Russian Poker Players Enter High Stake Games Online

"The Russians are coming!"

More Russian poker players are starting to show up for high stake games according to the folks who run HighStakesDB.com.

"Slowly but surely we are seeing some Russian players enter the high stakes poker games, and over the last day and a half, NEKOTYAN has been the top dog on the leader board. He has been playing both straight PLO and the seven games, and has been winning steadily at both. It will be very interesting to see if others will follow him and players like Rospodin, and if this is the start of a wave of Russian high stakes players."

Russians playing in professional poker tournaments is not exactly a new phenomenon in and of itself.  In recent years, the most impressive player to emerge out of Russia is none other than Ivan Demidov.  He made the final tables of both the World Series of Poker and its sister event, the World Series of Poker Europe, in the same year.  An impressive feat that had never occurred prior.  Even more impressive was his second and third place finishes, respectively.

As of 2009, Demidov's live poker tournament winnings exceed $6,550,000.

Kirill Gerasimov, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Alexander Kravchenko are other well known Russian poker players.

Ralph Perry might not sound like someone who was born and raised in Russia.  This poker player, with more that $2.6 million in live tournament winnings, was actually born Rafael Perivoskin.

Patrick Flanigan, Gambling911.com