On the first weekend of November, Brazil’s Thulio Colle, known on PocketFives as MRCOLLE(pictured), hit it big in the PokerStars Sunday Million, chopping the tournament four ways and bagging $133,000. “I’m very happy because I’ve been devoting myself to poker for some time now, about two years, and the Sunday Million is what every player wants to do well in,” Colle told PocketFives in an exclusive interview.

Colle was in the zone down the stretch in the $215 buy-in tournament, which that week attracted over 7,100 entrants: “Everything went well. I was focused on it from 100 players on and when there were 18 left, I was the chip leader. When the final table was formed, I was second in chips, but soon took the lead again and pressed opponents with short and medium stacks.”

Colle lost a major blind-versus-blind hand with A-9 against A-4 despite being a heavy favorite. Four-handed, he was third in chips and decided to do a deal that essentially gave him second place money. Speaking of the Benjamins, Colle said of his plans, “Part of it I will invest in my bankroll and I’ll save the rest. The life of a poker player is not easy and the months are not all good. I know there is variance in the game and have to be prepared for it.”

Colle is up to $437,000 in career online tournament winnings, nearly all of which has come on PokerStars. His younger brother Thiago was responsible for bringing him into the magical world of online poker. “He once organized a home game and I had a great time on my very first try,” Colle said. “I was amazed by the game. Later on, searching the internet, I realized poker was more than luck. When you play, you are fully immersed in a tough and competitive atmosphere, but I was sure you could play poker for a living and become a professional.”

Colle eventually met up with fellow PocketFiver AmarulABr, whose real name is Leandro Balotin. He also started getting coaching from Brazilian AlexGelinski (pictured) and said, “Back then, I used to play $1 to $10 MTTs and $4.50 180-man sit and gos. I had such good results that after reaching a certain volume in these games, I applied to get in the best and most popular team in Brazil. I joined in March 2013. I learned, and am still learning a lot, from the coaches.”

He can be found at #384 worldwide in the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings, 71 off his all-time high of #316. He plays poker full-time, is married, and enjoys hanging out with his family, traveling, sleeping, and having dinner with friends when he’s not firing up the virtual tables.

At this point in the interview, we hit on a solid title. “The key to winning large-field MTTs is to play a lot; play as much as you can and eventually a deep run in a major tournament will show up. When that happens, you will feel prepared and confident. Going deep in the Sunday Million is the dream of every online poker player. It was truly fantastic to get this huge result in so short of a career.”

Let’s talk about poker in Brazil now. The South American nation is #4 in PocketFives’ Country Poker Rankingswith a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of 106,053 points. Brazil has 46 Triple Crowns, the fourth most of any country, and there are 1,021 registered members who call it home. Check out our Brazil poker community.

The Sunday Million runs weekly on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through the links on PocketFives to get a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus and one free month of Tournament Poker Edge or CardRunners poker training. Get started here.

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