American-Ukrainian Poker Leader Evgeniy Katchalov Tries to Escape Due to the Russian Invasion

By Scott Bowen,
Editor at online-gambling.com

Scott Bowen Editor at online-gambling.com

Scott Bowen is a casino expert and editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He is one of the most valuable members of our team at online-gambling.com. Bowen specializes in writing on a variety of subjects, including roulette, blackjack, video poker, sports betting, and more.

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Last updated: March 19, 2022

Ukrainian’s millionaire Eugene Katchalov is seeking protection as Russia invades his homeland.

Evgeny Katchalov is not new to the poker community. He has been playing poker professionally since 2003 and has earned global appreciation for his great and esteemed winnings. He made poker history by winning over $9.2 million in live events.

In recent years, Katchalov has shifted from playing permanent poker to esports. Nevertheless, Katchalov stays the best Ukrainian poker player in history. He is also possibly the most famous Ukrainian poker player, born in Kyiv but brought up in the US.

When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine a few days back, members of the poker community started turning to Katchalov to find out where he lives in Ukraine. They found out that Katchalov and his wife were in Kyiv. On 24th Feb, Katchalov decided to leave Ukraine while the entire poker community was following his journey.

More About Katchalov

He was born in Feb 1981 in Kyiv. When he was 10, his family shifted to the United States, and he grew up in New York. He received a business degree from NYU, and when he started training as a stockbroker, he discovered poker.

He started learning how to earn cash with poker. He made great efforts and won a lot of money with online poker. Katchalov started making money playing live poker contests in 2004 but only retired after winning $2.5 million on the World Poker Tour.

Knowing that he should stick to only one career, he selected poker. Poker was on the rise, and possibilities abound.

In subsequent years, he became a member of Team PokerStars Pro, won the 2011 PCA Super High Roller Championship for $1.5 million, and later that year won the WSOP during the Seven Card Stud tournament.

During his whole career and in the following years, he lived in the United States with occasional visits to Kyiv. He got married in 2010 and since then, he and his spouse have been spending most of their time in Ukraine.

His most recent wins have been at the World Series of Poker in 2017 and 2018, first in the Czech and then in Las Vegas. In 2017, he and a fellow professional poker player Luca Pagano established the esports organization QLASH. Since then the two have been expanding their organization.

Leaving Ukraine

As previously mentioned, he and his wife settled in Kyiv. Upon the Russian invasion of Kyiv, they rapidly packed up and planned their trip out of the city.

The Ukraine government has introduced a rule banning men between the ages of 18 and 60 from escaping the Ukrainian. The aim of this new rule is for every man to remain in the country in order to fight against the Russian military. However, in the case of Katchalov, as an American national who owns a US passport as well, the case was different. After contacting the US embassy, the former poker player was able to exit the country by reaching the Polish border.

At the moment, Katchalov is residing in Hungary where through his startup QLASH he is collaborating with the King Baudouin Foundation to establish an emergency response fund aiming to raise money for those still being in Ukraine as well as for those who fled the country when the war started.