Recently, Aaron SaulGood Surbeck proved that his game was still “all good” by chopping the 20th event of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament. Heads-up against fellow PocketFives.com member Steven PiKappRaider Burkholder, Surbeck forged a deal and earned $85,000 for second place. He’s been a member of the online poker community since its first months in existence and sat down with PocketFives.com to recap his run.

After battling against Surbeck heads-up, Burkholder (pictured at left) held a 60-40 edge in chips. The former told PocketFives.com how the chop came about: “I have a lot of respect for PiKappRaider and his game, but I didn’t want to get screwed on the chop. The original payouts were $113,000 and $73,000. We agreed on $85,000 and $93,000 and played for the remainder. I have been running well and playing well, but it seems like I’ve gotten a ton of second places.” Ironically, Surbeck nearly missed the registration for the FTOPS event, but snuck in at the last minute.
Surbeck was the chip leader as the final table bubble loomed, steamrolling the field from 25 players down to nine, when he held one-third of the chips in play. He recalled, “The worst suckout I remember was with about 100 left. I had K-J suited and re-shoved against someone’s queens. I decided it was gamble time. I flopped a flush draw and turned a flush. That was the last time I was ever short.” A total of 2,803 players entered and the top 279 finished in the money.

Another chop for Surbeck came in the Daily Eighty Grand on PokerStars in September for $25,000, his first five-figure online poker score. The cash was quadruple the value of his bankroll at the time and Surbeck thought it would be his largest cash ever. Sure enough, two months later, he banked $85,000 to set a new mark. He currently works as a casino dealer and told PocketFives.com, “Dealing table games is a reality check when I think I’m awesome online. I work afternoons and there’s Senior Day, which is always interesting. Most of the people are great and they treat us well. I’ve also considered moving to Las Vegas or Vancouver to play poker.”

Surbeck signed up for PocketFives.com in May of 2005, the site’s very first year in existence. He recalled the melee of posts in Off Topic by a variety of legendary community members: “When it began, it seemed like there were only a few of us. It was just like an IM session and we’d BS about off the wall topics. That’s where the great humor of OT was bred.” Surbeck worked the graveyard shift at a hotel and hopped on PocketFives.com to pass the time. He’s contributed over 14,000 posts to the community in four years.

Building the OT community and PocketFives.com in general meant an influx of now-infamous names. Surbeck commented, “I remember when hyacinthgirl (pictured at right) had just started talking. She asked me how to make a thread that wouldn’t be stupid. I told her to make a poll that everyone would have a response to. I made a thread for her and it got a bunch of responses that night. She was amazed at the interaction that came from that. It helped us realize how cool OT was.”

In June, Surbeck finished 29th in a $500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament held during the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in Las Vegas for $1,200. In May, he recorded his first cash in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) by taking 51st in the Casino Employees Event. Surbeck relayed his live poker aspirations during a recent trip to Sin City: “I’ll play the Bellagio daily tournaments or a couple of the Venetian $300s and the $1K.”

In mid-November, Surbeck won the $55 Cubed on PokerStars for $10,000. All told, he earned $104,000 over the first 15 days of the month in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings. Stay tuned for other high-stakes cashes by Aaron SaulGood Surbeck.