The October 17th running of the UB.com $200,000 Guaranteeended in a two-way chop featuring PocketFives.com member Jeremy JBurlesonBurleson (pictured). He went on a tear in the days immediately following the deal, final tabling the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grandand Full Tilt $1K Mondayin successive days. The North Carolina native shot up to 138th worldwide in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and holds over $2 million in earnings from tracked tournaments. We caught up with the American to rehash his chop in the weekly UB.com event.

Burleson and fellow online poker player IGOTCAUGHT each came away with just over $36,000 following the even chop. Burleson held the chip lead before IGOTCAUGHT won a race to get back into the hunt. Then, a deal was forged. For Burleson, who took down a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Shootout event in August and made the final table of the PokerStars Sunday 500 one month prior, the $36,000 cash in the UB Sunday Major wasn’t his largest to date, but it was still significant. He told us, “I wouldn’t say that it’s at the very top or anything, but I’m happy that it happened and it always feels good to hit something big.”

We asked Burleson to compare his runs in the FTOPS, Sunday 500, and UB $200K, three very different tournaments that he managed to find success in. Burleson revealed, “All three were very different. The FTOPS event was a shootout with a bunch of really good players where you are trying to win each table. The Sunday 500 can be tough at the end, but it still has some soft spots along the way. In the UB $200,000 Guarantee, the average player is probably worse than in the other two tournaments, but some familiar names still pop up.”

The UB.com $200,000 Guarantee attracted a field of 1,013 entrants for a total prize pool of nearly $203,000. The tournament usually features a semi-solid field down the stretch and Burleson gave us his insight into the skill level of the players involved: “There are sleepers sometimes on sites like UB.com and Cake Poker who may have very different names than on PokerStars and Full Tilt. You might not know who they are at the time and later you’ll find out who it is; it’ll turn out that they are really good players.”

In August, Burleson could be found at #78 worldwide in the Rankings, his highest position to date. Now, he’s at 138th and making a march back into the fray. With seven final tables, nearly a dozen top 20 finishes, and over $50,000 in Rankings-eligible tournaments through the first 20 days of October, it’s easy to see him cracking the top 100 on the global leaderboard once again very soon. On his interest in the Rankings, Burleson told PocketFives.com, “It hasn’t ever been my main focus or goal to be ranked high, but it’s pretty cool at the same time. Maybe if I weren’t near the 80 to 100 range in the Rankings, I would be more hungry to get to the top since it would seem more within reach.”

The Rankings have continued to be a focal point of competition among players even since their migration to an automated system in 2006. Chris Gettin DaizeOliver claimed the top spot on August 18th from DoylesRoomBrunson 10 member Steve gboro780 Gross (pictured) and has stood tall ever since. Burleson gave us his take on the Rankings, which contributed to the rapid growth of PocketFives.com early on: “I like that they have Rankings. It keeps the online tournaments more interesting and encourages competition among the players.”

Here were the final results from the UB $200,000 Guarantee on October 17th:

1. JBURL – $36,143 (JBurleson)
2. IGOTCAUGHT – $36,143
3. MYNINET0FIVE – $18,335 (NINE9HIMSELF)
4. 1BIGDUMBDONK – $13,068
5. MARTYJENNETY – $11,042
6. SICKRIVER777 – $9,016
7. KLADD – $6,990 (joocs)
8. SUSTAINABLE – $4,964 (PokerToronto)
9. SOGGYVAG – $3,444

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