PocketFives members were victorious in 18 of 34 events in the 18th Full Tilt Online Poker Series(FTOPS). Among those who claimed a jersey is Ami UhhMeeBarer, who hails from Vancouver. Barer’s win came in a $216 No Limit Hold’em Cubed Six-Max event and was worth $122,000.

Barer told PocketFives.com that he was stoked to come away with his first FTOPS title. The 65th player in the Poker Rankings explained, “It was a well-structured tournament and there was lots of room to play throughout. It wasn’t exactly smooth throughout, but I don’t think I dipped below 15 to 20 big blinds at any point in the tournament.” The field numbered 1,233 and fell short of its $600,000 guarantee. Nevertheless, 144 players, or 11.6% of the field, finished in the money.

Five of the six members of the final table were PocketFivers, demonstrating the community’s prowess in six-max tournaments. Barer remembered the waning moments of the FTOPS XVIII event: “The final couple of tables were packed with a lot of good players and a couple of people who were just spewing, but it played out pretty slowly, so the stacks were pretty shallow. The final table went quickly until three-handed play, at which point the stacks were traded back and forth a handful of times.” Barer edged out Oregon’s Rodney BIgFlOPPeR01 Burt heads-up.

The Cubed event marked the first six-figure score of Barer’s career and blew away his largest in the money finish to date, a $41,000 haul for final tabling the PokerStars Super Tuesday last month. In September, Barer took second in the PokerStars $55 Rebuy for $31,000. In the first 18 days of November, he piled up $245,000 in tournaments tracked for the Rankings in 100 qualifying in the money finishes for an average of $2,400 each. In last week’s Rankings calculations, he shot up to 65th worldwide from 119th, a leap of 54 spots.

Also at the final table of the FTOPS tournament was Jeff YoungSupremacy Hakim (pictured), a former FTOPS champion and longtime member of PocketFives.com. We asked Barer to asses Hakim’s play down the stretch in FTOPS XVIII Event #5 and beyond: “Jeff is a really nice guy and great poker player. He’s been very solid and consistent in the biggest MTTs online and live.” Hakim took fifth place for just over $30,000.

Now, Barer will continue to roll through FTOPS and other major online poker tournaments down the road. He cashed in three FTOPS XVIII tournaments early on and, on the opening day of November, won the Full Tilt $30,000 Super Turbo Guarantee for $11,000. Other scores this month have included wins in a $109 buy-in tournament on PokerStars for $6,600, the Full Tilt $100 Cubed for $10,000, and the PokerStars $65,000 Guarantee for $14,000.

As you might have guessed, his family and friends have remained quite supportive of his online poker career given his recent wave of success. Barer admitted, “They have all always been very supportive of me and for that I’m very grateful.” As to whether an FTOPS jersey bolsters his confidence going forward, Barer asserted, “It certainly doesn’t hurt, but I think my head is right where it was at the start of FTOPS.”

Visit Full Tilt Pokerfor more details on FTOPS XVIII. Also, be sure to check out our FTOPS XVIII results to see how Barer and others have cashed out.