Alexander Kravchenko | Team PokerStars Pro Poker Player
Alex Kravchenko was born on 21st April 1971, in Arkhangesk in the USSR. Later he became a Russian citizen and is now one of the best poker players in Europe, travelling all over the world participating in poker tournaments representing PokerStars as part of Team PokerStars Pro. He first began playing poker in casinos in Moscow where he became a regular face mainly gambling on blackjack. He soon changed to a game called Oasis Poker which is a variation of Caribbean Stud. Kravchenko was regularly beating this game and was winning lots of money every week, so much in fact that he was winning more in the casinos than he was earning in his business ventures.
In 1997 the Moscow casinos began offering Texas Hold’em. Kravchenko began learning the game through trial and error, but quickly caught on to the basics. He began enjoying great success in Hold’em cash games as well as small tournaments. Just one year later, Kravchenko began travelling around Europe participating in live poker tournaments of different variations. His first live tournament victory came at the 2001 Austrian Masters in a Pot-Limit Omaha event which earned him $9,397.
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Despite travelling all over Europe and enjoying lots of cashes in live tournaments, as well as having great success in cash games, it wasn’t until 2007 that Kravchenko made his impact on the poker world. In only his second year at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Kravchenko overcame 690 players in the $1500 Omaha 8-or-Better event for a massive $228,446. He continued his dominance and cashed in another four events before really making his presence known. In the Main Event Kravchenko made the final table and finished in fourth place out of 6,358 entrants. This earned Kravchenko just over $1.8 million. This gained Kravchenko lots of exposure, as well as television time, and he found himself with an offer from PokerStars. He then became a Team PokerStars Pro and began travelling the tournament circuit representing them.
Kravchenko was invited to the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker II in 2008 and after playing in several heats he finished 4th in the televised final for a $40,000 score. Later that year he missed out on his third major win by finishing 2nd in the CAPT Baden Open for $171,631.
2009 was yet another successful year for Alexander Kravchenko. He began the year by earning almost $60,000 from two cashes in EPT events (European Poker Tour). He then final tabled the Russian Poker Tour Main Event eventually finishing in 8th-place for $40,888. His success continued in Las Vegas when he cashed 6 times at the World Series of Poker.
To date Kravchenko has $3.1 million in live tournament winnings and he continues to travel the live tournament circuit representing PokerStars. If you don’t already have an account at PokerStars, read our PokerStars review to learn why it is the best internet poker site in the world, as well as the largest!
