For a brief moment, Sameer ‘ender749’ Singh thought that earning his first PocketFives Triple Crown was going to be easy.

“I was the chip leader in the €10K Championship on partypoker with five left. I had a big chip lead and I thought ‘I could just close this out right now.’ If I win it, that’s it, it’s finished. It’s just two days and ‘Boom, done!’”

But things didn’t go Singh’s way in that tournament. His quest for his first Triple Crown was going to take a little more effort. You see, Singh, a UK-based pro and member of PocketFives.com since 2015 has been on quite a roll as of late. He’d just returned home from a final table finish in the Irish Open Main Event where he scored his largest ever live cash of over $52,000 and he was ready to get back to his online grind.

In short order, Singh took first in a PokerStars $22 No Limit Hold’em Tournament and two days later he bested the 158 runners in the 888poker Monsoon, putting him in striking distance of his first Triple Crown. It wasn’t the first time he’d come close.

“It was very funny, as it wasn’t ever something that I’ve really tried to do. I think one time, I had two wins and I thought let’s give this a shot, but I didn’t really go for it.”

But this time the former restauranteur was urged by a friend to bear down and make it happen. Dara ‘Doke’ O’Kearney, host of The Chip Race Podcast, Unibet Poker ambassador and seven-time Triple Crown winner urged Singh to give it a real shot.

“I had four days and I just needed to win one $10K guaranteed tournament, I’ve won quite a few of those so I thought I can go for it. But it just wasn’t that easy!”

Singh grinded hard, something that he admits is not that difficult for him due to his work ethic and love of the game. He came frustratingly close a number of times, reaching the final table of three more tournaments. Sure he was making money, but he was getting frustrated not being able to nail down his new goal.

“Then I saw the Hyper and I had played in it the night before. Hypers are obviously, like, lots of variance and you need to get lucky. But there are big edges still in hypers I think. So I just went for it.”

Singh entered and busted. Not ready to give up, he fired again and this time when he reached the final table, things went his way. In the end, Singh took down the $15,000 Hyper Turbo Superstack on ACR for $3,450 and, arguably just as important, his very first Triple Crown.

“Only now do I appreciate how hard [achieving a Triple Crown] can be. I think sometimes you can just win a Triple Crown if you just run great. But to get them again and again, that’s quite something.”

For Singh, the Triple Crown and his recent live success is the result of hard work. Singh knows what it takes to earn something after achieving a law degree, working as a management consultant and even opening his own fast-casual Indian restaurant in London. He’s digested poker books, training sites and currently works with solvers to better his game. But perhaps most important to Singh, is his group of like-minded friends.

“Having a good set of friends, a peer group, you can discuss hands with is super key.”

So while in the past, short-term goals like earning the Triple Crown badge hasn’t been a part of Singh’s game plan, looking forward he says he may incorporate some more achievable objectives.

“I think the PocketFives Triple Crown is just great motivation for the online grind for me. Now that I’ve won one, I’m like, I can win some more this year. Why not?! I actually made more money that week because of this motivation.” Singh said. “Hopefully this will be a good year. I really do hope to ship another Triple Crown this year, that’s definitely a goal I’m going to give myself.”

Additionally, Singh noticed that at he’s less than $10,000 away from $1 million in lifetime earnings. But Singh’s been in the game long enough to understand that results are impossible to predict. His real goal is something a little nobler.

“I just want to get better as a poker player. I want to get as good as I am capable of getting, that’s my number one goal.”

Sameer ‘Sam’ Singh (‘ender749’) completed his first PocketFives Triple Crown on March 29.