Yevgeny Kafelnikov at the WSOP

burningyen · #1 06-10-2005, 11:02 AM

The former #1 tennis player in the world is currently 14th in the $1500 7-stud event. And it looks like it's not a fluke.

highlife · #2 06-10-2005, 11:04 AM

are you sure its the same person? Kafelnikov is a fairly common Russian family name.

burningyen · #3 06-10-2005, 11:09 AM

Yes.

Russ McGinley · #4 06-10-2005, 11:46 AM

Kafelnikov has been quoted as saying he likes to play poker and I remember when he retired that it was said on TV that he would probably play a lot of poker in his spare time.

Kjell201 · #5 06-10-2005, 12:03 PM

He played in the EPT Monte Carlo and was on the featured table for a while

Wintermute · #6 06-10-2005, 12:14 PM

"19-Oct-04 $ 5,000 Championship Event
Korona Russian Poker Championships, Moscow 3rd $ 11,640"

3rd place typically gets something around 7% of the prize pool. Given YK's win here, that works out to about a field of 30ish players. 3rd out of 30? who f*cking cares. Unless the prize money is a misprint.

Kevmath · #7 06-10-2005, 12:57 PM

The 3 tournaments that he cashed in were in the 30-50 player range.

Kevin...

Bobby Cannoli · #8 06-10-2005, 01:15 PM

Heh, I remember a great episode of "Sports Night" a few years back, where Dan (the anchor of the show) couldn't pronounce his name correctly for love or money [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Aceshigh7 · #9 06-10-2005, 01:33 PM

Yes, I remember a few months ago talking about his retirement and he said he was going to play professional poker. Kiril Gerasimov (2nd place finisher in the 1st WPT Championship) has been mentoring him.

ClaytonN · #10 06-10-2005, 01:47 PM

Can you imagine what kinda crossover coverage that would bring from ESPN if he made the final table?