Ukrainian player, Eugene Katchalov took the first place at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Katchalov had a terrific night that ended up with a $2.48 million prize. He was responsible for the elimination of four of the five poker players who dispute the final table at this WPT event. Katchalov also received a $25k seat to the 2008 WPT World Championship as part of the prize for the first place.

The Ukrainian needed just fifty three hands to complete his job. Katchalov is a young poker player, born in Kiev, Ukraine currently living in Brooklyn, New York. His biggest previous live cash was $118k at the Bellagio Cup III, plus apparently he took down a Sunday major tournament a few months ago.

Famous player David "Devilfish" Ulliott came in 3rd place, after losing a hand with Katchalov. The other victims were Ken Rosen, Ted Kearly and Jordan Rich. The $15,000 buy-in tournament began with 626 players, making it the richest poker tournament in history excluding the WPT Championships and WSOP Main Events. This was the greatest poker performance ever in Katchalov’s career as he starts to stand up as one of the great players in 2008, accumulating $2,524,786 in winnings only this year.