One year ago, Faraz The-Toilet Jaka stormed onto the live poker scene by winning a $1,000 buy-in preliminary event held as part of the L.A. Poker Classic. He triumphed over a field of 416 entrants, banking $104,000 for his efforts. Earlier this month, the 33rd player on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings scored his first Triple Crown, winning three $10,000+ prize pool events across three of the major online poker sites within a week. He has a list of poker accolades a mile long: Winning the Super Tuesday, winning Sunday majors on back to back weeks, and numerous rebuy tournament victories, just to name a few. Other than that, he hasn’t done much in poker. Jaka joined the PocketFives.com Podcast this week to discuss his burgeoning career.

To say that Jaka is confident in his game would be an understatement. The month of February has seen the PocketFiver win the UltimateBet $20,000 Deep Stack Guaranteed and a $109 buy-in tournament on Full Tilt Poker for a combined $60,000. He took second in the Full Tilt $65,000 Guaranteed for $22,000 and finished 27th in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event for $9,000. He told the PocketFives.com Podcast, "I've been doing really well. I've had a great run and been working really hard. I think I'm up there with the top players. As far as live events go, I've been playing a ton of them and feeling very confident. The variance in those tournaments is high, but I feel like I'm up there with the best and it's just a matter of time before I take down a big one."

During the second semester of his freshman year in college, Jaka started playing a recurring $10 buy-in poker game with others in his dorm. In a fraternity tournament that he won, he bested fellow PocketFiver Ben chong94 LeFew heads-up. The two hit it off immediately, burrowing Jaka deeper into the world of poker. He explained, "If he or I had misplayed one of our hands [and not finished 1-2 in the tournament], we never would have met. That's crazy to think about. LeFew was influential in the start of my poker career. He helped me learn the basic math and fundamentals of the game. I was good for him because I was new to the game and had a lot of energy."

During his junior year in college, Jaka and LeFew, among others, rented a house appropriately dubbed "The Poker House." A $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em cash game was its main spectacle. Eventually, the duo met Andy BKiCe Seth (pictured at left), now a former PokerStars $100 rebuy winner and all-around tournament expert. Jaka recalled, "He was new to poker, but wanted to learn. LeFew took him under his wings and started teaching him how to play. He ended up moving into our house the next semester." A lot of brain power found its way into The Poker House, which became known not only for its namesake game, but also for huge parties.

Jaka took 28th in a $1,000 rebuy tournament held during the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $14,000. He took 22nd in a $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event the year before, also for $14,000. He's traveled to tournaments across the globe and enjoys staying in hostels and other more social venues along the way. He told the PocketFives.com Podcast about one of his first hostel experiences in Paris, France: "Once I got to the hostel, it was awesome. It was the time of my life. Everyone was our age and wanted to go out. They were from all over the world. Ever since then, I've been going to more hostels." Through staying in hostels, he has been able to make contacts across the globe. His travels have taken him all the way from Australia to the Ukraine.

He's also become close friends with PocketFives.com contributor Alex Assassinato Fitzgerald (pictured at right), who has made the final table of the Sunday Million and taken down the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars. On Fitzgerald's game, Jaka commented, "I'm much more of a feel player. He knows the fundamentals well. On the road, we have a lot of the same interests like exploring cities. We want to have good life experiences. It's nice to have someone who has the same interests as you." Fitzgerald has written articles outlining his trips to the European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo event as well as the Irish Poker Open.

Jaka is currently debating where to stay for the upcoming 2009 WSOP, which will originate from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He could rent a house, as he did two years ago, which allows Jaka to feel like he's part of the real world and not cooped up inside a casino. However, staying at the Rio is cheaper and affords several benefits: "I could run up to my room. During a tournament's hour long dinner break, I could run up to shower, which is convenient." Feeling refreshed, according to Jaka, goes a long way in a tournament as demanding as the WSOP Main Event.

Check out the rest of this week's PocketFives.com Podcast featuring Faraz The-Toilet Jaka.