By
Dan |
Published
Oct 30 2008, 02:35 PM
It’s difficult enough to win a Triple Crown on PocketFives.com, let alone do it while juggling a full-time job and a family. However, that’s exactly what Joe PDI88 Sidoryk managed to accomplish, capturing his first accolade by taking down three $30 rebuy tournaments on three different online poker rooms: the Full Tilt Poker $22,000 Guaranteed, Absolute Poker $15,000 Guaranteed, and UltimateBet $15,000 Guaranteed. In fact, he won the first two on October 24th before winning his third leg of the Triple Crown four days later. The owner of a company that designs custom LCD modules, Sidoryk sat down with PocketFives.com to talk about his young poker career.
The Elmhurst, Illinois native dominated three $30 rebuy tournaments in order to claim his first Triple Crown. He told PocketFives.com why he’s been able to reap success in them: “They allow me to get fairly deep-stacked after the break in comparison to blinds. I can be more patient while waiting for my spot, whereas in many tournaments you start with small chip stacks in relation to the blinds and have to be more aggressive.” Ironically, he also won the Ultimate Bet $15,000 Guaranteed on October 15th, but it was two days outside of the seven-day range allowed for a player to win three $10,000 prize pool non-satellite tournaments with at least 100 players.
When Sidoryk first broke into online poker, his goal was to win a tournament. After that feat was accomplished on Bodog, claiming a Triple Crown became his next objective. Sidoryk describes his new goals: “I want to win something with a $20,000 first place prize, then $50,000, and then $100,000. I am pretty goal-oriented and am starting to move into some of the bigger tournaments.” Sidoryk spends time with his family in lieu of playing poker on Sundays, so the number of tournaments available is limited.
He works with Keith Mitnik, a partner in Arizona on his business, Phoenix Display International, and then plays poker in the evenings starting around 9:00 and wrapping up in the wee hours of the morning. Then, he gets up and sends his children off to school, beginning the cycle all over again. When asked if he could see himself playing poker professionally, Sidoryk responded, “I really do well with the business, but in the past year, poker has become significant in that I have to count it as income. It’s making a difference. When I started playing, my goal was to play for Starbucks and cigars. Now, I’m hoping to pay some bills with it.”
He started ramping up his poker game by logging onto Bodog to watch Ari, basebaldy, and head2782 play. He explained, “I noticed what their cards were when they had to show. I watched their bet sizes. I watched how aggressive they were and when they pushed. I learned a lot from watching guys like that.” He also attributes his success to allinblind, Ramux, Charlie Jo, Brandnewoven, and RJules12. Sidoryk also found success learning from the pros at the World Poker Tour’s Boot Camp, where he credits Kenna James and Nick Brancato with providing instruction that has had a profound impact on his game.
In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, Sidoryk has piled up over $25,000 in October. His three Triple Crown tournament wins combined for $15,000. Another signature cash in October came by virtue of victory in the aforementioned Ultimate Bet $30 rebuy, $15,000 Guaranteed for $4,050. In the future, he’s looking to pad his online poker resume further by improving his game. He revealed, “I get impatient. I sit down and want to gamble. I keep pushing. There are other times like these past two weeks where I was very patient. That’s what I have to work on more than anything.” He had three wins in a five-day span on Bodog, including a victory in the $12,000 Player's Choice.
October has been a busy month for Triple Crown winners. Others who took home this prestigious prize during the month included SEABEAST, Puggy82, theNorfman, vitobiggs, Quasssi, Stuman123, rdcrsn, and theVisionary. The award has been won over 125 times since PocketFiver slugo5 captured the first Triple Crown in May of 2005.
Congratulations from all of us here at PocketFives.com to our very own Joe PDI88 Sidoryk for taking down the Triple Crown.