December 26 2011, Mickey Doft

To achieve what has been dubbed poker’s Triple Crown requires a player to win a tournament on the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, and at the World Series of Poker. The list of players to accomplish this feat is short, as the WPT was launched in 2002 and the EPT was created in 2004.

Several players were one leg away from joining this list and over the course of the 2011 poker schedule, two of them made it happen.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier

Ever since Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier’s 2008 eruption onto the live tournament scene, the poker world was waiting for his WSOP breakout party. Unfortunately, with only five combined cashes at the 2009 and 2010 WSOPs and WSOPEs, Grospellier was unable to shine on the world’s biggest poker stage.

However, that all changed this summer.

“ElkY” finally hit it big this summer at the WSOP, and captured a WSOP bracelet to go along with his January 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (EPT) victory and his October 2008 Festa Al Lago (WPT) win. He was already among the best players to have never won a bracelet and it was only a matter of time before he did so. However, it was in what event he won his bracelet that many find most impressive.

Prior to his win, Grospellier raised a few eyebrows in the event he played immediately before his bracelet win. It was the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship and with an 11th-place showing, Grospellier notched his first live non-hold’em cash on record. On the heels of that result, Grospellier entered the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship. What happened from there? He defeated a top-notch field of 126 players to earn his first bracelet. Here was his day-by-day path leading to the final table.

Although Grospellier scored only one elimination at the final table, it was the one that counted. To even be in position to do so was quite the achievement, one that he will no doubt always remember. He began heads-up play against Steve Landfish at a modest 1.5:1 chip disadvantage, but Landfish had the upper hand for the beginning portion of the heads-up duel and increased to a whopping 24:1 chip lead at one point. However, a resilient and determined Grospellier stormed back to join the short list of Triple Crown winners.

Lynn Gilmartin caught up with “ElkY” following his win:

Jake Cody

In January 2010, Jake Cody burst onto the live poker scene when he won the Main Event at EPT Deauville. For being an unknown at the time, Cody defeated a very skilled final table that included Mike “Timex” McDonald, Craig Bergeron, Peter Eastgate, and Grospellier (who bubbled in ninth place). Later that year, Cody won WPT London in his home country to quickly close in on claiming the Triple Crown. At the 2011 WSOP, he wasted little time doing so, winning the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Championship which began on the first day of the Series. Here was his path to capturing the bracelet:

Facing Gus Hansen in the final four, Cody captivated the audience with a dominating performance against “The Great Dane.” Each player began the match with 800,000 in chips on the table, along with two 800,000-chip add-on bullets behind. Cody worked Hansen’s stack down before each Hansen reload. It took less than two hours for Cody to take Hansen’s entire 2.4 million.

His match against Yevgeniy Timoshenko in the finals didn’t go quite as quick, but three hours was all Cody needed. Each player began the match with 1.6 million in chips on the table with two add-ons behind. Once again, Cody didn’t need more than his starting stack to to claim victory.

Here is Lynn Gilmartin with Jake Cody after his victory:

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October 19 2011, Lee Davy

At the end of Day 3 of the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, 25 players remained. The tournament team set a very optimistic challenge on Tuesday - to reduce the playing field from 116 to 16 by the end of the day, and as play crept into the early hours of the morning, it was decided to stop the day at the end of Level 19 with 25 players remaining.

As play entered the final level, the race for the chip leader spot was a spectacle to behold. It centered on two players from the UK - Max Silver and Chris Moorman. Until both bags were packed and sealed, it was unknown who was ahead. Silver controlled the chip lead by a difference of 11 chips!

In September of last year, Max Silver became a well-known name on the European poker scene after winning the UKIPT in Dublin and then winning a side event at EPT London. Fast forward 12 months and Silver had not cashed in one single live event, but as he rolled into his favorite month, it all began to change. He finished 28th at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, fourth at UKIPT Dublin, and then fourth in the WSOPE Event #4 “3,200 Shootout a few days ago.

To top off a fantastic few months Silver finished 11 chips ahead of his nearest rival with 1,780,000 chips. The pivotal point in the tournament for Silver came with the exit of another countryman. Mathew Frankland was coasting through the day when he ran into Silver’s stack in a flush-over-flush confrontation. Frankland hit the rail and Silver’s confidence hit an all-time high. From that moment on, Silver’s stack just continued to grow at the same rate as the beanstalk that a kid called Jack once planted.

Chris Moorman spray painted his name all over the poker world when he received notoriety for his performances in cyber space. But just recently, Moorman has been showing the world that he also knows the way into a live card room, and boy when that lad turns up, can he play! In January Moorman finished in seventh place at the Aussie Millions Main Event before having a crazy summer in Las Vegas, winning over $1 million at the WSOP. The last time he cashed in a live event on European soil was at the WSOPE in 2010 and he has just done it again, only this time he might just go all of the way.

It all started going right for Moorman when he was seated at the same table as the two chip leaders at the time, Constant Rijkenberg and Melanie Weisner. The critical turning point centered around a hand between Moorman and Rijkenberg that was played on the bubble. Moorman raised to 12,000 in the hijack and Rijkenberg defended his big blind. The flop was and Rijkenberg bet 25,000, Moorman raised to 56,000 and Rijkenberg called. The turn was the and Rijkenberg check-called a 114,000 Moorman bet. The final card was the and Rijkenberg checked again. Everyone in the room was staring at Moorman as he moved all-in for 229,000 and incredibly could have been the bubble boy. Rijkenberg made the call and Moorman showed pocket queens for his three streets of value and a sick looking Rijkenberg was left nursing his broken stack. Moorman was then moved to the feature table, which was being live streamed, and he ran amok. He eliminated Hoyt Corkins, Freddy Deeb, Carbone Damiano and Melanie Weisner.

Moorman exchanged a potential bubble spot for one of the top spots, so who was the unfortunate bubble boy? It turned out to be Barry Greenstein, and he told us that his own girlfriend had predicted his bubble position via a text message. Brian Roberts now has a signed copy of Ace On The River for eliminating Greenstein in 65th place.

Joining Chris Moorman on Day 4 are a host of stars and dangerous players including Shawn Buchanan (1,267,000), Patrik Antonius (696,000), Jake Cody (522,000), John Duthie (314,000), Erik Seidel (242,000), Tony G (226,000) and John Eames (210,000).

Players who did not survive Day 3, but did cash were Liv Boeree, Freddy Deeb, McLean Karr, Hoyt Corkins, Constant Rijkenberg, Barny Boatman and Victor Ramdin.

Day 4 will begin at 1400 CET (0500 PDT) and will end when the final table is reached. The PokerNews Live Reporting Blog will have the play-by-play of all the action.

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