Artem Litvinov

Russian-born tournament specialist Artem Litvinov might not be fluent in English, but he’s been an entertaining (yet somewhat divisive) figure on the live poker scene since his first appearance back in 2010. The Saint Petersburg native has over $1.2 million in live MTT earnings with the majority of these coming from EPT events.

His strongest showing came in 2012 at the EPT San Remo Main Event. To reach the final table, Artem got past a list of experienced pros that included Isaac Haxton, Justin Bonomo and Bulgarian talent Dimitar Danchev. While he wasn’t able to seize the trophy on this outing, his third-place finish earned him $365,402 in his most lucrative tournament cash to date.

This wasn’t Litvinov’s only success during EPT Season 9. He also made three other final tables including two at Monte Carlo. Incidentally, he finished runner-up in both of these – first at the €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6-Max Turbo event and again at another PLO tourney a few days later.

At this 2013 stop in Monte Carlo, Artem was involved in a one-sidedly heated exchange with mild-mannered Scottish pro David Vamplew. The pair played a blind-versus-blind exchange, with the Russian limping KsKc from the SB and Vamplew checking Ts8s in the BB. After Litvinov bet the flop and turn on Js6sTd3s with the Scot electing to call both streets, he became irritated by David’s tanking after he fired a third bet for value on the 4d river. With an exasperated look on his face, he announced, ‘If you go all-in . . . I quickly call, I promise you. Please don’t slow-roll me – you can call, fold or go all-in’. After Litvinov ranted for around a minute, David went all-in with his flush and was indeed snap-called by the Russian. After some expletives and untranslated words in his native tongue, he announced ‘it’s just a slowroll’. Vamplew appeared honest and attempted to defend himself, stating, ‘You were acting so strong, it put me off . . . I’m not trying to waste time’. Daniel Negreanu was also at the table and seemed amused by the whole affair. You can watch it back here.

As of February 2016, Artem hasn’t booked any live tournament cashes and it appears that he has stepped away from poker.