In the closing days of February, Mark dipthrong Herm (pictured at right), whose name is tossed around quite a bit in front page articles on PocketFives.com, took down his second Triple Crown of the month. His first came on February 2nd, when Herm brought home the bacon in the PokerStars $55 rebuy to end a massive 1,007-point Triple Crown, the largest since HITTHEPANDA’s 1,238 point haul back in October. To close out the month of February, Herm won another three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the Online Poker Rankings within a one-week span.

On February 17th, Herm trumped the pack of the PokerStars $109 Two Rebuys, One Add-On event for $8,000. Two days later, he moved over to Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest site, and won the $30 rebuy for $7,700. His crowning glory came on February 23rd, or six days after his adventure began. On that day, Herm barreled through the field of the Absolute Poker $15,000 Guaranteed for $4,900. A total of 499 PLB Points and $20,000 later, Herm had earned his second Triple Crown in a calendar month.
He admitted that his higher volume during the stanza was partly a result of several ongoing PLB bets. During the month, he teamed up with Lauren locoencabeza Kling (pictured at left), SJUHawks18, and Alex ArgentinaBoy Queen, the latter of whom owns the 96th spot in the Rankings. The quartet won the contest on the very last day of the month. In the singles competition, Herm finished in third place and explained the importance of having a little something extra riding on his play: “I like the bets because otherwise I wouldn’t play. They keep me motivated.”

A few days prior to scoring his second Triple Crown title, Herm won a $200 Turbo $20,000 Guaranteed Heads-Up tournament on Full Tilt Poker. He explained his propensity for success in mano-a-mano formats: “I like heads-up MTTs a lot and have done pretty well in them. I think a lot of MTT players aren’t that great heads-up and I’m not a specialist at all, but just playing pretty fundamentally solid can take you a long way in those tournaments.”

Some players madly research their heads-up opponents prior to taking to the virtual or live felts. Herm explained how you – the reader – can improve your heads-up game: “I think just experience and understanding basic heads-up strategy like raising most buttons.” His heads-up victory was part of his $166,000 in cashes in tournaments tracked for the Rankings in February. Herm now sits at #9 worldwide in the Rankings and owns the 11th highest PLB tally in the business.

Herm backs a stable of members of the online poker community and explained that his latest Triple Crown is a validation of his place in the industry: “It’s important to have accolades like this because if I want someone to listen to my advice, I have something to lean back on. I’m not just some random person talking about how to play a hand. There’s some proof that I may know what I’m talking about.” In July 2008, Herm took down two Sunday Majors on the same day, winning the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed and Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed for a combined $170,000. One week prior, he won the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan for $44,000.

Now, Herm is headed to Atlantic City for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Event, whose 12-tournament series wraps up on March 14th. He hasn’t taken to the live felts since January’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and recalled the story of Dan djk123 Kelly’s (pictured at right) no-show at his World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Player of the Year award ceremony. Instead of attending his own gala in the Bahamas, Kelly was at the bar purchasing bottles of Grey Goose Vodka.

Later that night, Herm returned to his Atlantis hotel room only to find an unexpected guest: “I came into my room that day and he was passed out on my bed at 4:00am and asked me if we were late for the banquet.” Herm cashed in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and earned $3,200.

Visit the Triple Crown Wall of Champions to see how you can earn your very own profile badge. Congratulations to Herm and other PocketFives.com members who claimed Triple Crown titles last month.