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Katchalov Puts Face on Ukraine Crisis for Poker Community

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
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Eugene Katchalov is no stranger to poker. He started playing poker professionally in 2003 and gained worldwide recognition for his big and prestigious wins. With more than $9.2M in live tournament earnings alone, he has carved out a place for himself in poker history.

Katchalov moved away from full-time poker in the past several years and transitioned to esports. Yet and still, Katchalov remains the top Ukrainian tournament poker player in history. He is also arguably the most well-known Ukrainian player, born in Kyiv but raised mostly in the United States.

When Russia began to invade Ukraine last week, the poker community began reaching out to Katchalov to see where in the world he was. It turned out that he was in Kyiv with his wife. On February 24, he heard explosions in his hometown and left. His journey to get out of Ukraine became a focal point for the poker and esports communities. It made the fight more personal, put a familiar face on Ukraine as everyone in various parts of the world watched an unexpected war on television and online.

A Little Background

Eugene Katchalov was born in February 1981 in Kyiv, Ukraine. His family moved to America when he was ten years old, and he spent most of his formative years in New York. He graduated from New York University with a business degree, and as he began to put that education to use as a stock trader, he found poker.

What started as recreational home games with friends turned into a challenge to learn how to make money playing online poker. As he worked hard with the hope of making it to Wall Street someday, he paid many of his bills through online poker profits.

Katchalov began cashing in live poker tournaments in 2004, but it wasn’t until he won $2.5M on the World Poker Tour that he quit his day job. He won the 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $2,482,605. He knew that he needed to focus on one of his jobs and chose poker. Poker was booming, and opportunities abounded.

In the years that followed, he signed on as a member of Team PokerStars Pro, won the PCA Super High Roller in 2011 for $1.5M, and won a World Series of Poker bracelet later that year in a Seven Card Stud event.

Throughout his poker career and the years since, Katchalov lived sometimes in the US and part of each year in Kyiv. He also got married in the mid-2010s to a native Ukrainian. They spent more time in his native land from that point forward.

His last recorded tournament cashes were at the 2017 and 2018 World Series of Poker – the former in the Czech Republic and the latter in Las Vegas – but he was already focused on his next endeavor. He and fellow pro poker player Luca Pagano founded QLASH, an esports organization, in 2017. They have been growing the business ever since.

Leaving Ukraine

Fast forward to February 2022. Katchalov and his wife were in their home in Ukraine. On the morning of the 24th, the bombing began in Kyiv. The duo quickly packed essential belongings and decided to meet with friends to make a plan to leave town..

The Ukrainian government had implemented a policy prohibiting men from 18 to 60 from leaving the country. They needed everyone to stay and fight the invading Russian army. However, in Katchalov’s case, he possessed an American passport as a US citizen. So, he, his wife, and a few friends, piled into their cars. They spoke to the US embassies in Ukraine and Poland, both of which advised them to leave Ukraine. They then headed toward the border.

During the drive, Katchalov’s wife kept in touch with her family, who lived in Kharkiv and took shelter in their basement at the sounds of war. The duo also debated staying in Ukraine but ultimately decided to keep heading toward an exit.

Katchalov tweeted his journey through small towns in Ukraine: the driving, the searches for gas, the fear of bandits and bombs, the closed cities, the long lines of traffic, the news from family and friends in Kharkiv and Kyiv. As February 24 turned into February 25, they considered crossing the border into Poland, trying to get to Slovakia, or trying the Hungary route.

Ultimately, they exited Ukraine into Hungary.

Later, Katchalov posted a map of their route out of Ukraine.

Katchalov’s Twitter feed has been a consistent stream of news from the region. From news sources to friends and family that stayed in Ukraine, the news keeps coming.

He also wrote his own first-hand account of his 48-hour whirlwind of a journey on Common Sense.

s and see the inhumanity of war. It is another thing to have a connection to the region being attacked, to hear his views, to follow his emotions and his physical journey at the same time. Katchalov has provided us a unique window into a crisis, one that became personal for many of us who hung on every tweet as someone we knew tried to escape a war, having to leave his homeland to do so.

 

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