The online poker site PokerStars.com has signed up a new brand
ambassador. The latest to join Team PokerStars Pro is the poker
professional Eugene Katchalov. The 29-year-old Katchalov, who
was born in Ukraine, currently lives in New York. Of late there
has been a lot of activity in the Russian online poker market
and that probably is the reason PokerStars.com has taken on
Katchalov. In fact, Katchalov will begin wearing the PokerStars
patch from the Russian Poker Series Kiev event starting on March
26.
Katchalov is not as high profile as some of the other PokerStars.com brand ambassadors, but has sufficient achievements against his name. He won the $100,000 Super High Roller event at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $1.5 million, beating Daniel Negreanu heads-up. Till date he has accumulated $6,104,132 in career live tournament earnings, including a World Poker Tour title. Katchalov has also tasted success at online poker sites. In 2009 he won the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker heads-up event for $140,000. Playing at the online poker site PokerStars.com under the screen name MyRabbiFoo he has won more than $500,000 in cash games.
Speaking about his induction in one of the best online poker teams, Katchalov said, “I feel very fortunate in having the opportunity to represent PokerStars. It is the largest and, in my opinion, the best-run poker site in the world, with a great team of pros. I look forward to continuing my great run in poker and helping PokerStars successfully expand and evolve within the ever-changing world of poker.”
Negreanu, who is the leading brand ambassador of PokerStars.com was all praise for Katchalov. He said, “Eugene has always flown under the radar, but among his peers, his game is well respected and he is considered one of the best in the world, both in tournaments and cash games. I’m thrilled to see Eugene as part of the team. He’s a great guy and an excellent poker ambassador.”
Negreanu had a major embarrassment earlier this week. He was crushed by Isidur1 in the much publicized SuperStar Showdown match on PokerStars.com. The match was scheduled to be played over two weekends, but Negreanu lost his entire stack of $150,000 on the first day. However, to be fair to Negreanu, Isildur1 had an unusual streak of luck with the cards that day.