When Leo Wolpert was a senior at Thomas Jefferson High, his quiz bowl team lost in the first round of Mac McGarry's "It's Academic."
"I was absolutely devastated, crushed," Wolpert told me. "I probably cried like a little girl afterward. I was just in a rage."
When Wolpert was a freshman at TJ, he was cut from the baseball team.
And this week, between writing memos about civil liberties, he borrowed a few thousand dollars from a -playing friend, entered a World Series of Poker event, made it to the final pairing of the heads-up no-limit Texas hold 'em event, endured a final match that lasted more than eight hours, and won a WSOP bracelet, walking away with more than $650,000.
Roland De Wolfe’s stunning victory in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event at the WSOP has put the “Triple Crown” on the collective brain of the poker media. Three days ago, De Wolfe became only the second player in history to win a WSOP bracelet, a World poker Tour title and a European Poker Tour title, with Gavin Griffin being the first player to complete the trifecta back in 2007.
Who could be next? Factoring in motivation, their tendency to travel to events (or not), and their tournament results over the last few years, here are the ten players we think are most likely to add a Triple Crown to their long list of poker accomplishments.
At the World Series of Event #28. Mike "the Force" Eise earned his first World Series bracelet, outlasting 2,640 players in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. Twenty-seven hopefuls came back on Day 3 to play down to the final table. Joe Simmons began with a sizable chip lead but ended up finishing in 14th place. Mehdi Alaei, Daniel's father, was eliminated in 22nd place, leaving Doyle and Todd Brunson's father/son bracelet record in tact for the moment.
After a difficult afternoon of play down, the final table began. The players seemed energized, and the rising blinds fueled the action. Jason "JP_OSU Potter, the most well-known player at the table, finished in fourth place, much to the disappointment of his very vocal fans. When three-handed play began, Rico Ramirez had a big chip lead. Mike Eise was all in and on his way to the rail twice when lucky river cards spared him and catapulted him to the chip lead. His run continued when Ramirez flopped trips and Eise turned a full house to eliminate Rico in 3rd place. Eise also got lucky on the turn to bust Jeff Chang and win the bracelet and the $639,331 first prize.
European pokerTour today released the dates for the first seven stops on the upcoming EPT Season 6 schedule. The EPT has become the world’s largest traveling poker tour, in terms of both overall players and prize money, and is expected to include a record 13 different stops, including the new EPT Moscow, which kicks off the Season 6 schedule in August. PokerStars has also begun online qualifiers for the EPT Moscow stop, beginning today. The complete EPT Season 6 schedule to be released in the near future.
The EPT’s rise to prominence over the past five years mirrors the climb of its sponsoring site, PokerStars, in regards to online poker. Last year’s fifth season of the EPT saw approximately US $77 million paid out to participants, with the EPT stops themselves drawing nearly 8,000 entrants. In Season 6, the EPT introduce extended “Festival of Poker” visits at many of its venues, including “high rollers” and other events.
The first seven stops on the European Poker Tour’s Season 6 schedule
August 17-23, 2009:
EPT Russia Open (Moscow, Russia) $6,900, 600-player cap
September 4-9, 2009
EPT Barcelona Open (Barcelona, Spain) $11,590, 700-player cap
October 1-7, 2009
EPT London Open (London, England) $8,370, 800-player cap
October 20-25, 2009
EPT Warsaw Open (Warsaw, Poland) $6,460, 400-player cap
November 17-22, 2009
EPT Vilamoura (Vilamoura, Portugal) $7,400, 600-player cap
December 1-6, 2009
EPT Prague Open (Prague, Czech Republic) $7,400, 600-player cap
January 4-14, 2010
poker Stars Caribbean Adventure (Nassau, Bahamas), $10,600, 1600-player cap
It was only a few years ago when Nick Schulman took the World Poker Tour by storm. Winning the $10,000 event at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Casino in 2005, then finishing second in 2007, Schulman made sure that the poker world would remember his name. Since his WPT victory at age 21, Schulman has made numerous final tables, but he hadn't earned a World Series of Poker bracelet until Friday night.
In the largest no-limit 2-7 lowball tournament in history (96 players), Schulman defeated a talent-heavy final table that included 2009 player of the year candidates and bracelet winners Ville Wahlbeck, Steve Sung, David Benyamine, John Juanda, Michael Binger and Archie Karas. With a buy-in of $10,000, this event attracted only those with the biggest bankrolls, and it was no surprise that four former bracelet winners were going for another.
"The prestige of the bracelet is a little overwhelming," Schulman said to the WSOP. "This is the term when it comes to winning in poker event. They say these tournaments are not about the money, and I never used to think like that. But I know what they mean now. The bracelet is a little sweeter than the cash."
The cash was nice, too. Schulman earned $279,742 when he eliminated Wahlbeck, who had won the $10,000 mixed-games world championship last week.
This was Schulman's sixth WSOP cashing and second final table. He started the final table in fourth place and was able to pull out the victory in six hours. In a great way to end the tournament, Schulman won holding the game's best hand and called Wahlbeck's all-in with a 2-3-4-5-7.
