It’s not every day that you receive a $300,000 boost to your online poker bankroll. For New Jersey PocketFives.com member kbp33(pictured), however, that rarity became a reality, as his win in a $1,060 No Limit Hold’em event held during the 17th Full Tilt Online Poker Series(FTOPS) was worth $301,000. The 32 year-old application manager for a financial company defeated stiff competition at the final table, including his heads-up opponent Bjorn kleath Kleathersson. We sat down with kbp33 to recap his highly productive day on Full Tilt Poker.

The FTOPS XVII tournament played out like a fantasy for kbp33. He told PocketFives.com, “I feel like I will wake up at any time and realize it was all just a dream, especially after watching ‘Inception,’ but my family keeps reminding me it’s for real.” He’ll potentially use a portion of his newfound money to pay off outstanding debt and will also set aside some for the family. Additionally, you’ll be finding him in even more tournaments on the virtual felts of the world’s largest sites.

This wasn’t his first rodeo in a high-stakes FTOPS event. In fact, during FTOPS XV, kbp33 took seventh in the same $1,060 No Limit Hold’em tournament for $43,000. You can catch him on Full Tilt playing under the pseudonym yahoo33 and he admitted, “I went into the final table second in chips in that event and screwed it up big time. I was so tired and falling asleep. I wished I would get the same chance again and it happened.”

Kleathersson (pictured) owns the seventh spot worldwide in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Player Rankings and banked $191,000 for playing second fiddle to kbp33. Kleathersson has over $2 million in earnings in tournaments tracked by PocketFives.com for one of the highest totals by any member. “He’s a top-ranked player and was pretty much in control throughout,” recalled kbp33. “No one was really playing back at him. I won couple of key hands and next thing I realized, I had a pretty massive chip lead going into heads-up play.”

During heads-up play, kbp33 tried to forge a deal with Kleathersson since an important meeting at work was looming in the not-too-distant future. However, Kleathersson declined and the two played on. Despite his recent success, kbp33 has no plans to abandon the financial industry and head to poker: “I don’t think I have the skills to compete with all of these online pros on a regular basis. I will just keep taking my shots, but won’t really be playing any satellites to buy in.”

Other players who final tabled the $1,060 No Limit Hold’em FTOPS XVII event included Andrew Drewfus81St. Jean, cstep02, and Ben Bttech86 Tollerene (pictured), who took seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively. A total of 135 players finished in the money in the $1.37 million prize pool tournament.

kbp33 got his start in poker by playing an Indian game called Teen Patti, a three-card variant. After No Limit Hold’em became the rage, kbp33 switched over with the masses. Eventually, he hit up live casinos in Atlantic City and began to compete on online sites like Full Tilt. In March, kbp33 won the Full Tilt $75,000 Guarantee for $17,000. Since the 2010 calendar year began, he’s racked up nearly $400,000 in tournaments tracked for the Rankings.

He wanted to send the following message to aspiring poker players in the online community: “If I can do this, so can you. Just keep trying.” Congratulations to kbp33 and all members of PocketFives.com who walked away with cash from FTOPS XVII. Check out our complete FTOPS XVII final table results.

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