Ivan Demidov (russian: Ива́н Деми́дов, ; born 1981) is a professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Demidov is one of the original "

November Nine The November Nine was the name used to refer to the final nine contestants, or final table, at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from 2008 to 2016. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker ...

", having made the final table of the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

(WSOP) Main Event in 2008. He reached the heads-up stage along with

Peter Eastgate Peter Nicolas Eastgate (born 13 December 1985) is a :Danish poker players, poker player from Denmark, best known as the winner of the World Series of Poker#Main Event, Main Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. At the time, he became the you ...

. He lost to Eastgate and took second place for $5,809,595. Demidov stated that he would share his winnings with a Russian financial supporter who took him to some previous tournaments, with the backer getting more than Demidov. In October 2008, he reached the final table of the

World Series of Poker Europe The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series ...

Main Event in London, finishing in third place. In doing so, he became the first player in history to reach the final table of both WSOP Main Events in the same year. This feat was matched in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

by James Akenhead and Antoine Saout. Earlier in 2008, he finished in 11th place in a $1,000 no limit

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, communit ...

with rebuys event. As of 2009, Demidov's live

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a "heads up poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...

winnings exceed $6,550,000. His four cashes at the WSOP account for the majority of those winnings, totaling $6,468,381. The vast majority of his poker earnings come from his strong runner-up performance in the Main Event in 2008. As of 2012, Demidov is the highest-ranking member of the WSOP All-Time Money List who does not have a bracelet. Demidov is also a former

Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after ''Warcraft II: Tides ...

player who played under the name SouL.

References

External links

Pokerstars.com profile

ESPN interview
Russian poker players Russian esports players Warcraft III players

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic languages, Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John (given name), John) from Hebrew language, Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. T ...

1981 births Living people Date of birth missing (living people) {{poker-stub