Ivan Demidov

Poker from the toundra

Ivan Demidov is a mathematical genius who graduated from Moscow University with a degree in mathematics in 2004.

And, it was only after his graduation that Ivan Demidov started to dabble with poker, when he started playing online.

Considering that Demidov has not much experience with this game, his rapid success at the poker tables is nothing short of amazing.

Demidov’s first major win came in the year 2006 when he finished 5th at the finals of a Pot Limit Omaha event, which was held as part of the Korona Russian Poker Championship. T

The very next year, he finished 3rd in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic’s No Limit Event and won a cool prize of $1000.

Since Demidov built his bankroll playing online poker, he had little experience with live poker.

However, that did not stop him from emerging as one of the famous “November Nine,” who made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2008 Main Event.

He astounded the world and even himself when he finished 2nd and won a prize of $5,809,595.

The lion’s share of this prize went to an unknown Russian, who had financially supported Demidov and had introduced him to various lucrative live poker tournaments.

Soon after that Ivan became a Team PokerStars pro.

Demidov entered the pages of poker history that year because he also reached the final tables of the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event, which was held in London.

He finished 3rd and became the first poker player in the history of the poker gaming industry to reach the final tables of two prestigious events—the WSOP as well as the WSOPE—in the same year.

Ivan Demidov’s total tournament winnings have shot above the $6,550,000 mark and he has made a total of 8 cash-ins.

Ivan Demidov Pokerstars pro

In 2010, Demidov finished 11th in PokerStars’ EPT/IPT San Remo - Season 6 No Limit Hold’em and won a prize of $5,738. He also secured the 126th place in the Main Event No Limit NAPT Event and won $20,000.

Today, he is part of the Team PokerStars Pro and plays under the handle “Ivan Demidov.”

This talented young Russian poker player’s career has just begun and the poker gaming world expects great things from him in the future. Besides playing poker and winning pots of money, he enjoys scuba diving and skiing. And although he has proved his abilities in live poker tournaments, he still focuses on online poker.

If you sign up at pokerstars, you can observe and learn from Ivan Demidov. His username is 'Ivan Demidov'. And you can play with him, if you like sit'n gos.