Jake Cody Awarded Poker's Triple Crown - ElkY Next?
Jake Cody's WSOP victory in Event #2 makes him the third player to win the "Triple Crown" in poker. Who else has one, and who is one win away?
 |
| Jake Cody after winning the WSOP Heads-Up Championship |
The Triple Crown in poker is a victory at the WSOP, WPT, and EPT.
Winning a major tournament in each of these three largest circuits is an achievement that tournament players strive for. Until this week only two men had done it, and it took them years of high level play on the tournament circuit.
22-year old Jake Cody just pulled it off in less than 1.5 years, making him the third player to earn the Triple Crown.
His first victory came in January of 2010, when he won the EPT Deauville Main Event and pocketed just over $1.2 million.
About seven months later, he took down the WPT London Main Event for $425,000.
This week, nine months after his WPT victory, Cody won the WSOP Heads-Up Championship by beating Gus Hansen in the semi-finals and Yevgeniy Timoshenko in the finals. He won $850,000, a WSOP bracelet, and the Triple Crown.
The two players besides Cody that possess the Triple Crown are Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin.
Griffin completed his trifecta when he won the WPT Borgata Winter Open in 2008. De Wolfe's third win came at the 2009 WSOP when he won a bracelet for a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event.
Who's Next?
 |
| Will ElkY be next? |
There are a number of players with 2/3 of a Triple Crown.
There are currently just two players who have won both a WPT and EPT tournament without winning a WSOP one. They are:
- Roberto Romanello
- Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier
There are actually MORE players who have won all 3 tournaments than just a WPT and EPT.
Due to the larger number of WSOP bracelets awarded each year than WPT and EPT titles, it is easy to argue that ElkY and Romanello are the most likely players to win a Triple Crown next.
Another 5 players have won just a WSOP and EPT and need a WPT to secure the Triple Crown:
- Sebastian Ruthenberg
- Carter Phillips
- Ram Vaswani
- Rob Hollink
- Jason Mercier
Of that list, Mercier plays so many tournaments that he stands out as the most likely Triple Crown candidate in the near future.
Then there are the players with a WSOP and WPT win that are missing an EPT one- and there are a lot more of these. So many, in fact, that I found 42 of them and am certainly still missing some. Here are the 42 I have:
| Players Missing an EPT Win for the Triple Crown | |||||
| Alexandre Gomes | Antonio Esfandiari | Barry Greenstein | Bill Edler | ||
| Dan Harrington | Daniel Alaei | Daniel Negreanu | Dave Ulliott | ||
| David Williams | Eli Elezra | Erick Lindgren | Erik Seidel | ||
| Brandon Cantu | Carlos Mortensen | David Benyamine | David Chiu | ||
| Eugene Katchalov | Freddy Deeb | Gavin Smith | Gus Hansen | ||
| Howard Lederer | Hoyt Corkins | J.C. Tran | Joe Hachem | ||
| John Gale | John Hennigan | John Phan | Layne Flack | ||
| Mel Judah | Michael Gracz | Michael Mizrachi | Nenad Medic | ||
| Nick Schulman | Paul Darden | Phil Ivey | Phil Laak | ||
| Prahlad Friedman | Ron Rose | Scott Clements | Scotty Nguyen | ||
| Ted Forrest | Theo Jorgensen | ||||
With so many players so close to the Triple Crown, we'll probably see more in the near future. Who do you think will win one next?
