Igor Kurganov Wins PSC Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller For €1,084,100
It was one of the biggest and best fields ever assembled in the Super High Roller world, and it was Igor Kurganov who emerged victorious.
Igor Kurganov is a Russian poker player and a founding member of Raising for Effective Giving.
Igor Kurganov was born in 1988 and has quickly risen to the top of the high roller world. Not much is known about his early life, although he says that his family moved to Germany when he was a child. Like many Russian and German pros, he seemingly came out of nowhere to take the poker world by storm. Despite his meteoric rise, he has been described as well-mannered, calm, and extremely intellectual. To make him even more mysterious, he plays high roller events almost exclusively, leaving behind the smaller buy in tournaments that many pros play in their everyday life.
He didn’t start out that way, even if his rise was relatively quick compared to most others of his generation. His first recorded tournament cash was in Macau at the 2009 $32k high roller on the Asian Poker Tour, where he took home just $13k. It wasn’t until 2011 that he captured a six figure cash. At EPT Madrid he came in second to Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier for a cash of $182k. Since then, it has been normal for him to make large cashes and has several seven figures to his resume. In 2012 he won the high roller event at EPT Monte Carlo and pocketed $1.4 million, his first million dollar cash. 2013 brought several large paychecks, including two at the Aussie Millions alone, where he took home $290k and $527k in two different $25k buy in tournaments.
He is first on Russia’s all time money list, due in large part to EPT events. In total, he has amassed nearly $10 million in tournament earnings, in addition to being a feared cash game opponent.
A large proponent of charitable giving, Kurganov is one of the founders of REG, or Raising for Effective Giving, a charity that partners with poker players to pledge a percentage of their income to finding efficient ways of helping solve global problems. He had a public disagreement with Dan Coleman in 2014 after Coleman refused to give interviews for the Big One For One Drop because of his perceived harmful effects of poker. Dan Coleman said he did not want to do anything that would promote the game of poker to people who might not otherwise have been playing. Kurganov argued that it is their poker playing that allows them to help other people, even though there are some people who become addicted. To him, the good that they do outweighs the chances that someone’s life will be harmed by poker.
He lives in London and can frequently be seen playing in the European Poker Tour alongside his long time girlfriend Liv Boeree, who is also a feared tournament player and a member of REG. He is also a fan of the Burning Man festival, and takes part in a camp that features many other high rolling pros.
Published 9 years ago
Aussie Millions 2015 - Igor Kurganov InterviewChris from MBP catches up with Igor Kurganov for a short chat during his stay at the Aussie Millions 2015
Published 9 years ago
EPT London Day 2: Igor Kurganov InterviewIgor Kurganov talks to Rikard about his life in London, poker players and charity involvement, working on his game and more
Published 9 years ago
Poker Pros in Alpha8 LondonKurganov, Trickett and Shakerchi answering questions about Alpha8 London
Published 9 years ago
Igor Kurganov Running Bad - Party Poker Premier LeagueKurganov losses two hands in a row to bust the Premier League
Published 9 years ago
Talal Shakerchi vs Igor Kurganov - Crazy HandCrazy Hand in the PartyPoker premier league between Talal Shakerchi and Igor Kurganov.
Published 9 years ago
Igor Kurganov PokerTube InterviewIgor Kurganov is a Russian poker player known for playing in the biggest high roller events around the World. In this interview he...
Published 9 years ago
PCA 2014: Bryn Kenney Going Against Three PlayersBryn Kenney taking flop against Quoss, Kurganov and Gruissem
Published 10 years ago
Sick Bluff Read Ole Schemion vs Igor KurganovOle Schemion makes an impressive play agains Igor Kurganov.
Published 10 years ago
Hand of the Week - Igor Kurganov Live ReadHigh Roller specialist Igor Kurganov shows the art of the live read is alive and well in this hand from the EPT9 Monte Carlo Grand...
Published 10 years ago
EPT 10 Barcelona Day One: Featured hand no.1Our first featured hand from Day 1 sees Sandor Demjan lock swords with Igor Kurganov in a pivotal pot for both players.
It was one of the biggest and best fields ever assembled in the Super High Roller world, and it was Igor Kurganov who emerged victorious.
WSOP event organizers had some bling left over and donated a bracelet to Liv Boeree's charity where it fetched over $10K at auction.
If Boeree's varied career, poker successes and staring literally into space doesn’t seem sufficient to fill her time, she’s also a serious outdoorswoman.
Event #27 $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed will start its day one at 11:00 AM PST on 14th June 2017.
Dan Bilzerian rolled into the WSOP looking to play high-stakes No-Limit Hold’em in the brand-new King’s Casino cash game section at the Rio.
It’s not every week that there is an online poker tournament that costs six figures to enter and pays seven figures to the winner - but this was one of those weeks.
At a young age and with millions of dollars won, the life of Kurganov is envied by many