The January 9th running of the weekly PokerStars Sunday 500featured 896 players, but fell short of its half-million dollar guarantee. In the end, veteran PocketFives community member Shawn phatcat Luman (pictured) walked away with a $90,000 top prize and continued dominating the online poker scene six years after he first joined our site. Luman, who has over $3 million in earnings from tournaments tracked by PocketFives.com, sat down to relive his Sunday 500 run.

Luman is the top-ranked player in Kansas and recently made the final table of the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guarantee. He explained, “I was on a pretty horrible downswing up until now. In fact, I had dropped a lot of my tournaments and stakes lately and was even in the process of at least considering trying to find a backing deal. I wouldn’t have even played the Sunday 500 if I hadn’t win one a Super Turbo satellite into it. Even then, I almost didn’t until I saw that it looked like it was going to have a decent overlay.” In the end, the tournament boasted a $52,000 overlay.

Approaching the bubble in the Sunday 500, Luman drew out on pocket nines with 9-8 suited and cruised to the final two tables. From there, he recalled, “I throttled down and ended up winning one pretty big pot against a loose cannon near the final table bubble when I called a big river bet with ace-high. But, I mostly just laid low and let them make mistakes.” A heads-up chop was discussed, but failed to come to fruition.

Luman joined PocketFives.com in April 2005, just a few months after the site launched. “It was definitely a lot softer back then,” Luman relished. “But, on the other hand, there weren’t the variety, volume, or stakes available back then in MTTs.”

On whose games he admired when he joined the community a half-dozen years ago, Luman told us, “Cliff JohnnyBaxJosephy (pictured) was definitely one of the names you saw at the top of the lobbies all the time. Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul was one of the first players I remember who effectively played super loose, although that was never really much of a problem for me. I started out on the loose side, but wasn’t necessarily playing it well like he was.”

Even though he’s been in the poker industry longer than a wealth of other players, Luman contended that he still looks forward to playing every day: “I love it. I’m very competitive by nature, so it’s good for that. I also love to learn, which is a must in order to evolve.” His rap sheet includes wins in the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand, Bodog Poker Open Main Event, PokerStars $100 and $200 Rebuys, and Sunday Second Chance.

Luman has two entries in the Hendon Mob database for live poker tournaments; both are top three finishes and combine for over $250,000. He finished second in a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge in Tulsa in 2007. That same year, he took third in a $1,000 Rebuy No Limit Hold’em event during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Since then, he’s been quiet on the live circuit due in part to an eight year old son growing up at home: “I love playing live and feel like I have even more of an edge there, but I just hate being away from home. The little guy is growing up so fast. I want to take every opportunity I can to enjoy it while it lasts.”

We asked Luman to give us the names of a few up-and-coming online poker players we should be on the lookout for in 2011. He threw out Canada’s xxd33pxxand argued, “I’ve played with him a little lately. He definitely knows what he’s doing and I expect him to be crushing high-stakes MTTs soon.” He also wanted to recognize Marsall1121.

The newest Sunday 500 winner also wanted to thank his father (thepupaka “fatshaggy”), Kansas native cb04, and fellow high-stakes pro Scott SteelyWyler for all their support. Visit PokerStars to play in this week’s running of the Sunday 500.