National team of Ukraine participating in the European Nations Cup 2019:

Team roster

Olga Iermolcheva

Professional poker player, PokerMatch ambassador, foreign literature teacher, traveler, blogger. MVP of the Nations Cup 2019 in Dublin.

Mykhailo Kedrovskyi (captain)

48 years. Professional poker player. Poker champion of Ukraine 2013, winner of the Nations Cup 2019. Hobbies include travel, chess, cinema.

Mykhailo Gutyi

29 years. Professional poker player. WSOP Europe champions bracelet holder (Rozvadov 2018). 25th place in the list of most successful Ukrainian players by Hendon mob. Hobbies include football, cinema, cybersport.

Artem Kobylynskyi

28 years. Professional poker player. SCOOP 2017 winner, runner-up of the Main Event of the EPT Prague 2018. 14th place in the list of most successful Ukrainian players by Hendonmob. Hobbies include Evolutio and football.

Volodymyr Drokin

30 years. Professional poker player. Poker champion of Ukraine 2018. 55th place in the Main Event of WSOP 2018. Winner of the Nations Cup 2019. His main hobby is football.

Andrii Momot

31 years. Former professional poker player. Poker champion of Ukraine 2017. Winner of the Nations Cup 2019. IT specialist. Loves his family, poker and basketball.

Mykhailo Kobylinskyi

29 years. Recreational poker player. Winner of several big poker tournaments in Ukrainian series. Works in IT. His main hobby is intellectual games.

Roman Golovko

41 years. Recreational poker player, businessman. Winner of several big poker tournaments in Ukrainian series. Winner of the Nations Cup 2019. Hobbies include poker, sports, nature travel.

Team’s coach: Dmytro Karpiuk

President of the Ukrainian Sport Poker Federation: Sergii Iefimenko

Team Germany, represented by the Deutscher Poker Sportbund, have a strong squad of players and analysts ready to prove themselves first at the European Championships in Kiev and then at the Nations Cup Final in Peru!

Stephan Kalhamer (Team Captain / Analyst)

Born October 03, 1976. Mathematician Stephan Kalhamer is working as a poker coach, strategy consultant, bestselling author, TV presenter and, since 2009, founder and president of Deutscher Poker Sportbund e.V. In 2011 Stephan was coach of the first ever IFMP Nations Cup Champion Germany.

Lukas Lange (Analyst)

Born February 07, 1981. Project Manager – Lukas plays poker since 2013 and supports poker in Germany in several environments, such as german federation of poker DPSB and poker federation of his home region Nordrhein-Westfalen. Lukas loves to analyse and optimise poker and skills and will support german players to win European Championship in Kiev!

Arash Fazeli (Analyst)

Born January 29, 1982. IT Specialist / electronics technician. Arash plays poker since 2003. He is a poker coach and passionate tournament player. Heads-up is his favourite discipline. He won the Heads Up Live League of the DPSB in 2014 with his team  and became German champion.

Daniel Eylenfeldt (Player)

Born March 06, 1980. Poker coach and former online cash game pro. After Oxford and Dublin it’s already his third participation in the IFMP Nations Cup in a row. He has prepared extensively for Kiev and is ready for the title fight.

Kai Rieche (Player)

Born May 02, 1980 in Berlin. CEO in his own company and plays poker since 2005. Back in the team since his last appearance in Oxford 2017, ready to play. You can find him at the tournament and cash tables.

Stefanie Haffke (Player)

Born January 26, 1986. Civil engineer – With highly trained problem solving skills and a passion for solving puzzles it’s probably no wonder, that she found her way to the poker table. She focusses mainly on poker as a mind game and plays in a German club in Hamburg.

Sven Kautermann (Player)

Born April 18, 1969. He has been playing poker as a recreational player since 2007. In 2015 he founded the team “Baltic Sea Poker Island Usedom”, which reached the quarter-finals in the playoffs of the Heads Up Live League of the DPSB. His greatest success was the 2nd place at the CPT-LA 2017 in Lennestadt.

Niklas Andrews (Player)

Born January 24, 1997. Psychology student. After participating in the Heads Up Live League of the DPSB in 2018 Niklas found his way into Match Poker and was already part of Team Germany in Dublin in the spring. Niklas also plays in a Poker Club in Hamburg.

Timm Albrecht (Player)

Born May 31, 1980. graduated in Business Administration, is a business, life and poker coach. He plays poker since 11 years, mostly online cash games but also MTTs and SnGs. He loves discussions, books, videos and quizzes about poker and wants to travel playing all over the world.

Alexander Kleppe (Player)

Born February 25, 1982. Loves to play all kinds of different poker games since he chose to live in Hamburg ten years ago. Club member of the German Heads-up champions tus Berne Hamburg, plays Heads-up in his own team in the German Championship for 6 consecutive years. His latest passion of playing Match Poker made him take third place in Nations Cup in March with his fellow team members.

Alexander Zholnerchik – born on 25/08/1975, he used to be a businessman, but several years ago came to the conclusion that if business prevents him from playing poker, then he should quit business. And since then Alexander has been passionately playing both online and offline, also being fond of extreme sports, travelling and psychology.

