Roland De Wolfe becomes 2nd poker player in history with WSOP, WPT and EPT wins

When De Wolfe captured the $5k Pot Limit Omaha 8 bracelet at the 2009 WSOP he became the second player in history to win poker’s Triple Crown: World Poker Tour (WPT) title; European Poker Tour (EPT) title; and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner. The Englishman donned a Union Jack track-suit for the final table of the $5k PLO8 event; perhaps for luck, but more likely for pride of country.

Gavin Griffin was the first player to accomplish the feat: In 2004 Griffin won the $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’ Em event at the WSOP; in 2007 he captured the EPT Grand Final title; and in 2008 Griffin completed the Triple Crown by winning the WPT Borgata Classic.

De Wolfe captured the first leg of the Triple Crown in 2005, winning the WPT Grand Prix De Paris; the EPT title came a year later, when De Wolfe won the EPT Dublin title; De Wolfe was able to join Griffin when he bested 197 players to capture the $5k PLO8 title at the 2009 WSOP.

The editor for Inside Edge magazine, admitted to knowing very little about the poker variant that gave him his first bracelet: “I’ve played PLO; and I’ve played limit Omaha 8; so, I just combined what I know about the two!”

De Wolfe has been a fixture on the tournament scene, both in Europe and the US, since 2005, when he made his first WSOP cash in a $1,000 NLHE event. Remarkably, De Wolfe’s biggest pay-day didn’t come in one his three wins; in 2006 Roland finished 3^rd at the $25k WPT Championship, taking home just over $1 million for his efforts.

The WSOP win marks De Wolfe’s first victory on US soil (his EPT win was in Dublin Ireland, and WPT win came in Paris France) although the Englishman has had very good results in previous WSOP tournaments: De Wolfe has 14 WSOP cashes, and over $650k in career WSOP earnings.

With the record-setting numbers the EPT is producing it’s quite likely that the two member club will see quite a few additions in coming years. More and more top US players are travelling to European destinations to play EPT events.

Perhaps in the future the Aussie Millions or the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) could be added to the EPT, WPT, and WSOP to create a Grand Slam?