Players who left the world in 2022

The year 2022 was difficult in every sense for millions of people around the planet. The poker community has lost a lot of worthy gamblers and ambassadors of the game. Yesterday we wrote about well-known personalities in the industry who died in the first half of 2022. Today we will talk about the players who left the world in 2022.

Galen Kester, a famous Mississippi gambler, died in July. In 2001, Kester won the WSOP Gold bracelet, becoming the Omaha Pot Limit event champion with a $1,500 buy-in. In the heads-up, the American beat Hall of Fame member David Elliott and earned $167,035. Throughout his life, the player earned a little more than 1.2 million. Kester also won the Gold Strike World Poker Open main event in 2012, receiving $165,000.

On July 24, the 3-time owner of the bracelet, Panayote Vilandos, bracelet died at the age of 82. When he was 27 years old, he moved from Greece to the USA, where he graduated as an engineer and later became interested in poker. Vilandos’ poker income was $3,226,764 in 1990. Vilandos won the first bracelet in 1995, and the second was won in 2009, the third in 2012.

Players will forever remain in the memory of the poker community

In September, the Australian player Jan Suchanek passed away. According to The Hendon Mob, Suchanek’s income is $1.1 million. His best result is 49th place in the WSOP main event in 2016, for which he received $142,447. Suchanek was close to winning the bracelet in 2014, but Bryn Kenney prevented him.

Ivan Liao, the co-founder of the famous Triton Poker series, unexpectedly died of a heart attack on September 17. At this time, the Triton Cyprys series was held, and some of the events were postponed. Liao managed to win $ 13.1 million in poker, making him one of Malaysia’s most successful players. Only Paul Foix and Richard Yong won more than him. Liao’s biggest win came in the Merit Poker SHR Bowl Europe 2021 series, when he took second place after Viktor Malinovsky and received 2.46 million.

Also former UFC fighter and poker player Elias Theodorou, who was only 34 years old, died of colon cancer in September. He was one of the ambassadors of GGPoker and took an active part in the WSOP 2020 series, which was held online.

In December, a player from Southern California, Ramsey Doumani, who was a participant of the Live at the Bike, died. Also Tim Kleeman, Thierry De Quick and Sam Huis left us in 2022. All these players will forever remain in the memory of the poker community.