November 9 – Ivan Demidov

“The Russians are coming!” was a popular comedy movie from 1966, during the Cold War. While that’s long behind us there’s still reason to fear “The Russians”, at least if you’re a poker player. Some pros believe the next wave of fearless, aggressive poker players will actually come from Russia and if Ivan Demidov is any example, their prediction is a dire one, indeed.

Ivan burst onto the scene this year with his strong “finish” at the World Series of Poker Main Event, where he’s a member of the November 9 that’s set to play out the final table in just hours. The event will be aired on November 11th on ESPN. While we don’t know where he’s going to finish in this event, we do know that he’s already placed third in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. No other player has ever accomplished the feat of making both final tables of a WSOPE and WSOP Main Event in the same year.

Just 27 years old, Demidov will likely finish 2008 with over 1.5 million in total tournament winnings. Not bad for someone who just started playing the game in 2006 on the Internet. The somewhat reclusive player hasn’t granted many interviews but describes himself as a “semi pro” poker player. Having started out playing the much quicker Internet version of the game, he claims to have a tough time making the adjustment to live play. If two final tables in the course of 4 months is tough, it’s scary to think what he would capable of with no restraints.

Heading into the final table tomorrow with the second largest stack at 24,400,000 chips, Demidov is certainly in a position to win the whole thing. If he does pull of that incredible feat, we may just hear the old chant again from the crowd – “The Russians are coming!”….