Russian poker player Aleksandr Mozhnyakov is a 25-year-old who recently graduated from law school and began playing the game online. He drove deep in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event and entered Day 7 with a top ten chip stack. He hails from Himki and was one of two Russians to break Day 7, with Andrey aangierr Pateychuk being the other. He ultimately finished in 19th place for $302,000.

Just before the dinner break of the Main Event on Day 7, Mozhnyakov dispatched of Nelson Robinson after the latter moved all-in before the flop with A-3. Mozhnyakov made the call with A-Q, which held on when the board ran out 8-K-Q-2-K. Robinson was drawing dead by the turn and Mozhnyakov shot up to over 13 million in chips, among the leaders at mealtime on Day 7.

Earlier in the day, Mozhnyakov doubled up decorated poker pro Steve Brecher, who called all-in on a flop of Q-Q-6. Brecher showed A-Q for trips, while Mozhnyakov held just A-J. Mozhnyakov hit a running J-A, but his two pair was not enough to scoop the pot.

Mozhnyakov came into the 2011 WSOP Main Event on a tear, having recorded four cashes during the annual tournament series. The highlight was a $21,000 haul for finishing 16th in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. In fact, all four of his cashes in preliminary events came in $1,500 No Limit Hold’em contests and totaled $43,000.

Mozhnyakov was perched near the top of the chip counts for much of the final week of the WSOP Main Event. On the WSOP’s website, his full name was too long to display on the leaderboard and, consequently, he has been known to most of the world as simply “Aleksandr.”

Ivan Demidov is perhaps Russia’s best known poker player. Demidov, who hails from Moscow, was the runner up to Peter Eastgate in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. The same year, Demidov final tabled the Main Event of WSOP Europe, becoming the first person to final table both feature tournaments in the same year, and earned another $608,000.