Kirill Denisenko – 27 years old. Professional poker player from Minsk. Regular player of Texas Hold’em live and online tournaments along with cash games. A member of the Belarussian National Poker Team.

Kim Pavel – Builder, 52 years old, 7 years poker playing experience and enjoys going spearfishing in his free time.

Maryna Khatskevich – She started playing poker in 2014 as a home game with friends. She liked the game because she won and then started playing in the Minsk poker club. It was a cash game. Her first tournament was a Ladies free roll organized by Belarusian Federation of Sports Poker where she took 3rd place and then decided to continue learning poker. She worked a lot on improving her game with trainers and coaches and still does this everyday. Her best tournament result is 4th place in EPT Prague. Now she spends most of her time in poker: playing offline tournaments and working on the game. Her hobby is karaoke and skiing.

Sergej Vladimirov – Born 01.11.1968. Businessman and a proud father of two children. Sergej finds amusement in both active sport arts such as snowboarding and windsurfing, and quiet evenings with closest friends and board games. His life is filled with traveling and adventures. Sergej has been a part of the poker world for more than 10 years and he enjoys Texas Holdem, Omaha and OFC the most.

Yauhen Burlo – 36 years old. Lives and works in Minsk, Belarus. Started playing poker 6 years ago. There are no victories in WSOP and WCOOP, but he believes and does not give up! In his spare time, he enjoys travels, motorcycles, fishing & hunting. Happy man, husband and father.

Mikalai Nikanovich – Born on 16.08.1978. He is a lawyer who loves football, music, old movies and poker. He started playing poker about 7 years ago and is going to Kiev with the slogan: “Who, if not us?”

The Spanish national Match Poker team that will participate in the European Nations Cup is as follows:

Cesar Garrido – 41 years old. Involved in many different areas regarding poker. He has worked as a tournament director, written poker articles, occasional TV commentator and along with captain Yossi Obadia, have developed both, a method to play the final eight in a poker tournament in a best-of-3 heads up knockout stages, and also a heads Up tournament with best-of-x format, combining Swiss system and knockout stages, in order to reduce luck and favour skills. Loves mathematics, statistics and fast mental calculus.

Laura Gallardo Ribot – Born in Barcelona on August 12, 1987. Chess player until age 23, when she changed the board and the pieces for the mat and poker chips. This resulted in winning the Ladies Event of the EPT in 2014, a FT in the 2015 Spanish Poker Championship in Barcelona and in the WSOP of Marrakech. She loves to travel, play sports and live life to its fullest.

David Lebron – Born on 01/12/78. Professional beach volleyball player, who changed the sand for business and poker. He likes to play both cash and live tournaments.

Yossi Obadia – Captain of the Spanish team. Financial advisor/gemologist and pilot. At the moment mostly involved in real estate business. He was, together with Juan Manuel Pastor, a Spanish TV commentator for EPT and WSOP tournaments for several years. He also wrote many poker articles and a book on poker from a very personal perspective and lifelong poker career.

Jose Luis Puente (Amavis) – 38 years old, lawyer, politician and a very passionate poker player. He likes to play both cash and tournaments and has been playing frequently for the last 10 years.

Nabil Abdien Cardoso – 28 years old, loves to travel and try out local foods wherever he goes. Loves to combine his passion for poker with travelling as much as he can.

Juan Manuel Pastor – 51 years old, President of the Spanish national federation. He has been involved in the poker industry for the last 20 years in many different areas: consultant, entrepreneur, professional poker player, etc.

The Lithuanian National Match Poker Team, represented by Sportinio pokerio klubas “Du Karaliai”, comprises of:

Skirmantas Tomkevičius – the President of National Federation of Poker of Lithuania.


Mantas Urbonas

Poker professional from Panevėžys, now resides in Vilnius. Mantas is also the owner and manager of the football team Top Kicker’s. He started playing poker 10 years ago, and his best achievement is last year’s 4th place at Battle of Malta winning 120,000 EUR. Ranks 31st in Lithuania by live earnings. Mantas was born on 1987/06/22 and he is the youngest member of the team.


Erikas Zukas

He is the youngest member of the national team, eager to learn and understand other players – once Erikas has won a tournament without even looking at his own cards!


Laimutis Kalvelis

He was born on 1970/06/26. He is pretty successful in federation tournaments and has won two of them since 2012. Works as a CEO in a company taking care of houses in the city. Was born and lives in Vilnius.


Diana Dvelienė

She was born 1976/11/09 in Kaunas. She lives there and together with her husband, who is also a poker player in the federation, runs their own plants growing business. Does not play often in any live tournaments, but if she does, finishes in the money.


Arūnas Valentavičius

He was born on 1975/09/25 and is a retired solder of the Lithuanian army. Plays only in federation tournaments.


Dainius Ulkė

He was born in Biržai, but since early days lives in Vilnius, works in IT sector since 1994. One of the most stable players in the federation.


Qualification structure was the following

Top 6 players of each year from 2013-2018 of the national federation’s annual rankings were able to play in the qualification tournaments to get into the national team. Three tournaments were held (6-max, Turbo, Deep Freeze-out) to determine 6 or 7 winners. Two tournaments were won by Mindaugas Jonuškis and one by Mantas Urbonas. The tournaments took two days to complete and the national team was created.