Katchalov Puts Face on Ukraine Crisis for Poker Community

Eugene Katchalov is no stranger to poker. He started playing poker professionally in 2003 and gained worldwide recognition for his big and prestigious wins. With more than $9.2M in live tournament earnings alone, he has carved out a place for himself in poker history.

Katchalov moved away from full-time poker in the past several years and transitioned to esports. Yet and still, Katchalov remains the top Ukrainian tournament poker player in history. He is also arguably the most well-known Ukrainian player, born in Kyiv but raised mostly in the United States.

When Russia began to invade Ukraine last week, the poker community began reaching out to Katchalov to see where in the world he was. It turned out that he was in Kyiv with his wife. On February 24, he heard explosions in his hometown and left. His journey to get out of Ukraine became a focal point for the poker and esports communities. It made the fight more personal, put a familiar face on Ukraine as everyone in various parts of the world watched an unexpected war on television and online. A Little Background

Eugene Katchalov was born in February 1981 in Kyiv, Ukraine. His family moved to America when he was ten years old, and he spent most of his formative years in New York. He graduated from New York University with a business degree, and as he began to put that education to use as a stock trader, he found poker.

What started as recreational home games with friends turned into a challenge to learn how to make money playing online poker. As he worked hard with the hope of making it to Wall Street someday, he paid many of his bills through online poker profits.

Katchalov began cashing in live poker tournaments in 2004, but it wasn’t until he won $2.5M on the World Poker Tour that he quit his day job. He won the 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $2,482,605. He knew that he needed to focus on one of his jobs and chose poker. Poker was booming, and opportunities abounded.

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