63 Players Seek Inclusion into Poker’s Triple Crown Club

There are only five poker players who have gained access to poker’s Triple Crown Club. 63 others hope to join them …

THE FIRST FIVE

How do poker players enter the Triple Crown Club? Win a Main Event on the EPT, enter the WPT Champions Club PLUS collect a WSOP Gold Bracelet … sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong! Only five players have been able to win all three. The first was Gavin Griffin (GPI#2438). Griffin would win his first bracelet at the 35th World Series of Poker in 2004, earning the victory in the 3K buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event. He would then win the EPT Grand Final in 2007. Finally, Griffin would enter the Club following his win at the WPT Borgata Winter Open.

Since then, Roland De Wolfe (WPT Grand Prix de Paris, EPT Dublin, 40th WSOP), Jake Cody (EPT Deauville, WPT London, 42nd WSOP), Bertrand Grospellier (2008 PCA, WPT Festa Al Lago, 42nd WSOP) and Davidi Kitai (39th WSOP, WPT Celebrity Invitational, EPT Berlin) have all joined Griffin in the first five players in.

THE NUMBER 63

A grand total of 63 players have the opportunity to join the Triple Crown Club by winning one more tournament. One of those players (Jason Mercier) could enter the Club by winning the WPT L.A. Poker Classic later this week outside Los Angeles.

The list would indicate that those that have a WPT and EPT title under their belts have the best odds of joining the Triple Crown Club next given the fact that there are over 60 WSOP events presented in Las Vegas and Australia or Europe each and every year.

The hardest way to get in? Winning a WPT and WSOP title first. The European Poker Tour presents the least number of events year in and year out so, it should be more difficult for any of the 51 players with a WPT and a WSOP win under their belts to gain entry into the Club.

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Mohsin Charania (GPI#28) is the last player to enter Triple Crown contention. The 2012 EPT Grand Final champ won the WPT Grand Prix de Paris last October. Charania has cashed in 17 total WSOP events, including a pair of Top 10 finishes.

Former EPT San Remo and WPT Prague winner Andrey Pateychuk (GPI#188) finished 15th in the 42nd WSOP Main Event in 2011. He has also cashed in seven other WSOP events.

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As previously mentioned, a win this week in the Main Event at the LAPC would see Jason Mercier (GPI#4) join the elite group. Mercier has collected six cashes on the World Poker Tour. Should he fail to win at the LAPC, he will get another shot to win a WPT title next week at the Bay 101 Shooting Star event in San Jose.

With so few WPT events presented in Europe, it’s certainly going to be a challenge for stars such as Martin Finger (GPI#30) and Maxim Lykov (GPI#522) to enter the Triple Crown Club. The Gioco Digitale WPT Venice Carnival is right around the corner, it could be the perfect opportunity for either player to make some noise on the circuit.

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Eugene Katchalov (GPI#60) came oh so close to joining the Triple Crown Club last month at EPT Deauville. The former WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and 2011 WSOP bracelet winner would finish second to Greece’s Sotirios Koutoupas (GPI#308) in Deauville, preventing him from entering the Club.

Other European pros such as James Dempsey (GPI#940), Rocco Palumbo (GPI#274) and Dominik Nitsche (GPI#40) should have an advantage over those in America, although, like ElkY confirmed in 2008, the PCA in the Bahamas is a great place to secure an EPT title!

PokerStars Team Pros Daniel Negreanu (GPI#1), Barry Greenstein (GPI#231) and David Williams (GPI#578) can also take advantage of the fact that PokerStars runs the European Poker Tour and make it a little more financially viable for them to play the EPT circuit.