Event #11 of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series(FTOPS) saw 9,718 players enter an affordable $129 No Limit Hold’em Knockout tournament. At the end of the day, longtime PocketFives.com member Kory s00tedj0kers Kilpatrick came away with his second FTOPS jersey and a smooth $155,000.

Many players we’ve talked to that have won Knockout tournaments tell us the bounties don’t really affect their play on the felts. Kilpatrick echoed that sentiment: “It’s not really too much different from a normal freezeout. You will come across some people, satellite players in particular, who are bounty hunters. You have to be aware of who those people are and adjust accordingly. You may have to tighten up your 3bet shoving range against them, for example.”

How do you figure out who the bounty hunters are? Are they just the most active players at the table? Kilpatrick explained, “You figure it out through observation. It’s safer to default by tightening up your shoving ranges initially, but as you gain more information about your table and see more hands shown down, you can kind of gauge who those people are.” He added, “In a standard freezout, if a decision to call an all-in is marginal in terms of chip EV, I would normally take the route of lower variance and fold, whereas I would lean more towards the side of calling in a bounty tournament.”

We mentioned at the top of the article that the Knockout marked Kilpatrick’s second FTOPS jersey. His first came during the opening contest of FTOPS XIV, a $216 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament, and was good for $120,000 following a four-way deal. Kilpatrick remarked, “FTOPS always draws the top online tournament players in the world and getting first is a very surreal feeling, especially as a regular and doing it for the second time. It’s a great accomplishment to add to your poker resume.” His claims to fame also include an online poker Triple Crown.

Kilpatrick is originally from Athens, Georgia and now attends Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He’s close with the top two players in the Sortable Rankingsfor Athens, cstep02and Alex Moore (pictured). The former actually introduced him to the game and the group continues to discuss hand histories and strategy on a regular basis.

Now, he’s in his third semester at Rhodes and plays college basketball, adding even more activities to his plate. We asked him how he’s been able to juggle his various responsibilities effectively: “I haven’t really played MTTs in a few years and spend most of my time playing PLO. However, during basketball season, I don’t have much time for that. I’ve just learned to manage my time. I don’t watch much TV and don’t have a lot of time to waste. I’m either sleeping, eating, playing basketball, studying, or playing poker at any given point of the day.”

At the time of writing, Kilpatrick’s Rhodes College men’s basketball squad was 1-1. Away from the court, he’s had a stellar end to 2010, final tabling a PokerStarsWorld Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) tournament in September for $18,000. This year, he’s racked up over $210,000 in tournaments tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings. Will even bigger cashes be in store for the Lynx basketball player in 2011? Stay tuned to PocketFives.com to find out.

Here’s how the final table of FTOPS XVIII Event #11 cashed out:

1. s00tedj0kers89 – $155,488 (s00tedj0kers)
2. nospeculation – $106,898
3. LuvYouLongTime – $75,800 (djlongtime)
4. castellimich – $55,393 (castellimich)
5. DianaVickers – $40,816
6. syuga – $29,154
7. bigred2587 – $20,408
8. Raisemitdreck – $14,091
9. zerojim – $9,912

Visit Full Tilt Poker to relive all of the action from the recently completed FTOPS.