In August, PocketFiver David Buetta(pictured) chopped the PokerStars Sunday $109 Rebuyheads-up for $27,000 and officially took second place. While the five-figure score certainly wasn’t anything to scoff at, he told us, “It’s always nice to finish that high in a tough online MTT, but obviously you always want to finish first.” He was one of six PocketFivers at the final table.

He was eager to chop. He explained that he was ready for the tournament to be over after a long week of traveling: “Besides the fact that we both were nearly even in stacks with 50 big blinds, the reason I wanted to chop was quite funny. I came home to Austria midday from a vacation in North America not having slept for a day and decided to register for a few early tourneys. So, I was pretty happy with the suggestion of my opponent to make a deal.“

He added, “I would have preferred to deal it all and not play heads-up so deep, but you have to play for at least $4,000. I made a 6bet shove I would never have done If I were fully aware and awake.” In the end, PocketFivers raked in over 60% of the prize pool and Buetta was the highest finishing member of our community.

The Austrian plays the $109 Rebuy during the week and on the weekends, so we asked what the differences between the two versions are. He explained, “Both tourneys are tough, but on Sundays, the field is a bit bigger and therefore a bit softer. It’s probably still not the most +EV tourney, but I like it. On weekdays, I stopped playing it a while ago, and I don’t play that much during the week anyhow.”

On the tournament’s structure, he evaluated, “To be honest with you, I did not know about the new structure before I registered on Sunday. It changes the game a bit, as you have to build up a stack rather quickly and there will be more chips in play than usual because of the longer rebuy period.”

His largest online poker score to date came two years ago in the Sunday Million. He finished fourth in that tournament for $74,000 and said of the finish, “It definitely is a big thing to go into a Sunday Million final table as the chip leader, so it was disappointing to finish fourth.” He also won an FTOPS jersey in 2011.

Buetta got started in poker after watching his brother play and learning the basics from him. After that, he played €10 rebuys on IPN and had some success right away, so he moved on to the bigger sites. He said, “I like the tension going deep in tourneys. I would say I am quite a relaxed person in general, but at some point in a tournament, the adrenaline level rises.”

He is the #28 player in Austria (pictured) and #1 in his home city of Linz. Interestingly enough, he is not a full-time player, as he’s studying law and only plays MTTs a couple of days per week. His buy-in levels: between $20 and $200.

Congrats to David Buetta on his Sunday $109 Rebuy chop!

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook.