On the first day of February, Aleksandr gnat777Gnatenko started the month off on the right foot by getting the final win needed for his second online poker Triple Crown. The award came in a big way, as Gnatenko took down the PokerStars Big $162for $18,000 and over 300 PLB points. Prior to that, he had won the $10,000 Guaranteed on PartyPokerfor $3,700 and the $17,500 Guaranteed Turbo on the Merge Gaming Network for $4,400.

When his Triple Crown quest was all said and done, Gnatenko had amassed 580.74 PLB points in his three qualifying tournaments, the highest total by any PocketFives member in over a year. His first Triple Crown came in January 2011 and was good for nearly 1,000 points.

Gnatenko’s signature Triple Crown tournament win was, without a doubt, the Big $162 on PokerStars. “When there were 27 people left, I understood that it was my big chance to win my second Triple Crown,” Gnatenko reenacted. “At the final table, I was starting to get nervous for the first time because I understood that a win was necessary to get a Triple Crown. A day before, I made a final table on the Ongame Network, but didn’t use that opportunity wisely.”

His PocketFives profile showcases a war chest of badges. He’s also on the verge of capturing his $1 million cash badge, and is about $170,000 short of achieving that goal. He told PocketFives, however, that he is focused on cracking the top 100 of the Poker Player Rankings: “The $1 million badge isn’t that important. It’s not an indicator of skill. It is much more important to get into the top 100, but the $1 million badge will look great along with two Triple Crowns.”

Gnatenko sits just outside the top 100 of the Rankings and can be found at #110 worldwide. He hails from the Ukraine and his recent signature cashes include a $28,000 haul for finishing second in the PokerStars Big $109 on Christmas Day and a $10,000 score for taking third in the PokerStars $100 Cubed on Valentine’s Day.

He’s the #2 ranked online poker player in the Ukraineand explained that the game is still evolving in his home country: “Poker in the Ukraine is still developing. There are many poker series here like the RPT, RPS, and URT. More and more people have become interested in the sport. This year, we had Ukrainian bracelet winners at the World Series of Poker and on circuits like the EPT, WPT, and IPT. We’ve definitely turned in a few good results.”

There were three Ukrainian bracelet winners at the 2011 WSOP. Prior to last year, there had never been a WSOP event champion from the European nation of 65 million people.

The best known Ukrainian-born poker player might be Yevgeniy Jovial GentTimoshenko (pictured), who took down the World Poker Tour Championship three years ago for $2.1 million. Timoshenko also made Ukrainians everywhere proud by winning the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event for $1.7 million. On PocketFives, Romeoproowns a slight lead over Gnatenko in the Ukrainian Sortable Rankings.

A free $50 from Poker Strategy introduced Gnatenko to poker, and it’s been largely uphill ever since. He has nearly $500,000 in tracked cashes on PokerStars alone and joined PocketFives back in August 2010.

By the way, a Triple Crown requires a player to win three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the PocketFives Rankings within seven days. We’ve had 11 Triple Crowns recorded so far in 2011. To see how to earn your own Triple Crown and its corresponding profile badge, check out our Wall of Champions.