On Saturday, we featured an articleon PocketFives about Kyle knetKnecht chopping last weekend’s PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up. Today, we’re going to bring you the other side of the coin. PocketFives sat down with inheritance1, who hails from Edmonton and raked in $107,000 in last week’s Sunday Major after chopping heads-up with Knecht. After all, you only record your first six-figure score once.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. Was choppingthe PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up a function of the money? You secured your first six-figure score in the process.

inheritance1: Not really. PokerStars has a new function: if you hit the “Info” tab at a final table, there’s a check box to allow players to chop. If everyone has it checked off, then the tournament will automatically pause and a host arrives. When I got to the final table, I checked that off right away just to see if everyone wanted to deal or what. When I busted the third place finisher, I totally forgot about that option, but once it got to that point, having guaranteed a six-figure score just had a nice ring to it.

PocketFives: Did the chop affect your heads-up playor were you still gunning for the win?

inheritance1: I don’t think it really affected heads-up play that much since the monetary difference wasn’t that significant. I know when it got to that point I wanted the win. There was still $10,000 on the line, but it’s not every day you can say you won a major. I guess I have to wait another day.

PocketFives: We’re sure that the residents of Edmonton are thrilled with your second place finish. Can you tell us a little bit about the games on PokerStars since U.S. players were thrown off following Black Friday?

inheritance1: The MTTs have definitely changed. There were a significant number of solid players from the U.S. that dropped from the player pool. The players from the Western Hemisphere tend to play more at the same time. So, when I play at night Canada, I would tend to see a lot more players from South America and Mexico. The fundamentals of those players are generally a lot further behind than the player pool that was force to leave because of Black Friday.

As more regs move from the States to other countries, I’ve seen more of them more frequently. And as is always the case with poker, players generally will get better or be forced to leave the game.

PocketFives: Were you surprised to see several American players relocate out of the United States in order to continue playing online poker? By the way, PocketFives offers Poker Refugeesfor that very purpose.

inheritance1: I think that each situation is unique and everyone will do what’s in their best interest. For some players who make a lot of money from it and enjoy it, it seems like a no-brainer. You get to do something you love and can travel the world. For others, financially it wouldn’t make sense. Poker isn’t a reliable resource of income. You have to be prepared for the downswings and not only have enough funds, but also the right mental approach to go through those situations.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

inheritance1: I started playing for play money before the whole Moneymaker poker boom. When I first played online, the play money sites only really offered Limit poker games, which weren’t that interesting. Then, they started having No Limit ring games and I was hooked. I played for a few months before finding a free $50 offer through an affiliate.

From the $50, I was able to build a bankroll by playing conservatively, bonus-whoring, and casino-whoring. After the bonuses started to dry up, especially post-UIGEA, I had to learn how to play better.

I moved to PokerStars and found the five-table sit and gos. Those were pretty new at the time and I was able to quickly learn and win at a decent rate. In 2008, PokerStars had a freeroll to win lessons from Daniel Negreanu. There were three stages, the last being a 5,000-player freeroll, and only the top prize was significant. I even took an hour off to have dinner, but long story short, I won that tournament and got to meet Daniel with 10 other people.

We spent a weekend in Las Vegas learning directly from him. It was such a great experience and it opened up my eyes. I started playing MTTs afterwards.