Hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimir Schmelev is a former chess stalwart and banker who has been playing poker as a hobby for 15 years. He honed his skills in the Golden Ring Club in Moscow, which is widely known as the biggest underground game in Europe. After building a sufficient bankroll, Schmelev began traveling the live tournament circuit in his spare time.
His first big score came in January of 2006 when he won the $200 East Europe Poker Championship in Moscow for $23K. A year later at the 2007 World Series of Poker, he ran deep in the $5000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event, ultimately taking 22nd for $12.5K. A few weeks later, he made his first WSOP final table, finishing sixth in the $1000 S.H.O.E. tournament for $20.5K.
More recently, Schmelev made waves at the 2010 World Series of Poker, recording a massive second place finish in the $50K Player’s Championship for $963K. A few days later, he made the final table of the $10K Seven Card Stud Championship, nabbing seventh place for $56K. All told, Schmelev has over $1 million in live tournament earnings.
On the final hand of the Player’s Championship, Schmelev actually got his money in good against the eventual winner, Michael Mizrachi. ‘The Grinder’ shoved with Qs-5c, only to be called by Vladimir’s Qd-8s. The 9h-6h-4c flop looked good for Schmelev, but when the 5h fell on the turn, his bid for a bracelet came to an unfortunate end.
However, with his impressive showing at the World Series of Poker, Vladimir Schmelev joins fellow Russians Ivan Demidov, Vitaly Lunkin, Alexander Kravchenko, and Kirill Gerasimov as forces to be reckoned from the up-and-coming poker nation.
