Event 8 of the ongoing Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) featured one PocketFiver rising to the top of the 4,411 player field. Chance chancew Wagstaff took down the $240+16 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Knockout Six-Max event to the tune of $168,000. The Fort Collins, Colorado native and mid-stakes grinder logged his first three-figure cash in the process, one of a handful of PocketFivers to take down FTOPS events during the series’ eleventh running. He’s about as humble as it gets in the online poker world, focusing on poker full-time and giving up a prospering golf career. PocketFives.com sat down with Wagstaff just a few days after his big tournament win.

One week prior to his FTOPS event victory, Wagstaff was at the final table of the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl, finishing in eighth place and taking home $6,000. Within seven days, he had logged a payday that was 24 times as large. He told PocketFives.com, “This has been a slow, long grind. I’ve come from grinding $3 one table turbo tournaments. I used to rail players like JohnnyBax, M8kingmoves, and Annette_15, having dreams of doing what I did on Sunday.” Although a lurker, Wagstaff has been a regular visitor to PocketFives.com since he joined the site two and a half years ago.

He buys his way into the Sunday major tournaments and classifies himself as a nit when it comes to bankroll management. For the past two weeks, however, his buy-ins have resulted in impressive returns on investment. On the reaction of his friends and family to the news that he had cashed for $168,000, he told PocketFives.com, “Everyone was pretty amazed. I’ve gotten PMs from all kinds of players. Poker isn’t highly looked upon by most people, but it’s been good that my friends and family understand it’s a skill game.” Leaving nothing to chance, he piled up 37 cashes in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings in January for a total of $37,000, or an average of $1,000 per cash.

His month of January came on the heels of a poor showing in December. On his trials and tribulations through the final stanza of 2008, he told PocketFives.com, “I was trying to control pots and had bad cards run out on me. I’ve been much more disciplined and making a lot better folds. I’ve been playing more of a tight-aggressive style and waiting for others to make mistakes.” His change of gears has worked. He won a $22 cubed event on PokerStars last month for $5,000 and won the $69 buy-in $17,500 Guaranteed in September for the same amount. Prior to his FTOPS win, his largest cash came by virtue of winning an $11 rebuy on PokerStars last June for nearly $10,000.

During a team competition held on PocketFives.com, Wagstaff was elated to be railed for a few minutes by JohnnyBax. He was seated next to apestylesand Bax interjected, “Don’t mess with Chance!” Wagstaff recalled, “It was really cool for him to recognize me. A lot of my success has come from PokerXFactor.” Cliff JohnnyBaxJosephy (pictured at left), Eric RizenLynch, and Scott BigRiskky Clements are just a few of the instructors at PokerXFactor, one of the world’s largest poker training sites.

Finishing third in the eighth event of FTOPS XI was Phil USCphildo Collins (pictured at right), who pocketed $71,000. Wagstaff played with the poker pro down the stretch. He commented on why he had success against the former PokerStars $100 rebuy and Full Tilt $1K Monday winner: “At the final table, I was lucky I had position on Collins. We played in the tournament for an hour and a half prior to that, so we had some history. Outside of him, there were three players who were really bad. I was picking good spots and was lucky that Collins bluffed off his chips three handed.” Wagstaff overcame a 4:1 chip deficit heads-up, playing small ball against a player he knew he was far superior than.

From the ages of 13 to 21, Wagstaff played competitive golf. He told PocketFives.com, “I qualified through for U.S. Open sectionals and finished top five in my state in golf.” Now, he’s been able to carry over some of the skills he mastered in golf into the poker arena. He explained, “In poker, you have to understand one hand at a time, just like golf is one hole at a time.” The two sports both require a considerable amount of practice, endurance, and patience in order to excel. In his profile on PocketFives.com, he claims his profession is “shouting for a black two.”

His poker career began during the Moneymaker boom, when he’d watch the game unfold on television. After spending a spring break in Las Vegas, he returned home and opened up a PartyPokeraccount. After getting cleaned out, he discovered sit and go tournaments and found success. It’s been all uphill since then. Congratulations to Chance chancewWagstaff from all of us here at PocketFives.com.