Alexander Kravchenko

Born in 1971, Alexander Kravchenko is one of the more experienced poker pros to come out of Russia. He has been playing the game for over 20 years and has honed his skills to become proficient at a number of variants and formats along the way. His finest year to date came in 2007, when the Moscow-born talent enjoyed a truly phenomenal WSOP. He kicked it off by winning a bracelet in the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8-or-Better event, pocketing $228,446 for the accomplishment. By doing so, Alexander became the first ever Russian citizen to win WSOP gold. One month later at the close of the series, Kravchenko ended his summer with a huge score after finishing fourth in the most prestigious event in poker – the WSOP Main Event. The Russian earned $1,852,721 for his deep run, falling only a couple of places shy of the $8,250,000 that was awarded to 2007 winner Jerry Yang.

The WSOP is a series that has been extremely kind to Alexander, shown by the fact that he has reached a total of nine final tables to date. Some of his other closest moments to earning a second bracelet include a runner-up finish in the 2014 $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and a fifth-place in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-Better event in 2009. He now has over 38 cashes for a combined total of more than $2,800,000 in WSOP events.

A regular on the European scene given his Russian residence, Kravchenko also picked up an EPT title in 2010 after winning the €1,000 No Limit Hold’em / Pot Limit Omaha event in San Remo.

Alexander is no stranger to online poker either. In fact, he was appointed as an ambassador for PokerStars shortly after his WSOP successes in 2007. Playing under the screenname ‘Kravchenko’ on the site, the Russian’s biggest online score came in the $10,300 8-Game WCOOP event in 2010 where he earned $345,800 for finishing in first. In 2014, he parted ways with the online cardroom and continues to focus his efforts on the live tournament scene.