One of the most recent online poker Triple Crownswent to Doug OU_dlanger610Lang, who took down three $10,000 prize pool tournaments with at least 100 players across three sites tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings in a one-week span. Lang accrued 519 PLB Points in the process and became the third winner of the accolade in the month of September. Lang calls Oklahoma home and, as his profile image suggests, is a hardcore Oklahoma Sooners fan.

Winning one MTT online these days is difficult enough given the stiff competition. Taking down three in just seven days is exponentially harder. Lang told us, “It definitely feels good to do something that a lot of players set out to do. It’s not easy to do as a U.S. player, so that makes it even sweeter.” The first two legs of his Triple Crown bid came on the same day, as Lang took down the Full Tilt Poker Turbo $7,500 Guarantee(which had a prize pool of over $12,000) and the PokerStars Turbo $30,000 Guarantee on September 7th for a combined $19,000.

Three days later, his Triple Crown was in the bag, as Lang made two final tables and took down the UB.com $10,000 Guarantee for $3,100. On the finale of his Triple Crown, Lang explained, “I needed a ship on UB to win it. I figured it was my best chance to go for it, so the next few days, I played anything with a $10,000 prize pool and 100 runners on the site. I’d say on an average day, the site gets about five or six tournaments that meet the Triple Crown requirement, so it took me about 15 tournaments until I was able to complete the third leg.”

The PokerStars component of his Triple Crown clocked in at $16,000 and marked Lang’s largest online poker cash ever. Accordingly, he has his sights set on greener pastures from here on out: “I have my eyes set on a major cash now. For the past year or so, my results have been primarily four-figure cashes. Since graduating from school, I’ve been really able to focus on my game and take it to the next level. I’m ready for that big breakthrough.” He’s solely an MTT player and estimates that he logs about 60 hours per week on the virtual felts.

Prior to poker, his “life plan” was to join the Peace Corps and attend graduate school when his stint was over. Then, his studies would have likely led him to a career in financial advising. However, poker was a viable alternative: “I just felt the opportunity cost of giving up poker was too high to pursue the alternate path.”

Whereas many members of PocketFives.com joined the poker movement during the Moneymaker Boom in 2003, Lang became involved during the Varkonyi Boom one year earlier. Lang reminisced, “My friends and I started playing $3 tournaments. We referred to ourselves as the ‘Big Four’ and swore we were going to take over the poker world.” Now, he owns the 203rd best PLB total in the Sortable Rankings for the United States and the third highest mark in the state of Oklahoma.

The Sooner wanted to send a shout out to fellow community members SS-TP, lpaper, No Name Fame, tinga81, and Jeff R.J_Legit Topol. He elaborated, “I’m part of a pretty large stable. I would say these guys have definitely helped me make my game optimal. I have to thank these guys for all they have done for my game. Without them, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now.”

The University of Oklahoma edged Air Force over the weekend 27-24 to move to 3-0. Heading into the weekend, they were ranked in the top 10. We asked Lang to give us his outlook for the Sooners’ season: “I was really worried after our first game against Utah State, but against Florida State was the Sooners team I’m used to watching. If we can get through our non-conference schedule and give Texas the beatdown they are long overdue for, then I think we have a legitimate shot at a national title.” Texas and Oklahoma meet in Norman on October 2nd.

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