Oleksii Kovalchuk experienced the magic of WSOP for a second time this year as he walked away with his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet. The event was a Omaha High Low poker game and took place at the Rio in Las Vegas.
The Kiev native got lucky again in just his second WSOP attempt, an achievement that had the crowd cheering. The 22 year old, has had his fair share of wins in his professional poker career and has already potted plenty of cash prizes in this year’s WSOP. In this year’s World Series of Poker events, Kovalchuk claimed the 12th place in the $3,000 PLO event and the 36th place in the $1,500 PLO event.
Most recently, when he grabbed his second gold bracelet at a WSOP event, the poker pro also won $228,041 in cash prize. However, his recent win has left him humbled.
His unpretentious, yet determined approach to win was commendable. “I had a lot of support in what is the understatement of the 2012 WSOP,” said Kovalchuk. “Last year, the Russians and Ukrainians had a good year and won bracelets. This year, we hadn’t won one yet and we didn’t come to lose money, we came to win.”
Kovalchuk is earnest about his knowledge of poker but his understanding of split pot games, however, is limited, which is why he believes that sheer luck was responsible for his win. Kovalchuk’s friends had briefed him on just enough information to enter the $2,500 event. Armed with just background knowledge in the game, the young poker pro dashed right into it.
The moment was unbelievable, just like a fairytale. Kovalchuk commented,
A guy who sits in the tournament and doesn’t know the rules and wins. How can that happen? How do you explain that?
After the poker players Wing Wong, Norman Chad, Danny Ratigan, Mark Gregorich were eliminated one by one, it was finally down to a match between George Danzer and Kovalchuk. Danzer for sometime stayed high, but not for long though. Kovalchuk won three hands in a row and evened the score. He maintained his lead and soared ahead to set a 2:1 lead against Danzer. Soon enough, Danzer was unable to maintain his stack, with an imminent preflop. The board ran out and Kovalchuk became the man of the match and the man with the best hand.
