Ukraine Poker: Laws, Events, and Venues Explored

In June 2009, the Ukrainian parliament outlawed gambling as a whole in the country. It’s not a promising start for a poker review. However, fortunately, there have been some positive developments since then.

The 2009 act titled “On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine” was passed because of a fire that broke out in a gambling hall in Kyiv, which ended up killing 9 people.

However, thanks to the concentrated efforts of poker players in the country, the legal battle to exempt poker from the ban was won. In 2013, the Supreme Court of the former Soviet country ruled that tournament poker qualifies as a game of skill and thus can be legally played in Ukraine. Cash game poker, however, remains prohibited.

More good news for the betting men and women of Ukraine: in October 2019, igamblingbusiness.com reported that the former comedian and newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky came out in favor of legal and regulated gambling within hotels in his country.

However, if you heard a mention of Ukraine in connection with poker recently, it most likely was for nefarious reasons. During the bot scandal that broke out on Americas Cardroom in February 2018, popular poker YouTuber Joe Ingram noted that a lot of the cheating bot accounts on the site are from Ukraine.

Famous Ukrainian Poker Players

Ukrainian poker can boast a 2-time WSOP gold bracelet winner. Oleksii Kovalchuk won the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event for $689,739 in 2011; as well as the $2,500 Omaha/7-Card Stud Hi-Lo event for $228,014 the next year, in 2012.

But he isn’t the Ukrainian player with the most live tournament winnings. That title belongs to Eugene Katchalov with $9.242 million in career earnings. In December 2009, he won the $15,000 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic event for $2.483 million. That is his biggest single live tournament cash to date. In January 2011, he finished first in the $100,000 PCA Super High Roller for $1.5 million.

Yevgeniy Timoshenko is currently in second place behind Katchalov on Ukraine’s Hendon list with $7.718 million. He has a 22nd place from the 2013 WSOP Main Event; as well as a victory at the 2014 A$100K Aussie Millions High Roller for A$2 million, and another victory at the $25K NLHE Event at the 2009 Five Star World Poker Classic for $2.150 million.

Ukranian Roman “Romeopro” Romanovsky is one of the greatest online MTT players of our time. He has cashed for more than $12.5 million, mainly playing on PokerStars.