Recently, PocketFives.com member Walter JLizard Wright took down his fourth Triple Crown, among the most ever claimed by one member of the online poker community. Wright emerged victorious in the PokerStars $50,000 Guaranteed on November 28th for a healthy $18,000 payday. Four days later, Wright was up to his winning ways once again, taking down the UB.com $100 Cubed for $12,000. Finally, he completed a coveted Triple Crown by shipping the Full Tilt Poker $20 Rebuy Six-Max on December 3rd. PocketFives.com sat down with JLizard to walk us through his profitable week.PocketFives.com: Congratulations on winning your latest Triple Crown. Tell us about the PokerStars $50,000 Guaranteed.
Wright: I had just come back from a week-long Thanksgiving vacation to New York State before the tournaments for the latest Triple Crown. I was fortunate to run really well in the PokerStars $50,000 Guaranteed on Saturday and was lucky to have a good-sized chip lead when I got heads-up versus PocketFiver jeffbeesdat. I thought I played well against him to close it out.
PocketFives.com: Your second leg of the Triple Crown saw you pull away from the field in the UB.com $100 Cubed. How’d that poker tournament play out?
Wright: I had final tabled the $100 Cubed on UB a few Wednesdays ago when it first rolled out and had a good feeling about it going in, as UB has been one of my favorite sites as of late. Things just seemed to click timing-wise in that tournament. I won my races and played well and was able to close it out pretty easily thanks to some coolers that went my way shorthanded.
PocketFives.com: After you won two qualifying events, was claiming a fourth Triple Crown a priority?Wright: With wins on PokerStars and UB already in hand, I wanted to get another Triple Crown, so I just played everything on Full Tilt Poker the next session in order to maximize my chances. I had won the Full Tilt $20 Rebuy Six-Max as part of a previous Triple Crown and the final table included PocketFivers StamDogg and truesyalose (pictured at right). I had to run and play pretty well to close that one out.
PocketFives.com: Talk about what it feels like to grab a fourth poker Triple Crown.
Wright: It felt good to get a fourth Triple Crown. I really enjoy winning poker tournaments no matter what the size, but having two of the three in it be rather significant in size and buy-in was a little nicer than usual.
PocketFives.com: How did you get started in poker?
Wright: I was really into chess in my young adulthood and played a lot online at the Internet Chess Club (ICC). TheYeti, a good friend of mine on there who I met during chess travels, started playing poker and really took to it. He mentioned it maybe ten times to me as a potential way to make money. He got me started and I played casually around 2002 and 2003. At that time, I was living in New Orleans and working as a waiter.
In 2004, my wife and I moved from New Orleans to Virginia, where she was going to law school. There wasn’t a lot to do there; we were living dirt cheap and it was a great time for me to play online poker (mostly 50 to 100nl cash games and the lower buy-in rebuys on PokerStars).
I had a part-time job at a record store, but mostly just played poker. I read a bunch of books and learned a lot talking to TheYeti and Anbessa, who also played chess online at ICC. Other PocketFivers who came from chess before they found online poker include apestyles (pictured at right) and Andy McLEOD.In 2007, my wife graduated from law school and found her dream job in Las Vegas. It seemed like a good enough place to continue with poker, so we’ve lived here for going on three years now. We had a son, Ronan, in January and I have not had to do anything work-wise but play poker since we came out West.
PocketFives.com: Would being ranked mean something to you?
Wright: I would certainly like to be ranked as long as I can be profitable while doing it. As long as I am making money and can provide for my family, I’m fine with whatever happens.
PocketFives.com: Is there anyone you’d like to recognize?
Wright: Obviously I have to thank my wife for her patience and tolerance with the long hours that MTT grinding can take up. I can’t forget my son Ronan, who I named my Cake Poker account after (he is the real Mr.Binkerton) for inspiration and giving me a purpose both in poker and life to get a little better every day.
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