Katchalov Charging Toward a Triple Crown
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With so many live and online poker tournaments running worldwide, the chances to pick up some hardware for your mantle or a few (hundred) thousand dollars are many. Still, poker has a few sacred crowned jewels left in its arsenal, achievements that speak for themselves as true tributes to a player's greatness. The EPT Grand Final. The WSOP Main Event. The WPT Championship. And, eventually, being voted into the Hall of Fame.
And then there's the Triple Crown. That's the name given to the feat of winning a title on each of those three tours. The idea was invented for Gavin Griffin in January of 2008 as he charged through the field at the Borgata Poker Open to collect a WPT title and more than $1.4 million. Griffin already had a bracelet from 2004 and the EPT Grand Final trophy from 2007, and he thusly became the first-ever player to achieve the Triple Crown.
The following year, Roland de Wolfe joined Griffin in the spotlight. The Brit racked up his wins in reverse order, though, starting his Triple Crown run with a WPT title in Paris in 2005. He followed that up in 2006 with an EPT Dublin victory, and de Wolfe struck WSOP gold in 2009 to become just the second player to win on all three tours.
2010 came and went without any new members, but we've already added two more this year to up the dynamic duo to a fearsome foursome. Jake Cody was the third to do it, and he accomplished his Triple Crown in the stunningly short span of just 16 months! Cody won EPT Deauville, WPT London, and then the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship at this past WSOP to finish off his historical run.
It was just another two weeks before Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier received his members' jacket, too. ElkY's EPT win was a big one in 2008, taking down the PCA for a cool $2 million. In October of the same year, he added the WPT Festa Al Lago title and another $1.4 million, and he finished off the third leg with a win in one of his weakest games, the WSOP $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship.
Wonder if that party of four has room at the table for a latecomer?
In 2007, Team PokerStars pro Eugene Katchalov took the $2.5-million top prize at the WPT Doyle Brunson classic, and he notched another seven-figure cash when he won the PCA's new $100,000 Super High Roller event in January of this year. In his big for WSOP glory, the Ukrainian had come close several times, finishing third, fourth, sixth (twice), and seventh (twice) in his previous final table appearances. Katchalov finally broke through the ceiling in 2011, winning the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event and about $120,000 to stuff in his pants pockets.
Coming into this EPT Barcelona final table, Katchalov was riding the very shortest stack with less than 14 big blinds. But you'd have been a fool to count him out. A check on the leaderboard a couple hours later finds him perched comfortably at the top, just five players separating him from a lifetime membership in the Triple Crown Club.
It's quite a thing, really.