In Event #12 of the sixth UB.com Online Championship, or UBOC, Eric tinga81Hettinga (pictured) came away with $15,000 following a three-way chop of a $162 No Limit Hold’em Sniper Deep Stacktournament. We caught up with Eric to discuss his most recent five-figure score.

PocketFives.com: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on the chop. Talk a little bit about how you’re feeling.

Eric Hettinga: I was just lucky enough to put myself in a spot to win and the cards were nice enough to fall in my direction in a few key spots. It was my first win of the year, so it’s good to get that monkey off my back and it being the UBOC made it better.

PocketFives.com: How does your UBOC win compare to your victory in the Full Tilt Poker $75,000 Guaranteefor $20,000 back in August?

Eric Hettinga: I’m always excited to get the win no matter the size of the buy-in of the tournament, whether it’s $20 or $200. It shows that you are doing something right with your game and it validates the hard work you put into it. To compare it with the $75,000 Guarantee win on Full Tilt, I would say that in terms of strength, the Full Tilt field is much tougher compared to the UBOC event because it’s a daily tournament that is filled with higher stakes regulars. But, the UBOC event carries a little more weight because it’s not a daily thing.

PocketFives.com: Who at the final table gave you the toughest time and why?

Eric Hettinga: Before he lost his stack, Eric gpokerg Wasserson (pictured) gave me a bit of a battle along the way. He was a larger stack most of the way, along with myself, and we seemed to get into some 3bet and 4bet pots during the last few tables of the tournament and then clashed at the final table.

Also, when it got down to four-handed play, John cracker9ball Reynolds (pictured) really stepped up his game and started to get more active. He was winning a bunch of uncontested pots, re-stealing from Wasserson in a few confrontations, and picking up chips at a rapid pace. The rest of the field was playing tight.

Four-handed is where things got interesting because everyone had chips, but those were the only two who gave me issues. I was fortunate enough to hit a six when I held A-6 against Wasserson’s A-9 four-handed when I had gotten chipped down to around 18 big blinds; then, things just fell into place.

PocketFives.com: How did you get started in poker?

Eric Hettinga: I was a product of the Moneymaker Boom. I originally started playing poker in college with my buddies. After school was done and I came home for the summer, a friend of mine and I got more involved with the game and started playing some home games with friends.

After we started beating everyone, and their ensuing complaints about it, things naturally progressed to online poker, but I never made a deposit. When I first got online, I started out playing freerolls trying to build my bankroll that way, but it proved to be difficult. I signed up with a site that offered me $100 to play 500 raked hands and then built my bankroll that way playing Limit poker and bonus whoring.

I then found online resources and started playing and reading more and just fed my brain with all of the information I could absorb. I started out as a cash game player in Limit poker and moved up the ranks from $0.25/$0.50 all the way to $5/$10. Then, I got into No Limit after it started to get popular and played that for a while. I started as a full ring No Limit player and then converted to six-max because it was all the rage and also found the tournament bug sometime along the way.

I lost interest in cash games and started focusing on tournaments because I quickly realized that I wasn’t moving up at the pace I wanted to in No Limit cash. People were also getting better and I found myself losing money at cash while making money at tournaments. So, I focused on tournaments and haven’t looked back.

PocketFives.com: Do you have any interest in going back to cash games?

Eric Hettinga: I have no interest in getting back to cash. The only cash games I play nowadays are for fun against my friends and maybe a little small-stakes Rush Poker on Full Tilt. PokerStars‘ new Home Games have made that easier because we used to just try to take over a table and randoms would usually sit.

I am going to stick to tournament play for the foreseeable future. I have been part of a great group for almost a year and a half now. We learn and share in the pain and misery of this wicked game, but we also celebrate and share in each other’s wins and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have made a lot of good connections and friends through MTT play through this game.

PocketFives.com: Is there anyone you’d like to send a shout out to?

Eric Hettinga: I just want to say thanks to my friends, family, and girlfriend for all the support they have given me over the years. Also, thanks to the OG crew over at Q3sUTG: Jeff, Leonard, Doug, Howard, Tyler, and all the rest. They have all been instrumental in my game at one point or another.