‘No Angles, No Tricks’ – EPT Monte Carlo Champ Denies Final Table Angle Shooting

Aleksandr Shevliakov may be the million-euro man and EPT Monte Carlo champion, but instead of basking in his life-changing win, he’s taken to social media to fend off accusations of angle shooting during his run to the title in the European principality.

In a detailed statement on X, Shevliakov addressed the angle shooting allegations, specifically regarding Jamil Wakil, and offered his side of a controversial hand from Day 4 that was brought up by Boris Angelov in the aftermath of Wakil’s elimination on the final day.

Shevliakov’s post came days after Wakil shared on the same platform that he believed he had been the victim of an angle.

The Hand in Question

At the 60,000/120,000 blind level, Wakil opened from under the gun with Q♦J♦ to 270,000. Shevliakov, in the small blind, looked down at A♥K♥ and verbally announced a bet of 360,000 and put in the appropriate amount of chips. On first viewing, commentator Griffin Benger believed Shevliakov didn’t see Wakil’s raise and that the floor would rule this as a min-raise. This is precisely what happened, and Shevliakov had to make it 420,000.

James Hartigan added that with Shevliakov not seeing the initial open, the Russian would be thinking that he’s raising “small to big, here.” Benger agreed, saying “3x, which is what a standard raise would’ve been.”

With the action back on Wakil, he opted to ship in his stack, and of course, with Big Slick, Shevliakov wasn’t going anywhere. You can also hear Shevliakov immediately say, “I really miss the action,” when he called the all-in.

Wakil gave Shevliakov an icy staredown as the board ran out in favor of the ace-king. Angelov then chimed in, telling Wakil that Shevliakov did something similar to 23rd place finisher Stoyan Obreshkov on Day 4.

The commentary booth then pointed out that this was the first time Sheliakov had verbally announced a raise at the final table. That, combined with Angelov’s claim, Benger concluded it was an angle shoot. Co-commentator Joe Stapleton, however, wasn’t so sure: “I don’t know, man. I’m probably just a fish because I believe people.”

“That’s a lot of evidence,” Benger replied, as Stapleton remained cautious. “Why would he say it? Why would he say ‘I really didn’t see it’? Why wouldn’t he just keep his mouth shut? There are plenty of proud angle shooters out there that are like, ‘Yeah, it’s poker.’”

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Shevliakov: “I Had No Idea What to Do”

Shevliakov isn’t a professional poker player by trade as he works in IT in Slovenia and qualified for the Main Event via a €530 satellite on PokerStars. However, describing him as a novice at the table would be inaccurate; he had already reached two EPT High Roller final tables before his Monte Carlo run.

But still, playing under the bright lights of a major poker tournament final table can even give brain fog to the sharpest minds, Shevliakov, in defence of his actions, gave a full breakdown of what was going through his head as the hand unfolded.

Jamil was sitting on the far end of the table. Bright lights were in my face (should’ve brought sunglasses). I finally had my tea. Enrico [Coppola] folded. Mariusz [Golinski] folded. Boris folded. I looked at my cards — AKs — decided to open. I looked at the timer (I usually avoid snap-decisions to not give away timing tells). I grabbed chips and put them out. I announced the raise.
About the verbal announcement — I haven’t reviewed the entire video, but I believe I did this in other hands as well. If this was the first time, I don’t know why I did it — maybe it’s a pattern, maybe a tell. Maybe it’s worth analyzing the previous day for comparison.

Then the dealer told me the sizing was wrong and pointed to Jamil’s raise.
It was only at that moment that I realized Jamil had already raised. I hadn’t seen it or processed it — I was focused on my action, my tea, the timer, and avoiding mistakes.
I didn’t understand what the ruling would be — raise or call — but I immediately realized how bad this would look if ruled a raise.

I had no idea what to do.
And frankly, none of the possible options made any sense:

Folding would look absurd and be +EV suicide

Asking for a re-deal would be ridiculous and not allowed

Asking Jamil to fold to a 3-bet? Nonsense
So I sat there, drank tea, and waited for the situation to resolve.

Jamil made a correct shove but ran into the top of my range. Before revealing my hand, I said “this wasn’t angle shooting” and apologized.

The claim that Shevliakov’s raise with ace-king was the first time he verbally declared his action on the final day is accurate. However, a review of the Day 5 feature table stream — where Shevliakov was seated for its entirety — tells a more nuanced story.

Across the 40 hands he played that were shown on the broadcast, Shevliakov verbally announced his preflop raise in seven of them, each time including the bet size. He did this in three consecutive hands when the final table formed on Day 5. In a hand against Khossein Kokhestani (8:22:00 on the live stream), he opened from the small blind to 300,000 — exactly three big blinds — and verbally declared the amount. This mirrors the raise size he made in the hand at the centre of the angle shooting allegation. In each of the hands where he raised verbally, all bet sizings were legitimate raises.

It’s also worth noting that Shevliakov did not verbally announce any postflop actions or bet sizes at any point during the Day 5 stream.

If I were trying to angle shoot, the simpler and more effective way would’ve been to just say “raise” and put the chips out.
Given everything that had happened leading up to that moment, and the stress I was under, it wasn’t even obvious to me within 10 seconds whether 360k would be ruled a raise or a call.

From my side — it was a stupid, unlucky sequence of events and inattentiveness brought on by cumulative EPT stress and the stress of that morning. And now I’ve been labeled an angle shooter.

Wakil: “I am Extremely Confident That This Was an Angle”

Wakil issued a statement following his sixth-place finish in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event, and expressed concern over what he believes was a deliberate angle by Shevliakov during the hand that led to his elimination.

Wakil pointed to several factors behind his belief, including Shevliakov’s refusal to consistently use the RFID reader despite repeated requests from the dealer and his sudden verbal declaration of a raise, which had not occurred in any previous hand on the final day. He also referenced a similar incident described by Angelov earlier in the tournament, in which Shevliakov was accused of misrepresenting action in a hand against Obreshkov.

“I believe that it is important to protect the game that we all love,” Wakil wrote, “and to point out the players who may willingly attempt to compromise the integrity of the incredible game of poker.”

While the move did not violate any official rules, Wakil questioned the ethics behind it and admitted that the decision to shove after Shevliakov’s ambiguous raise was ultimately his own.

“I take full accountability for believing that he was not angling and for my decision to go all in,” he said. “At the end of the day, what he did is within the rules of the game… it can be fairly argued that he outsmarted me in this situation.”

Despite his frustration, Wakil closed his statement by congratulating Shevliakov on the victory and thanking both the tournament staff and his fellow competitors for what he called a “world-class event.”

On Not Scanning Cards on the Feature Table

Another point of contention among players on the final day was Shevliakov’s refusal to scan his cards on the RFID reader, which provides the production team with real-time hole card information. He reportedly took this stance in response to Angelov and Mariusz Golinski repeatedly visiting their rails during Day 5 to gain insights from the stream, a situation reminiscent of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event final table, where Jonathan Tamayo employed a similar tactic en route to becoming world champion.

Day 5. Boris and Mariusz were constantly communicating with their rail during the day, getting delayed stream information — around 30 minutes behind — without leaving the table. Phones and smartwatches were technically banned.
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 [Khossein] 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.

I was fully satisfied and immediately began placing the cards correctly.

Shevliakov maintained that his actions were within the rules, but Hartigan challenged that claim during the broadcast, pointing out that tournament terms and conditions clearly state players must scan their cards when seated at the feature table.

Wakil was eliminated on the 15th hand of Day 6, and in the hands preceding his bustout, the broadcast showed that five of Shevliakov’s hands appeared to be deliberately unscanned.

There were additional instances where Shevliakov’s hole cards didn’t appear on screen, but in most of those cases, he was folding quickly from under the gun, where cards may not register if a player folds too fast for the RFID scanner.

On the 13th hand of play, tournament staff implemented a “no electronic devices on the rail” rule. From then on, Shevliakov consistently placed both cards correctly on the RFID reader. Before that, he often positioned one card in the box and left the other slightly to the side.

In Wakil’s post on the matter, he agreed that Shevliakov’s concerns were “somewhat fair.”

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Controversy on Day 4

When Angelov informed Wakil about a possible angle from Shevliakov on Day 4, you could tell there was an incredibly sour taste in the latter’s mouth as it led him not to shake Shevliakov’s hand after his elimination. However, the two hands are somewhat different, and much of Shevliakov’s recollection of the action matches the PokerNews live reporting, albeit there are some minor discrepancies in the bet sizes.

Let me start from the end of Day 4 of the Main Event. We were at the same table with Boris Angelov and Stoyan Obreshkov. Blinds were 15k/30k. I opened the button to 60k with K8s. Stoyan 3-bet from the small blind to 185k. We had around 50bb stacks. His sizing looked small to me, and I was deciding between a 4-bet and a call, eventually leaning toward the call. I put my chips out, and — shit — the dealer tells me to add another 100k. “How the hell did I mess this up?” flashes through my mind. A rookie mistake.

Flop comes K64 with no flush draw. I may be wrong, but I think Stoyan bet something like 100k — I call. Pot is about 730k.
Turn is another king. I look at the board — as I often do during hands — and Stoyan says “four seventy-five.” With my hand, it feels like there’s no real option but to call. Sure, there’s a case for raising, but the sizing is large and SPR is low. I figure we’ll get it in on the river anyway. I remove a chip from a tower of 20 x 25k chips and push it forward. Then the dealer says it’s an invalid raise. “Damn,” I think — “you’ve messed up again in the same hand.”

Turns out, Stoyan had said and bet 275k, not 475k.
Please note: two seventy-five and four seventy-five can sound very similar for a non-native speaker, especially after playing 8–12 hours a day for 5 days straight.
They call the floor, explain the raise is invalid, and my action is ruled a call.

River is a low paired card — a 4 or 6. Stoyan checks, I jam around SPR 1. He folds, saying that if my turn action was a trick, he should quit poker. He also said that if I was calling 475k, it’s clear he had a strong range.
Later on Day 5, we discussed the hand — he told me his actual holding and agreed the hand would’ve ended the same way anyway.

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.
To me, it’s obvious this situation is completely different from the AKs hand on the final table.

PokerNews also contacted Obreshkov, who corroborated much of Shevliakov’s version of events from the Day 4 hand.

According to Obreshkov, a WSOP Europe and Online Main Event final tablist, the preflop action unfolded as Shevliakov described, including the moment when Shevliakov was asked to put in additional chips to complete the call. He also recalled the post-flop action aligning with Shevliakov’s account, though he estimated the bet size to be between 130,000 and 140,000, noting he couldn’t remember the exact figure.

The focus of the disagreement centres on the turn. Obreshkov said his bet was 285,000, comprised of ten T-25,000 chips and three T-5,000 chips.

While Shevliakov claimed he misheard the dealer and believed the bet was 485,000, the visual difference between those two amounts would be notable. But again, after several days of marathon sessions, the brain may not be firing on all cylinders, and the discrepancy in chips may have gone unnoticed by Shevliakov when playing for the chance to win €1 million.

“At that moment, I didn’t think he was shooting an angle on me in that hand, but it makes it more likely after the final table hand vs Jamil,” Obreshkov said. “I thought he genuinely misclicked against me in that hand. Putting more money on the turn makes sense only if he has a hand like 77-JJ that doesn’t wanna face a river, for instance.”

He added, “Shevliakov shoved the river once I checked, indicating he had a king. So I don’t think he was necessarily shooting an angle on me in that hand. Also, I noticed his game was off at the end of Day 5, making two really questionable plays for a player of his calibre — three-betting 95o HJ vs CO vs Boris and defending vs a flop bet multiway with K6 on 777 vs UTG.”

“Based on his behaviour, I thought something was happening to him due to the pressure and fatigue, or maybe something else was affecting him to act this way.”

What Do You Think?

Wakil clearly felt something wasn’t right. Shevliakov insists he played within the rules. The footage shows moments that fuel both arguments from the way the hand played out to earlier behavior at the table.

Was it just a misread situation in a high-pressure spot, or did Shevliakov blur the lines of fair play?

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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