Poker's greatest triple wins
Back-to-back wins is not enough for these guys, check out some of the most impressive times a player has won three times.
Last week we brought you the news that Maurice Hawkins and Carl Carodenuto both won three Main Events each in the same poker tour in 12 months. In honour of that we thought we would remind you of some other epic poker triples.
Three Main Events
Normally anyone winning the WSOP Main Event three times would be considered the greatest feat in poker. However, when Stu Ungar won three Main Events poker wasn't as tough and (perhaps more notably) had much smaller fields than today.
Winning it three times is still epic and Ungar is still widely regarded as one of the most talented players ever to grace the game. He beat 72 players in 1980 to win $365,000, the next year beat 74 players to win $375,000 and remarkably came back in 1997 to beat 311 players to win a cool million.
Johnny Moss also boasts three WSOP Main Event titles, however the first one was decided by a vote from his peers rather than a tournament.
Three bracelets in a year
Lots of players have managed to bag three World Series of Poker bracelets in a single year including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and George Danzer.
They are all remarkable feats in and of themselves, but the WSOP threepeat that sticks out to this writer is the one Jeff Lisandro pulled off in 2009.
What made it special was that by winning a Razz, Seven Card Stud and Stud Hi/Lo bracelet in less than a month, he managed to win titles in every Stud variant. So not only was he clearly the Player of the Series he also pulled off a rare 'Stud Grand Slam' of sorts.
Three Aussie Millions Super High Rollers
Not only has he won three bracelets in a year, in 2015 Phil Ivey pulled off another remarkable treble.
For the third time he started the year off by winning the $250,000 Aussie Millions Super High Roller tournament. He first won it in 2012 for AUD$2 million, then again in 2014 for AUD$4 million and finally again in 2015 for AUD$2.2 million.
The fields were obviously small but arguably some of the toughest in the world, so this is a remarkable feat.
The Live Triple Crown
There was once a time when the prospect of a player winning an EPT, WPT and WSOP title seemed almost impossible. But after Gavin Griffin did it in 2008, Roland De Wolfe, Jake Cody, ElkY and Davidi Kitai have all managed it as well (Kitai's is sometimes questioned as the WPT event he won was an invitational tournament).
With so many players being just one result away from doing it, it is no longer the most coveted accolade in poker. However, there is some prestige to being the quickest player to get one.
That accolade currently goes to Jake Cody who managed to complete the Triple Crown within one year and four months of taking down his first title.
The Online Poker Triple Crown
Online tournaments have their own version of the Triple Crown which one player has really made his own.
The PocketFives Triple Crown is awarded to anyone who can win $10,000+ prizepool tournaments with at least 100 players on three separate sites in a week.
With a much easier barrier to entry than the live Triple Crown, the plaudits go to the player who can win the most of them. That accolade has for a very long time stood with Chris Moorman who currently boats a whopping 25 Triple Crowns since his first one in 2007.
The Super High Roller Triple Crown
Yes, obviously Fedor Holz gets a mention in this article. He has actually pulled off two remarkable triples in the last 12 months.
He won three Aria High Rollers this summer which is worthy of mention alone, however Fedor being Fedor that wasn't enough.
By winning a WPT Alpha8 in December 2015, the WSOP One Drop event in July and the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller in August, in the space of nine months he won the 'Super High Roller Triple Crown'. That is the ultra high stakes versions of WPT, WSOP and EPT titles.
A feat unlikely to be repeated because the WSOP only has one Super High Roller No Limit event per year.
Special mention also goes to Daniel Negreanu as the only person to win bracelets on three continents, Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen for their three WPT titles each and the four online players to boast the Triple COOP. Which classic triples did we miss?
