In breaking news this week, PocketFives.com and its parent company, Protos Marketing, have mutually agreed to part ways. If you’ve never heard of Protos Marketing, some of the company’s sites include PokerSource.com, PokerSoftware.com, and TheNuts.com. Now, PocketFives.com has become its own entity and returned to its original ownership group on May 1st.

PocketFives.com co-founder and current Protos Marketing CEO Adam Small (pictured) was looking forward to being involved with both organizations going forward: “As CEO of Protos Marketing and a current partner in the PocketFives.com business, I will continue to be involved on both sides, making sure that each of these two organizations is able to grow and prosper.”

“I came to Protos Marketing as a result of this partnership,” Small reminisced. “I have nothing but great things to say about the professionalism the company has shown toward PocketFives.com throughout the relationship.” Protos Marketing and PocketFives.com originally joined forces in 2007.

Other than the connection issues we’ve had this week, we don’t expect any interruption in the operation of PocketFives.com going forward; the same holds true for Protos Marketing. PocketFives.com will still be involved with the same rakeback group as in the past and will continue to bring unique, community-driven promotions to our 100,000 members.

Small, Cal Spears, and Riley Bryantfounded PocketFives.com in 2005. The site originally etched its mark by ranking online poker players, a revolutionary feature that has today evolved to include Sortable Rankings, Monthly PLBraces, and a full scale Pro Pollthat allows select members to vote on their peers. The Rankings were automated in late 2006 and encompass sites like PartyPokerand Carbon Poker.

Spears (pictured) was looking forward to joining the site’s management team once more: “The guys at Protos Marketing did a wonderful job building PocketFives.com over the past few years, but I have to admit I’ve missed being involved in the day to day operations. I’m happy to be back in that role now. Helping develop PocketFives.com from a concept to one of the largest online poker communities provided some of my fondest memories. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow our community and brand worldwide.”

The newest feature to debut on PocketFives.com is its poker trainingarm. Featuring instruction from pros like Kevin 1SickDiseaseEyster, Jon apestylesVan Fleet, Alex AssassinatoFitzgerald, Mike Gags30Gagliano, and 2011 EPT Berlin winner Ben NeverScaredB Wilinofsky, PocketFives.com Training has already attracted a healthy membership base.

PocketFives.com has also come alive with players discussing the fallout from Black Friday, which saw the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Pokerindicted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Our first feature article on the events of Black Friday was our most viewed content piece of all-time. Moreover, the central thread in the Poker Sites forum has received 1,400 replies and been viewed over 160,000 times.

Protos Marketing Chairman of the Board Mike Jackness bid PocketFives.com adieu by saying, “I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with PocketFives.com and hope the best for them.”

PocketFives.com also boasts a monthly Podcast, twice-a-week tournament recaps, and user-specific awards that include Triple Crowns and earnings badges.

For media requests related to this article, please e-mail Dan Cypra at support@fivesmail.com.