When I first started working with PocketFives.com back in early 2006, one of the highly visible names on the site was Nick agriffrod Mitchell. He joined the PocketFives.com online poker community in December of 2005 and admits that he was one of the site’s primary railers. Two years later, he sits at #76 in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and holds a Sliding PLB score of over 5,200. The resident of Webster, New York sat down with PocketFives.com to discuss his recent success, which includes a pair of $100 rebuy wins in the past two months.

His most recent win in the $100 rebuy on PokerStars came on September 22nd. He won $30,250 for his efforts, one of his 47 cashes last month in tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings. All told, he piled up $103,000 in earnings in those events and told PocketFives, “I’ve been in a groove. I played a lot during the WCOOP. I started to make deeper runs and then finally got a few wins. A lot of it for me is just desire. When I actually want to be playing, I seem to get in a groove, but it’s hard to play when you really just want to be doing other things.”

His volume had trailed off for a while. Lately, he’s been making an effort to increase the number of tournaments he plays in: “I used to be a really low volume player. I didn’t usually play more than six tournaments at a time. I had a bad run and realized that there are a ton of tournaments out there with a lot of value and I was missing out on them. Now, I put in a lot of full days.” He plays four days per week on average and takes Saturdays off for college football. He added, “I’m completely comfortable playing 20-30 tournaments per day now and it doesn’t bother me.”

Mitchell’s other win in the $100 rebuy came in the beginning of August and was worth $62,000. He finished as the runner up in the $1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker in July for $65,000. Mitchell told PocketFives what gives him an edge when he sits down to play on the virtual felts: “I adapt really well and don’t feel like people have me figured out. Some people think I’m a huge nit; some people probably think I’m actually a monkey with a mouse. I change gears pretty well and pretty discretely.”

He’s a man with an eclectic array of interests. Just look at his profile and you’ll see everything under the sun listed. Mitchell attended Ohio State University, but has since “been taking a break.” He traveled to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to witness his Buckeyes get thumped 35-3 by USC. On the game, he recalled, “I wanted to cry.” His weekend schedule is filled with OSU and Dallas Cowboys games. He claims that the Terrell Owens-Tony Romo relationship will remain positive in 2008 because “Owens is more nature now.” It seems as if only time will tell whether Owens will erupt against his quarterback in 2008.

Now that he’s back in the Rankings, he told us his goals for 2009: “I really want to make money and be happy. I’d also like to be ranked higher, mainly because it will motivate me.” He’s well on his way to achieving those goals in October. He’s ranked 68th in the PLB and 71st in the Pro Poll. Last week, he was ranked #90 and was one of the greatest risers in the Rankings this week. He plays on Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars under the name “agriffrod,” on Absolute Poker under the name “NumberOneMom,” and on Ultimate Bet under the name “Mr Delicious.”

In the New York State leader board, he’s ranked third in the Sliding PLB. Ahead of him are Shaun shaundeeb Deeb and Cliff JohnnyBax Josephy. In the September Monthly PLB race, which was won by Carter ckingusc King, Mitchell finished 49th, posting a score of 1,957. He has over 7,000 posts on PocketFives.com.

Congratulations to Nick agriffrod Mitchell for his rapid rise in the Rankings this week. To check out how the rest of the pack settled this week, check out the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings.