Evadakov death comes as a shock to many. Image from fulltiltpoker.com
Monday brought a bit of shocker to tournament-poker fans, with the unexpected passing of one of Russia’s most well-known players, Nikolai Evdakov, at age 47. Evdakov’s passing was announced by his widow in a brief message on a Russian poker forum, with no cause of death included, and it drew worldwide notice yesterday and today.
Evdakov was a primary component of the wave of Russian poker stars that burst onto the tourney scene in the mid- to late-’00s, and Evdakov burst into public awareness in a most spectacular way, shattering the single-year mark for cashes at the World Series of Poker. Evdakov cashed ten times at the 2008 WSOP, besting the previous cashes mark by two, and visited the cashier’s cage six more times the following year, evidence of a true grinder’s mentality at the table. Evdakov collected $228,000 for his ten ’08 WSOP cashes, as part of a lifetime total for prize winnings of more than $1.5 million. He never claimed a bracelet, but did make a handful of final tables in his brief few years at the WSOP.
Evdakov was among the most personable of the recent Russia poker stars as well, who it’s fair to say were subject to a bit of anti-Russian prejudice at several large venues and in the press. The coolness from other of the Russian stars — perhaps epitomized by breakthrough player Alex Kravchenko’s silent and steely-eyed marching through the halls of the Rio — was often matched in kind by their foes at the table. Not so much with Evdakov, though. Before Kravchenko and Evdakov, there really were no big-time Russian poker stars, with the nearest thing to that being Russian-American emigre Ralph Perry. After Kravchenko’s WSOP final table and Evdakov’s record-setting summer, tough Russian players were everywhere overnight, including Ivan Demidov, Max Lykov, Vitaly Lunkin, Alex Kostritsyn and many others. As with the Nordic invasion and the recent resurgence of UK players, they’ve made the game better and tougher for their presence.
It’s for sure that Evdakov would’ve logged a few major scores had his life not ended prematurely, though he leaves behind one mark that’ll be tough to beat until and unless the WSOP expands beyond its current 61-bracelet slate.
