The month of September was kind to Canadian PocketFives.com member Russell rdcrsnCarson (pictured). In his career, he’s built over $4 million in earnings from Poker Rankings-eligible tournaments and has become one of the most decorated players to grace the PocketFives.com community. The highlight of September came when Carson finished as the runner-up in the Full Tilt Poker $100 Rebuy for $21,000 on September 22nd.

The day before his $100 Rebuy second place showing, Carson final tabled a PokerStarsWorld Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Second Chance event for $12,000. On the 17th of the month, it was the same old story. This time, Carson took fourth in another WCOOP Second Chance tournament for $15,000. Carson turned in three final tables on September 15th alone for a combined $17,000, which included a win in the Absolute Poker $20,000 Guarantee for $5,500. Over the first 26 days of September, Carson banked $172,000 in tournaments tracked for the Rankings in 116 cashes.

Carson has experienced success throughout his tournament poker career. He told us, “I’ve put in a ton of hours lately. The first couple of weeks of the WCOOP were a little slow, but then I had a pretty good Wednesday that made all of the time I put in worthwhile. I burnt myself out a little, so I will be cutting back the hours big-time going forward.”

How tough is it to grind WCOOP tournaments day in and day out? The entire schedule of the 2010 WCOOP featured 62 events and $50 million in guaranteed prize money, the largest series ever put forth by PokerStars. “A couple of my weeks definitely broke 70 hours,” admitted Carson. “Starting an afternoon shift and being up until 7:30am on back-to-back nights isn’t much fun, but when you ship a couple of tournaments, it makes it a little easier.” Carson’s largest online poker cash ever came in January, when he won the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $88,000.

In his recent Full Tilt $100 Rebuy runner-up finish, Carson limped into the money, but opened up his game to amass a stack. He explained, “I was 3betting more and things just started going my way. The cooler hands also went my way and I chipped up nicely.” He entered the final table on the short stack, but watched as Norway’s Cba2GRIND3m steamrolled the final table.

Carson started out play against Cba2GRIND3m down 3:1 in chips, but battled back to even before running A-10 into A-Q in his final hand. He measured, “I would have liked to have that heads-up battle back. I played a little too gambly and quickly and he was a pretty solid opponent.”

Carson joined PocketFives.com in February 2006. Since then, he’s won both Triple Crownand Monthly PLB titles. In addition, Carson has ascended to 73rd in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings. We asked him what drives his play after all these years: “I have financial goals that I would like to meet and different businesses that I want to invest in. I’m hoping to get a second property out West in my hometown, so poker usually provides the financial assistance for me to do things I want to.”

In addition to purchasing property and other financial goals, Carson has been married for nearly two years and revealed, “Kids probably aren’t too far off.” He noted, “The more stability I have when that day comes, the better I’ll sleep at night. On top of that, I want to get a sponsorship and results help in that matter, so when I sit down and play, I always try to bring my A game.” Carson is an instructor at PokerPwnage and works with the management group Poker Icons.

Carson’s wife Sarah has even taken an interest in poker: “She prefers to play live. I’ve tried to get her going, but she’s a little too hard on herself and doesn’t like making mistakes. When I was out in Las Vegas three summers ago, she was playing the Wynn $1-$3 No Limit game and made about $3,000 over the month, so she can definitely grind.” The two have been together for seven years, about the same time span as Carson’s poker career.

Check out who else has been scoring big by visiting the PocketFives.com Rankings.