The MiniFTOPS Main Event on Full Tilt Pokerbrought out a mammoth field of nearly 7,000 players. The $70 buy-in tournament ended with PocketFives member Luke LFmagic Fields (pictured) coming away with the win and boosting his bankroll by $117,000. He told PocketFives, “I turned down a deal three-handed. They wanted to look at numbers, but I thought I had a decent edge. I’ve played a lot of heads-up sit and gos and had experience up to $5K before, so dealing seemed like a bad move.”

After the deal was turned down, Fields dropped a pot for 60% of the chips in play after his queens could not fend off K-Q. In a separate hand, the player with most of the chips opened and Fields defended with K-10 of hearts. He flopped the nuts, check-called, and the turn was an eight. His opponent 3bet and Fields flatted to bring a deuce on the river. His opponent shoved with 10-9 for the second nuts and Fields seemed to be in command of the MiniFTOPS Main Event.

This is the second largest online MTT cash we’ve tracked for Fields, trailing only an FTOPS jersey win in 2011 for over $200,000. On his plans for the money, Fields asserted, “Maybe getting a car or maybe putting a big deposit down on a property. I love winning titles. Regardless of the money, it’s great to win things. Nothing can beat that. It has been a strange year. I have been getting healthier and exercising loads. This year, I have played little volume, but have gotten a good number of scores. I just want to keep the heat going right now.”

Fields is living at home with his parents in a small town in the U.K., which he said has been quite an adjustment: “After doing university, traveling for poker, and living in a city with poker guys, to come back home to a small town has been an interesting experience.”

Prior to that, Fields was living in Leeds, where he explained “half of the U.K. poker scene lives,” including the likes of two-time WSOP bracelet winner J.P. MavFishKelly (pictured) and longtime PocketFiver Tom hittheholeMiddleton. Fields remarked, “It was good, but you tend to get into bad habits. It’s a fast way of life and it’s a big city, whereas where I am from is a small town. It’s nice being able to play golf every day, work out, and swim. It’s cool to be near my family and see more of my parents. I wanted to focus on me. I was overweight, smoking, drinking too much, and wanted to get healthier.”

Fields finished third in the PokerStars Sunday Millionin 2011 for $111,000 officially, one of three six-figure scores we’ve tracked for the Brit. He is within $90,000 of earning a $2 million cash badge here on PocketFives and told us, “I want a WCOOP title or a major title on PokerStars. I have two seconds in SCOOPs, but no WCOOP success or deep runs. I don’t know why that is. Maybe I am blessed on Full Tilt.”

Finally, we asked Fields how he improves in poker. Did surrounding himself with players like Kelly and Middleton in Leeds pay off? He commented, “I tend to do most of my studying about poker by myself. I am a big believer in experience. I watch videos and watch my sessions. If you ever want to talk about hands, those guys’ thought processes are brilliant, though. It’s cool to have friends in poker. It’s a great community. Most of the guys are intelligent, well-mannered people. They represent poker players pretty well.”

You can follow Fields’ antics on his blog at lfmagic.blogspot.com. He is also on Twitter at @LFmagic.

Big tournament series are constantly running on Full Tilt Poker. If you don’t already have a Full Tilt Poker account, sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a 100% first deposit bonus and a special free $25 ticket package until October 26. Click here for PocketFives’ Full Tilt Poker link.

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