Brian Elgaard (pictured), better known as Halfrek on PocketFives, has been a member of our community since March 2012. He calls Denmark home and is about to pass $4 million in tracked cashes in his PocketFives profile. He incredibly has four tracked scores of at least $200,000 and has taken down a bevy of high-profile tournaments over the years.

“For the most part, I’m happy with my results,” Elgaard told PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I’m just a little pessimistic because so far I’ve had a bad year. It’s improving though.” He cashed for $542,000 and $342,000 in tournaments held during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series in mid-2008, which included the festival’s $2,620 buy-in Two-Day Event and a $1,060 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament.

With so much success on Full Tilt, he told us that he “cried” when the site’s license was suspended by Alderney gaming officials in the middle of 2011. He commented, “I have always done way better on Full Tilt than PokerStars. Even today, after Full Tilt has reopened, I still cannot play there because they do not have a Danish license.”

In 2011, he banked $212,000 officially for final tabling the PokerStars SCOOP Main Event, so he has experienced some success on the world’s largest online poker site. Elgaard also final tabled the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy at the end of last month for $15,000. In July, he finished third in the site’s Wednesday Hundred Grand for another $15,000.

He was a professional backgammonplayer about 10 years ago, but after his colleagues shifted over to poker, he followed suit. He was acclaimed at backgammon as well, appearing briefly on the Giants of Backgammon list, which ranks the top 32 players in the world. He said, “I was good; not as good as Gus Hansen (pictured), but pretty close.” According to the World Series of Backgammon’s website, Hansen has a rating of 1,582, the 29th highest overall. Hansen, also a Dane, finished fifth in the WSOB race in 2010 and 16th in 2008.

Elgaard is the #9 ranked player in the Denmark poker community and tops in the island of Fyn. We asked about poker in his homeland. His response: “I play pretty much exclusively online. Only companies with a license from the State can legally offer internet poker in Denmark now, so a lot of companies have chosen to pass on Denmark as a market.” In 2012, he was ranked as high as #63 in the world on PocketFives.

It’s not very often that we see someone on PocketFives with 10 scores of at least $40,000, including four behemoths, so we thought it would be worthwhile to list them here:

FTOPS Two-Day Event: May 17, 2008 at Full Tilt Poker
1st Place for $516,925

FTOPS $1K NLHE: May 13, 2008 at Full Tilt Poker
1st Place for $342,495

SCOOP $1,050 Mid-Stakes Main Event: May 22, 2011 at PokerStars
3rd Place for $212,925

Monthly Million: July 5, 2009 at PartyPoker
1st Place for $210,000

Super Tuesday: July 2, 2013 at PokerStars
1st Place for $79,063

$150 Rebuy: December 6, 2009 at Full Tilt Poker
1st Place for $71,700

Super Tuesday: June 10, 2008 at PokerStars
1st Place for $66,600

Sunday Million: October 16, 2011 at PokerStars
4th Place for $61,721

$109 Sunday Rebuy: July 3, 2011 at PokerStars
1st Place for $44,175

$215 Rebuy: November 16, 2008 at PokerStars
1st Place for $43,758

See who has earned their $4 million cash badge on PocketFives.

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