Chris Klodnicki Wins Epic Poker Mix-Max Main Event

The fifth and final day of the Epic Poker League Mix-Max Main Event was a far cry from the days that preceded it. Whereas the players who advanced each night had it easy with short days on Days Three and Four, Sunday night was a true test of stamina. Though only five players were seated at the final table to start the day, it took fifteen hours for a champion to be determined. Emerging victorious in the wee hours of Monday morning was Chris Klodnicki, who was fitted for his Champion’s Ring and awarded $801,680.

It didn’t look like it would take almost two standard working days to get through the final table, as the first two eliminations came fairly quickly. Scott Clements started the day as the extreme short stack, holding just 131,000 chips, while the next lowest stack was Joe Tehan’s 820,000. After just a few hands, he moved all-in with Kc-9c and was called by Andrew Lichtenberger, holding Kd-Ts. Clements looked like he was in business when he flopped a 9, but a 10 on the turn put him back in his place – the rail.

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, was not someone who would have been expected to make an early exit, as he was the second stack heading into final table play with 1.279 million chips. But he ran into trouble, first surrendering a half million chip pot to Klodnicki and then seeing his flopped top pair (9′s) fall to Lichtenberger’s pocket Kings. He finally succumbed to Tehan, watching his Kh-6h fail to improve against Ah-3s.

After that, things slowed…and slowed…and slowed. It took more than 100 hands for the next player, Joe Tehan, to be eliminated. In his case, pocket 9′s giveth and pocket 9′s taketh away. First, he used that hand to double-up versus Andrew Lichtenberger, but then Chris Klodnicki used it to knock him out, as it triumphed over Tehan’s Ad-7c.

The unique heads-up match was now set. To determine the champ, Klodnicki and Lichtenberger were to square off in a best-of-three match. For the first two, the players would begin with the chips they held at that point: Klodnicki with 3,470,000 and Lichtenberger with 1,526,000. If the duel reached a third round, the players would have their stacks evened out.

It never reached a third round.

Lichtenberger made a run in the first match, grabbing the chip lead on more than one occasion. But Klodnicki stayed the course and with a small edge in stacks, he used pocket Kings to take all of his opponent’s chips when Lichtenberger could find a fifth club after he flopped a flush draw with Jc-9c.

The second match was just about half the duration of the first, but at almost 70 hands, it was still plenty long. This time, Lichtenberger was unable to grow his chip stack larger than Klodnicki’s. Finally, the two decided it was time for the moment of truth. Raise after raise after raise pre-flop and somehow the two didn’t commit all their chips before the 8c-7d-3d flop. That was good enough. Klodnicki bet, Lichtenberger shoved, and Klodnicki called. Lichtenberger was ahead with Ac-Kh against Klodnicki’s Ad-4d, but Klodnicki had outs. He hit one of them – the 4c – on the turn and his pair held up on the river, giving him the Epic Poker title.

After the match, Chris Klodnicki admitted going to the mat with a weak ace wasn’t the wisest move, saying, sheepishly, “May have misplayed the last hand a little bit…”

“My goal was to stay patient. It didn’t really work out…but it did work out.”

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Useful poker information:

HOOK - A Jack. So named because the "J" resembles a hook.
GOOD GAME - A game with players worse than you so that you can expect to win a lot of money.
PAT HAND - In draw poker, a hand that does not need any more cards. Specifically, a straight, flush, full house or straight flush. One might bluff and represent a pat hand but actually hold something else.
SCOOP - To take all of a pot that is normally split, either by winning both halves outright or winning one half when no players qualify for the other half.
ASSAULT RIFLE - In Omaha, hole cards that are A-K-4-7 of any suit(s).
IMPLIED ODDS - A refinement to POT ODDS which includes money not yet in the pot. Considers the potential extra bets and winnings made when a player forms a very good hand.

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