Alexander Venovski

Like many of today’s poker pros, Alex fell in love with the game during college and began his journey by playing SNGs during his freshman year. Spinning his bankroll up during this period, he graduated from Florida State University and turned to playing full-time soon after.

Venovski stated in a 2014 interview that the majority of his poker earnings come from online cash games. He has done well to conceal his identity online – something that is in the interest of successful high stakes players so that they can still get action at the tables.

In terms of documented winnings, Venovski still has an impressive résumé from the live tournament circuit. He has final-tabled two WSOP events – the first of these coming in the 2012 $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event. The line-up was a legendary one, with Phil Ivey, Shaun Deeb and Andy Frankenberger all making the final nine. Unfortunately for Venovski, he wasn’t able to ship the tournament and finished in fourth-place for $147,345. Two years later, he came one step closer to winning the bracelet in the very same event. This time, it was the Russian Alex Bilokur who took Venovski’s dream away from him and saw the American finish in third for $178,434. Throw in a PCA final table along with a WPT one and Alex’s live tournament earnings exceed $1,100,000 today.

Venovski has attributed a great deal of his success in the game to his close circle of friends around him that also played poker professionally. Rising up through the ranks alongside buddies Jason Somerville, Steve O’ Dwyer, Leo Wolpert and Vivek Rajkumar, the group helped each other to improve their strategies and achieve success at the tables.