Russian Pool with Evgeny Stalev

What I've heard about Russian pool is only that it's very tough having big white balls, tiny pockets and odd rules (unless you're from Russia, I guess). Finally, I found some videos with the player "The Russian" Evgeni Stalev. Evgeni has competed in the States in several major events. His first trip to the U.S. he won quite a lot of money playing $10 and $20 racks of 8 ball in Las Vegas while the BCA championships were taking place. He held onto the table for many hours as players challenged. He is a very skilled player with an "I really don't care" demeanor and a totally smooth stroke. He's an excellent one-pocket player. During the U.S. Open 9 Ball event a few years ago, I matched up with him at Q-Masters Billiards for some $10 per rack one-pocket and managed to win a couple games before he turned it up a notch. I came out a 3 game loser when he quit. I think he was scared, lol. Actually, he had a pre-arranged match with Cliff Joyner. Cliff gave him 9-7 and wished he hadn't (so did his backer!). It looked like The Russian could have beat him even that day. Check out this video if you want to see what he grew up playing. The commentators seem very, um... expert.

Just in case you want to know who wins, here's the last 3 minutes: