On Day 3 of the PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final there was a massive shift in the distribution of chips as Eugene Yanayt spun up 64k into a massive 2.3 million chip-leader stack.

When we first saw his name we thought, ‘Oh great, another random Euro-donk donking his way to an EPT title.’

As it turns out we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Some shrewd investigative reporting from EPT Media Coordinator and FOPL.com Mad Harper uncovered the truth, that Yanayt is a made man online and one of the greatest Triple Draw players in the world.

In fact, he’s not really even European. While he was born in Russia, his family moved to Boston when he was just nine years old. It was obvious Yanayt had an affinity for gaming by high school when he was competing in National chess competitions and getting ready to head to University to study computer science.

As it turns out his degree hasn’t done much for him, but his love of gaming and strategy certainly has.

He’s been playing poker for nine years and has made SuperNova Elite on PokerStars where he plays as “oogee”.

Yanayt is one of a small group of the best Triple Draw players in the world which includes Gus Hansen, Matt Hawrilenko and Phil Ivey. “There’s about four of us in the world playing at the really high levels and we just sit around waiting for someone we don’t know to turn up,” he told the EPT.

Yanayt is looking for his first real live result here in Madrid. So far his only significant cash was 414^th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

Follow the action from the EPT Grand Final live with our EPT Grand Final Madrid Live Updates.