This past weekend, the weekly Sunday Brawl on Full Tilt Pokerwas dominated by PocketFivers. Members of the online poker community made up over half of the final table, ultimately claiming five of the top nine spots. Heads-up, the action came down to Josh pragerPrager against Kenny HixxHicks. Two PocketFivers with very relevant screen names battled tooth and nail to make heads-up play, with Hicks emerging victorious for $85,000. It was his third Sunday major victory; he's also logged wins in the Second Chance on PokerStarsand the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed. While hitting the beaches in Cancun on a well-deserved vacation, the 71st ranked PocketFiver sat down to talk about his latest tournament win.

A total of 2,096 entrants turned out for the Sunday Brawl over the weekend. The $256 buy-in tournament paid out to the top 234 spots, led by Hicks. He's come a long way since June, when he made the final tables of both the Sunday Million and Second Chance on PokerStars on the same day, winning the latter for $50,000 and taking sixth in the former for another $18,000. He's developed as a player since, encapsulated by his third Sunday major win last weekend. He told PocketFives.com, "I feel like I'm twice the player that I was over the summer. I feel like I have a lot better control over my opponents. Last year, I was playing too straightforward and not looking for certain spots to accumulate chips."

In December, Hicks took second in the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $55,000. One month earlier, he won the site's $300 buy-in $90,000 Guaranteed for $26,000. In February, he racked up nearly $20,000 in earnings in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings. He's been mentored along his path to the top by fellow PocketFivers dw2006and JAKoon1985 (pictured at left) On developing an eye for profitable spots to build his stack, he explained, "It's pretty easy. You just have to keep yourself from getting in that mode of playing too straightforward. Instead, you have to be aware of your image and your opponents. I think I'm tight, but all of my poker friends call me a lagtard."

His Sunday major wins have come across multiple sites. He explained that tournaments on Bodog are typically the softest due to players coming over from the site's industry-leading online sports book. Sweetening the pot even further, the $100K Guaranteed on Sundays on Bodog sees a five-figure overlay nearly every single week. The PokerStars Second Chance boasted the toughest field for the PocketFiver to navigate through. The Sunday Brawl, which takes place on Full Tilt, presented a unique set of challenges. He explained that the knockout tournament is "filled with tons of Euros who love fancy play syndrome. They are generally more aggressive than any other opponents, in my opinion." He took fourth in the Second Chance back in November for $20,000, three days before also placing fourth in the Wednesday Quarter Million for $18,000. Both tournaments make their home on PokerStars, where you can find the PocketFiver under the screen name LoneHixx.

He started taking poker seriously at the age of 18. Hicks recalled, "On the night that Jamie Gold won the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, I got second in the $10 rebuy on PokerStars for $10,000. I've never been broke since." His friends turned him onto the game one year earlier. Hicks attended Marshall University, but decided to leave at the age of 19. You can now find him living in Phoenix, Arizona living with fellow PocketFiver and eleventh ranked online poker player stpauli111.

The month of May will mark Hicks' very first World Series of Poker (WSOP). His game plan heading into poker's most prestigious tournament series is to play the $10,000 buy-in Main Event as well as the smaller tournaments up to a $5,000 buy-in. In addition to Texas Hold'em, you'll find the PocketFiver battling it out in Pot Limit Omaha, a game in which he's logged 100,000 hands over the last two years. He plans to allocate about $72,000 towards WSOP buy-ins at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He's logged live experience on the European Poker Tour and PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour and will look to build on that in just two months' time.

In the future, Hicks plans to head back to school to complete his degree. He has around 80 hours already in the books and told PocketFives.com, "I would love to be able to finish up in school. Plus, I'm getting burnt out playing poker full-time, so it would be a nice change of pace." He reached #35 in the Rankings on January 7th, holding the 27th best PLB score and 39th best Pro Poll tally. He had re-entered the Rankings at #97 worldwide in mid-October following a brief absence.

Congratulations to Kenny HixxHicks from all of us here at PocketFives.com for taking down the marquee Sunday Brawl on Full Tilt Poker.