Recently, Ben NeverScaredB Wilinofsky became the second PocketFiver to take down a coveted Triple Crown title in June. The accolade is awarded to any PocketFiver who can win three $10,000 or more prize pool tournaments over a seven day period across three different sites that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings. Only multi-table tournaments count and satellites are not tracked. Wilinofsky scored a commanding 697.33 PLB Points for his efforts, the highest Triple Crown tally since imhidonks generated 761.97 Points last month. The PocketFiver hails from London, Ontario and sits at 52nd in the Rankings. We caught up with Wilinofsky to review the newest badge to appear in his profile.
Wilinofsky’s Triple Crown quest began in the $100 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker. In the $40,000 Guaranteed version of the event, he earned $12,000 for the win. He recalled that the tournament was chalk-full of poker talent: “It's always a tough tournament. Johan busto_soon Van Til (pictured at left) was on my immediate left for a lot of the final table and was 3betting me pretty mercilessly. When we finally got it in three-handed, I won a big flip with A-K against queens.” Wilinofsky wasn’t content with winning just one Full Tilt Poker $100 rebuy tournament, however. He took down the first go-around on June 16th and promptly triumphed over the field in the $100,000 Guaranteed version the next day for another $35,000. Wilinofsky actually won two Triple Crowns with the pair of Full Tilt wins, so PocketFives.com took the $35,000 cash.The second leg of his Triple Crown win came in a $10,000 Guaranteed Speed tournament on PartyPoker, a $120 buy-in event that awarded $3,700 to its winner. To make the win more impressive, Wilinofsky played the Speed event and first Full Tilt Poker $100 rebuy at the same time. On playing the two vastly different tournaments concurrently, Wilinofsky recalled, “The stacks are so shallow in the Speed tournament that there isn't a lot of thinking. I played a lot of sit and gos before I converted to multi-table tournaments, so all of the push/fold stuff is fairly automatic at this point. The biggest problem is keeping track of the bubble so I know when I can push every hand on PartyPoker.”
If you’re in the United States, PartyPoker is not an option for the Triple Crown, as the site does not accept players from the United States. Worldwide, it’s the fourth largest site and the second largest that does not accept U.S. players behind the iPoker Network (which consists of sites like Titan Poker). We asked Wilinofsky to set the scene in the $10,000 Guaranteed Speed event: “It is usually super-soft, especially around the bubble. Most of the people make it deep by nitting it up and don't really grasp the push/fold aspect of it too well, so it's pretty easy to accumulate a lot of chips deep if you make it to the bubble with a stack.” His experience on PartyPoker and other sites led him to earn $154,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings in May over 53 qualifying cashes, or an average of $1,000 per finish.
He closed out his Triple Crown by taking down the $55 rebuy No Limit Hold’em Turbo Big Antes event on PokerStars. He had won the contest on multiple occasions before and was no stranger to the spotlight. Wilinofsky explained, “The field is much better. It tends to be small, but a lot of good players play it because it's a fun event with lots of gamble. With all of the gambling going on during the rebuy hour, we can build up and play a lot of poker.” Officially, the PocketFiver nabbed a Triple Crown in just one day, a heroic feat.
He’s two weeks removed from graduating with an Honors in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario. On his future, he revealed, “I haven't decided what I'll be doing from now on, but I would be pretty foolish not to at least give it a try.” He credits Gags30 (pictured at right) with turning him onto PocketFives.com initially. He also wanted to send a shout out to Bryan bparis Paris “for doing what I still haven't managed to do and closing a major this weekend.” His final shout out is pretty self-explanatory: “Hi Mom!” How sweet!Congratulations from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Ben NeverScaredB Wilinofsky for taking down a Triple Crown title. Visit the Triple Crown Wall of Champions to see who else has won.
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