Eugene Katchalov Takes Down 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Classic

December 21, 2007

The 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Classic featured one of the largest prizepools in the history of tournament poker outside the WSOP Main Event and WPT Championship. In fact, after 664 contestants plunked down $15,000 to buy in to the event, the prize pool would exceed $9.6 million alone - all the whole generating a first place prize of almost $2.5 million! The televised final table lineup would include a variety of both live veterans and online upstarts:

David “Devilfish” Ulliot, Ryan Daut, Ken Rosen, Ted Kearly, Jordan Rich, and Eugene Katchalov.

Action was fast-paced and dramatic throughout the entire final table taping, with Ryan Daut going out on the very first hand when his A J bricked out against Ted Kearly’s pocket 8’s. Jordan Rich would then run his pocket Jacks into the pocket Aces of Eugene Katchalov, going out in 5th place shortly after Daut exited the tournament.

From there on out, the young Katchalov steamrolled over the remainder of the competition, subsequently knocking out Ken Rosen and David Ulliot in 4th and 3rd place, respectively. He would take a commanding chiplead heads up against Jordan Rich, and it wouldn’t be long before a new champion would be crowned.

Katchalov had over $16 million in chips against the roughly $3.7 million in chips Rich had in front of him. It would only take 8 hands for the championship to conclude, with Eugene Katchalov hitting 2 pair with his J T versus the one pair of Jordan Rich’s K J on the final hand. The landmark win not only earned Katchalov the $2.4 million first-place prize and a $25k WPT Championship seat, but he was also apart of the FASTEST WPT final table on record. It took only 53 hands of play before the TV final table was shot and wrapped up!

*photo courtesy of CardPlayer.com

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