Chris Klodnicki – SLOPPYKLOD

Chris at the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

“I could’ve played a little more conservatively, maybe to make the final table. I always have the mentality to play to win. I don’t really pass up – if I have a small winning situation I’ll take it if I think I’m still ahead. That’s what I’ve been doing with all my tournaments, so I didn’t change my plan for this.”

These were the words of Chris ‘SLOPPYKLOD’ Klodnicki shortly after his agonising 12th place exit from the WSOP Main Event. But don’t feel too sorry for him – it’s exactly this kind of attitude that has allowed him to dominate online tournament poker for most of 2008.

The 23 year old pro from Voorhees, New Jersey had taken down the PokerStars $100 Re-Buys ($29,370), the Full Tilt $60,000 GTD ($17,352) & the $1k Monday ($84,250) before this year but it’s his performances in 2008 that have truly catapulted him to the forefront of the MTT community. His particular area of expertise seems to be the Stars $100 Re-Buys, where he boasts surely the greatest record in the world over the last eight months. Since February, Klodnicki has won this event an unbelievable 6 times with another second place finish and countless final tables to boot. In October, he even managed to take down 2 of these in the space of just 7 days! In fact, just from his $100 Re-Buys victories in 2008 he has made over $215,000: and this isn’t even taking into account his other final table appearances.
Other highlights among his yearly CV to date include a runner-up finish in June’s $1k Monday (for $58,720) and in September he finally managed to take down an event he had final tabled on numerous occasions before – the prestigious Stars Super Tuesday, which earned him $78,000. His prizes on Stars alone now exceed the $840,000 mark – and all before turning 24.

Of course, his performance at this years WSOP has significantly increased his profile and now his live tournament winnings surpass the $790,000 mark. Despite that 12th place finish in the ME, almost equally as impressive was coming runner-up in the $1,500 Razz Event: not a game the so called Hold ‘Em only online players of today are supposed to understand. Klodnicki lost to Barry Greenstein heads-up (which of course is no disgrace) and earned himself $97,389 in the process. But it’s his Main Event exploits that will live longest in the memory, having outlasted 6,833 other players only to have the lucrative ‘November Nine’ mantra snatched at such a late stage. Poker Listings describes the knockout blow:

“Phillips limps in before Montgomery makes it $600,000 to go. Chris Klodnicki makes the call in the big blind and Phillips folds out. The flop comes A Q Q and Klodnicki checks to Montgomery, who bets out a million. Klodnicki moves all-in over the top and Montgomery makes a quick call, turning up Q J for trips while Klodnicki is on the draw with J T . The turn, however, is the J and the river card is the 4 , giving the pot to Montgomery and busting Klodnicki in 12th place for a $591,869 score.”

But in his Bluff Magazine blog he was very humble about his World Series, writing: “I’m just coming off a profitable WSOP highlighted with a 12th place finish in the main event and a 2nd place finish in the $1500 Razz event. Both tournaments were very exciting for me and are my 2 biggest scores to date. I left Vegas feeling a little bittersweet after coming so close to a bracelet and the main event final table. Still, I am very grateful that I was able to run good enough to even put me in a position to contend for 2 bracelets.”

We would expect SLOPPYKLOD to contend for more than a few bracelets again in the not too distant future.

Check out Chris’ WSOP Main Event exit hand below: