooped the bracelet and found PocketFives.com in June 2006. His first foray onto the virtual felts came in $5 sit and gos and he slowly moved up the ranks from there.

He wanted to lend shout outs to Pittsburgh’s Damage1, Jerry Sandler1860 Payne (pictured), New Jersey’s 99NvrLosez, Florida’s cougars4444, and others: “Those are who I learn the most from. Also, I’d like to tell funnygut to EAD.” Here were the results from the September 1st running of the PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million:

1. nollidK - $48,761 (nollidK)
2. Mills23 - $35,022
3. Z06LUVR - $26,266 (z06fanatic)
4. Calvin32 - $19,666
5. p0cket00 - $13,874 (p0cket00)
6. stankee1 - $11,180 (Blueberleez)
7. sh0rty_oo7 - $8,486 (sh0rty_oo7)
8. CesarSPA - $5,93
9. DcHustlers - $3,448 (DcHustler)

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