Saturday should have been a moment of pure celebration for Aleksandr Shevliakov. The Russian-born pro enjoyed the biggest moment of success in his poker career, capturing the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo main event title and the €1,000,000 ($1,130,352) first-place prize.
But a cloud of negativity hung over the victory, following accusations of angle shooting following a crucial hand at the final table in which Jamil Wakil was eliminated in sixth place.
I’ve been receiving a lot of messages about the situation with Aleksandr Shevliakov, leading to my 6th place finish in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event yesterday, so I’ve made some comments below to address it. The reason for this post is strictly because I believe that it is… pic.twitter.com/CiJXQDLptg
— Jamil Wakil (@JamWakil) May 11, 2025
In response to Wakil’s accusations and some outcries from the poker community, Shevliakov posted a lengthy response on X in which he attempted to respond to each element of the accusation.
Hi, my name is Alexander Shevliakov, and this is my message regarding the AKs hand against Jamil Wakil.
I held off posting this immediately because I wanted to speak privately with Jamil first and give him the full version. Now that I’ve done that, I’m sharing it publicly so…
— Aleksandr Shevliakov (@AlexShevliakov) May 13, 2025
“I held off posting this immediately because I wanted to speak privately with Jamil first and give him the full version,” Shevliakov wrote. “Now that I’ve done that, I’m sharing it publicly so people can hear the other side.”
Shevliakov described a confluence of circumstances, including an English language barrier and a drink order from a waitress that he alleges contributed to the situation in which he was accused of angle shooting by Wakil. Following a raise from Wakil, and two folds, Shevliakov stated that he didn’t see Wakil’s raise when he put out chips and verbally declared “raise.”
Wakil shoved all in with Q
J and Shevliakov called with A
K. Shevliakov’s hand held up to eliminate Wakil, and Shevliakov would go on to win the tournament.
Eventual third-place finisher Boris Angelov remarked, “This is starting to look like a pattern,” about a hand Shevliakov played on Day 4. That statement inflamed an already tense situation. Shevliakov also attempted to address the moment in his statement.
“I don’t think Boris was fully paying attention to this hand, but it’s likely he saw the sizing confusion or at least noticed something odd,” Shevliakov wrote. “To me, it’s obvious this situation is completely different from the AKs hand on the final table.”
Finally, Shevliakov explained his reasoning for another issue at the final table that Wakil brought up, and indisputably occurred. For one stretch early on at the final table, Shevliakov refused to place his hole cards on the RFID scanner for the PokerStars live stream.
From his perspective, that particular issue was simply a matter of ensuring that two players who were being fed delayed stream information from their rails weren’t given a distinct advantage.
“Boris and Mariusz [Golinski] were constantly communicating with their rail during [Day 5], getting delayed stream information — around 30 minutes behind — without leaving the table,” wrote Shevliakov. “I didn’t like the situation — it hurt my EV and the EV of everyone else who didn’t have people feeding them stream data — but it wasn’t against the rules, so I didn’t complain. Day 6. At the start of the day, I started thinking about ways to hide my cards from the stream to prevent that kind of information from being relayed. I decided not to show one card.
The dealer asked me several times to place the cards properly, and I said I didn’t want to — it wasn’t against the rules.
“Around that time, Jamil started objecting, saying I was hiding information and gaining an edge. I told him I would explain my reasoning later — I genuinely didn’t understand why he, who had no one feeding him stream info, was the one objecting. Then Kokhestani joined in, saying if I don’t show, he won’t either. At that point, the floor came over and made what I believe was a perfect decision — devices were banned from the rail. From that moment, players could only get stream info during breaks — once every two hours. Perfectly fair.”
