In July, Australia’s Michael Fadersen (pictured), better known in the online poker world as WaGe N Warz, booked back-to-back final tables in the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy. He finished fourth one week and fifth the next for a combined haul of over $30,000. His 2012 campaign has also included a $26,000 payday in a tournament on bwin in May and a third place finish in the PokerStars Bigger $162 in January for $23,000.

“To be honest, a lot has been going right as of late,” Fadersen openly admitted to PocketFives in an exclusive interview. “I think I’ve had something like five Sunday Major final tables in the last few weeks, but I’m most proud of the $100 Rebuy. That tournament is a tough one. It’s a shame I couldn’t close, but variance bites even the best deep I guess.”

In late July, Fadersen took ninth in the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $4,600. By our count, he’s finished in the top nine in 22 tracked MTTs since July 1, which includes his rampant success in the Sunday $100 Rebuy. On his approach to the high-stakes rebuy, Fadersen told us, “I don’t hold back during the rebuy period. I think I had something like a 20,000-chip pile at the add-on.”

If you’ve never played in the $100 Rebuy on PokerStars on Sundays, here’s a scouting report from a recent back-to-back final table member: “Obviously, it’s a very tough tournament deep and picking good spots is a big part of it. Being that there are still soft spots in it, you really need to take advantage of any you can find before it gets to the final three tables and the cream rises to the top. You need to accumulate wherever you see a slight edge.”

To give you an idea of the field strength, the second Sunday $100 Rebuy he final tabled had 11 members of the top 200 in the PocketFives Rankings in the top 45 spots on the leaderboard. In the first go-around, there were seven members of the top 200 in the final 50.

Fadersen sits at #58 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings and fell slightly when the new Rankings methodology was rolled out on August 1. He just passed $1.2 million in tracked cashes in his PocketFives profile and feels like he’s on cloud nine: “I’ve been playing full-time for about a year-and-a-half and I’m doing things I never thought possible. I’m talking to you now for the ANZPT, for example. I’m really excited about my game at the moment and love what I do. So, I feel really lucky.”

His live game is still emerging, as according to the Hendon Mob, Fadersen has two scores in live MTTs for a combined $11,000. “I don’t get to go to a lot of live tournaments,” the Australia poker community member explained, “but it’s definitely something I want to put more effort into this year with APPT Melbourne coming up soon. There should be some good games to get to.”

We feel like many players would be content being one of the top online names in the world and a top 10 player in Australia, but not Fadersen. “I think being well-rounded makes for a better player,” Fadersen contended about the importance of live play. “At home clicking buttons is a completely different game to mono-tabling live and paying attention to everything happening at the table. The majority of my time playing is done online, but playing live also means catching up with mates you talk to on Skype every day but never get to see due to being so spread out. And I love traveling as well.”

Prior to pursuing poker, Fadersen laid carpet and vinyl for nearly 10 years. However, a string of knee injuries led him to abandon his career. He narrated, “My doctor told me it was give the job away or not be able to play with my daughter by age 30. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but in talking to close mate and fellow PocketFiver Mathew mathawker Hawker, he suggested taking up poker full-time. I seemed to do well in local games and had a real passion for it. It just spiraled from there.”

Poker was almost a necessity for Fadersen, who said he picked up the game pretty quickly. The first time he sat down at a $5 sit and go with friends, he won it all and was hooked for life: “I think after luckboxing my first game, poker had me from there.”

He wanted to send a shout out to “the guys who have really helped me with my game over the last six months. They know who they are and probably prefer I don’t mention them, but thanks a million. Look forward to what’s ahead and good luck to all my good mates here in Queenstown.”

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