Eugene Katchalov has been crowned BLUFF Magazine's Player of The Year, following an outstanding 2011, which offered several large cashes and a single WSOP bracelet.

Katchalov started out the year by winning the PCA's $100,000 Super High Roller already on January 9th. Katchalov here beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up to claim what would turn out to be just the single biggest cash of his career, worth $1.5 million.

His second score of the year came just a week after as he finished second in the $10,000 PCA High Roller 6 Max event for an additional $131,920.

From then on, there was no stopping the charismatic pro, and all in all, Katchalov would go on to make 13 large cashes throughout the year, amounting to a total of $2,572,726.

Among his biggest achievements were a third-place finish at the EPT Barcelona for €315,000 and a WSOP bracelet won in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event for $122,909.

"It's really an incredible feeling to win the Bluff Magazine POY, because I feel like all the hard work that I've put into poker is really paying off," Katchalov told the magazine about his wonder-year.

"It is a title that I will always be proud of and something that will stay with me for the rest of my life," he added.

With his 2011 scores, his lifetime cashes also reached a little more than $7 million, propelling him into 36th place on the all-time money list.

The only real challenger to Katchalov's Player of The Year title was fellow Team PokerStars pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

The French superstar made cashes for $2,296,620 throughout the year, and finished the BLUFF ranking just eight points short of Katchalov.

Grospellier among other things took care of two high roller events at the EPT Grand Final in Madrid for a combined €675,000, as well as he won a single WSOP bracelet to complete his first Triple Crown in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for $447,074.