This summer has been red hot so far, with no let up in sight. I am referring of course to Pocketfiver's results online, not the temperature outside which I am sure we'd all rather forget about. With four Triple Crown champions in July and five more already in the first half of August, we have to wonder if the Triple Crown is too easy. I have thought about this a lot, and I have come to the conclusion that no, these guys are just that good. As we all know, winning an MTT is never easy; some people just know how to make it look like it is. <READMORE>The latest additions to the Triple Crown club are Mr_BigQueso, aaronbeen, soggyvag2, round42, apestyles, and most recently moorman1. You’ll notice that these are all top players and they are all very deserving members of the Wall of Champions. I keep waiting for some random guy (or gal) we’ve never heard of to claim a Triple Crown. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened while we weren’t looking, since we only track the results of our membership, but I think the Triple Crown represents an achievement that is fairly rare outside of this community.
First, you have to be playing large prizepool events. Second, you have to play them on multiple sites. Third, you have to be putting in a high volume of play. To win three tourneys in one week you have to have your share of busts, and like many near misses of the Triple Crown, that agonizing second place. Last and most important, you have to be very, very good. Triple Crown winners are the consummate closers. When they have the opportunity to win a tournament, they do so with a much higher frequency than the average player. It is this ability that allows them to push through and complete the challenge in seven days.
One explanation for the spike in Triple Crown wins is that 40 of the top MTT players online have been putting in an even higher volume than usual as part of the August PLB challenge. Twenty teams of two players each are vying to accumulate the highest Pocketfives Leaderboard total for the month of August. In fact, moorman1 and apestyles are both competing for this challenge. Apestyles and his teammate mig.com are leading the challenge, and moorman1 and Ship Happens are ready to make a charge with this heater.
Not to say that either moorman1 or apestyles couldn’t do it under normal circumstances. In fact, this is moorman1’s second Triple Crown, which only a handful of players have accomplished, and while this is Apestyles first, I think TheWacoKidd’s congratulatory comment sums it up best: “Meh, ‘bout time.”
Mr_BigQueso was recently added to the rankings and since then has jumped up 20 spots to number 80. He is also a member of the August PLB race, but unfortunately for him and his partner djk123, his wins came at the end of July.The other players to complete the Triple Crown in the past few weeks have no PLB challenge urging them onward, but they had not trouble putting in the effort for the Triple Crown.
Frank “round42” Rusnak is not ranked for his online play, but with a PLB score north of 4,000 and well deserved respect of his peers, this may well change soon. He is of course also well remembered for his final table performance at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure.
Aaronbeen needs no introduction. He has been crushing online tournaments with such regularity that the only thing shocking about this Triple Crown is that it was his first.
Wade Woelfel may have a bit of a mischievous streak in his choice of screen names, but soggyvag2 is a well known and respected member of the Online Poker community. His talent is well-known and his quiet personality is appreciated by his friends, which we at Pocketfives are glad to count ourselves among.Whether it be an added drive to succeed in a PLB challenge, enjoying the upside of variance, or typical domination, these summer Triple Crowns have been fun to watch, and each and every player deserves congratulations on completing the feat. What better way to beat the heat than to enjoy a shower of cold hard cash, right?
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