Katchalov Caught a $2.4 Million Win at the Bellagio

Filed in archive Tournament News on December 19, 2007

Most of the time when final tables are assembled you'll hear stories from the rails about how the chip leader luckboxed his way into that huge tower of checks. "No way that donkey can win, he cracked my aces with 92o!!" as heard by the 21st place contestant that can slink away to his copy of CardPlayer magazine while the bright lights of the World Poker Tour are shown on the final six.

Eugene Katchalov may or may not have gotten his final table chip lead while getting his money in badly, but managed to trap his heads up opponent into pushing with only three outs (or runner runner straight for those nit-picking) as Katchalov took down the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic (now say that really fast five times). Famous player Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott ran into kicker problems with the eventual champion, and finished in third place.

For the win Katchalov became a multi-millionaire bagging $2.4 million for the victory plus a buy-in to the WPT season ending championship.

From the WPT website here's a final table money recap of the quickest final table in WPT history with Katchalov winning in just 53 hands.

1. Eugene Katchalov - $2,482,605
2. Ted Kearly - $1,252,640
3. David Ulliott - $674,500
4. Ken Rosen - $433,675
5. Jordan Rich - $289,070
6. Ryan Daut - $192,715