One of the most recent Triple Crowns on PocketFives.com belongs to Jesse thor Haabak. A poker player from North Dakota, Haabak began his Triple Crown quest by winning the PokerStars $55 Cubed on January 19th for $4,800. Then, he was up to his winning ways once again. On January 24th, Haabak outlasted the field of the Full Tilt Poker Turbo Hundo and collected $4,400. His final stop landed him at the USA-friendly UB.com, where he won the site’s $15,000 Guaranteed for $7,400. The former Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event winner sat down with PocketFives.com to relive the excitement.

PocketFives.com: Congratulations on winning your first Triple Crown. What has been the reaction of your friends to the news?
Jesse Haabak: Most of the people I’m close with in the poker community focus mainly on cash games, so I've really just been getting the typical "luckbox, LOL donkaments" comments from them.

PocketFives.com: What do you remember about the $55 Cubed on PokerStars?

Jesse Haabak: It feels like it was a really long time ago now. It was on Turbo night, so I was in a bunch of Turbos on PokerStars at the same time. I flipped pretty well when it came down to it. I also remember the stacks being pretty evenly distributed, so it took quite awhile for things to develop, especially considering it was a Turbo.

PocketFives.com: When did the possibility of winning a Triple Crown come into play?

Jesse Haabak: Immediately after I won the late $100 Turbo on Full Tilt Poker. At that point, I actually decided to pull an all-nighter considering the next day was Sunday, with the biggest tournament of the year so far (the UB.com $2,600) coming up. I registered for basically every $10,000 event on UB.com, Cake Poker, and Bodog. I built a top five stack with 150 people left in the $2,600 and then proceeded to punt. At that point, I was wiped, unregistered from all upcoming tournaments, and crashed around 7:00pm. That was 16 hours after the Full Tilt event ended, so it was quite a long day.

PocketFives.com: You didn’t win the UB.com leg of the Triple Crown until the final day that you were eligible for the award. Was it a sweat down the stretch?

Jesse Haabak: It got pretty intense at that point. I kind of won the Triple Crown backwards. PokerStars and Full Tilt have a lot of good $10,000 to $20,000 prize pool tournaments with 100 to 200 runners on Sundays with all of the different mixed games. I got stuck having to do it with one Bodog tournament, three Cake Poker tournaments, and a handful of UB.com tournaments since I had already qualified on PokerStars and Full Tilt. I was playing pretty bat shit crazy in the rebuys to try to accumulate a big stack and make a run for it.

The funny thing was that the night I won my first tournament, I was heads-up in another qualifying event, but finished second. I was able to tell myself, "Well, at least I don't have to stress about sweating a Triple Crown all week."

PocketFives.com: What’s your next goal in poker?

Jesse Haabak: A major Sunday final table is something that has eluded me. I came close twice lately in the Sunday 500 only to fizzle out on the final two tables. I might make a run and see if I can break the top 100 in the Online Poker Rankings simply for motivation. I’m also moving to Thailand next week, though, so I might lose some time with all of the things to do over there.

PocketFives.com: I’m sorry, I thought you said you’re moving to Thailand? What’s there?

Jesse Haabak: It’s what isn't there, like blizzards and 20 below zero temperatures.