Last weekend, there were not one, but two installments of the weekly PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up. The first drew a hefty 4,063 players and ended in a two-way chop between PocketFives.com members inheritance1and Kyle knet Knecht (pictured), who hail from Canada and Mexico, respectively. Knecht officially walked away with the win and banked $115,000. He sat down with PocketFives.com to discuss his first six-figure tracked score, which put him over $1 million in earnings on PokerStars alone.

Knecht avoids chopping tournaments like the plague. In fact, he admitted that the Sunday Warm-Up was the first major poker tournament he’s ever struck a deal in: “inheritance1 is really good, so I figured limiting the variance was smart. Plus, he gave me $550 off the chip chop. It’s the first time I’ve ever been heads-up versus someone good when the money was big enough, so I chopped. inheritance1 is just a really solid regular. I think he’s up $600,000 on PokerStars and I was glad he was on my right.”

Second place earned inheritance1 $107,000 after the chop and the cash boosted his tracked earnings to over $1.2 million. For Knecht, the strong showing and a Sunday Major victory meant a $1 million cash badge in his profile that he’s extremely proud of: “That definitely sounds cool to say. I don’t get too into the records like that, but the score means that me traveling out of the country isn’t a waste of time, which is very nice.”

Like all U.S. online poker players, Knecht faced a tough decision following the U.S. Government’s crackdown on online poker in April. He ultimately picked up from Ohio and moved to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (pictured), a beach resort town that receives a healthy dose of vacationers every year. Knecht lives with a group of 30 to 40 transplants who grind online poker in a picturesque setting.

Knecht explained how relocating to Cabo came to be: “I just followed the masses. TheLipoFundstarted it all and he had friends that came, who then had their friends come, etc. We live in a big apartment complex in downtown Cabo. I live with Patrick pmahoney1 Mahoney, who has been here about two months. I’m going to stay until Thanksgiving through New Years and then reevaluate.”

By the way, if you’re thinking of moving to a poker-friendly country like Costa Rica, Canada, or Panama, check out PocketFives Poker Refugees, a one-stop relocation service. Poker Refugees is featured in a Yahoo PostGame article today and has also been showcased in the New York Times, ESPN.com, and Covers.com, just to name a few.

Knecht got started in the game in much the same way that many of his contemporaries did: playing in home games with friends. Then, one member of his group signed up for an online poker account and the rest followed. He joined PocketFives.com in 2007 and, four years later, the online poker scene in the United States came to a screeching halt following Black Friday.

Knecht painted a picture of where he was when he found out about the U.S. Department of Justice’s crackdown: “I was actually playing poker at the time. One minute, I could register for stuff and the next minute, I couldn’t. I finished my session and then talked to a bunch of friends online seeing what they thought about it all. Since I’m Supernova Elite, I got a call from PokerStars within 12 hours assuring me my money was safe and I believed them, so I wasn’t worried.”

Since he was Supernova Elite on PokerStars, he didn’t play on Full Tilt Poker; consequently, Knecht was not caught up in the ensuing fiasco on that site. He headed to Las Vegas for the 2011 World Series of Poker and told us that he remained optimistic: “I kept saying if it had to happen, it was good timing. I didn’t do too well at the WSOP, but it was still fun. I did well in cash games, but went about 0/20 in events.”

Congrats to Knecht for chopping last weekend’s Sunday Warm-Up. Good luck to everyone playing in this weekend’s slate of Majors!