Poker Articles

PocketFives.com is full of online poker players who succeeded in the 2008 World Series of Poker. Not even counting Scott r_a_y Montgomery and Darus BejoMas Suharto, who are both at the final table of the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, PocketFivers racked up over $20 million in winnings and captured a whopping eight WSOP bracelets. Among those members of the site who made waves during the 2008 WSOP was Chris SLOPPYKLOD Klodnicki (pictured) who made the final table of the $1,500 Razz tournament (Event #26), finishing second for $97,389. In the Main Event, Klodnicki made the run of a lifetime, landing in 12th place and pocketing nearly $600,000. PocketFives.com sat down with Klodnicki to learn more about this rising poker star.

It’s not often that $600,000 falls in your lap. For Klodnicki, the enormous payday represented the end of a deep run in the World Series of Poker Main Event. He commented on the significance of his cash: “I would say that it’s definitely the highlight of my poker career. I was playing the best poker of my life during the Main Event. I felt like I had complete control most of the time. We were so deep-stacked and it’s such a weak field in comparison to other $10,000 buy-in events you’ll find. I felt confident that my reads were right on. I stayed away from a lot of marginal spots and got most of my chips in post-flop in great shape.”

In the $1,500 Razz event, Klodnicki finished as the runner up to fellow PocketFiver Barry barryg1 Greenstein. On his Razz experience, he admitted, “I don’t have much of a Razz background. I like playing the 9:30pm HORSE tournament on Full Tilt Poker. I really like mixing up games in order to take a break from hold’em and I’ve always found myself chipping up the most in Razz.” He commented on players in Razz tournaments he’s entered: “People tend to play every street badly in Razz. I don’t think many people know how to play it properly. Knowing about odds is really important as well.”

Klodnicki is one of many PocketFivers who have successfully made the transition from online poker to live poker. The presence of online players is readily apparent if you look around the room in the Main Event. You can catch a glimpse of poker gear from just about every single online poker room you can name. Klodnicki comments, “Online and live players are a lot different, especially in deep-stack tournaments. Most of the online tournaments focus on pre-flop play. In the bigger buy-in tournaments, there is a ton of post-flop play. For highly-skilled poker players, it’s easier to pick up chips post-flop.” Skill, therefore, will prevail in the long-run in larger buy-in tournaments like the Main Event.

Like many professional players, Klodnicki is mindful of the importance of bankroll management. With thousands of dollars flung around the poker table with regularity, being cognizant of your limits is critical: “The biggest thing that I stress is bankroll management. You really have to get comfortable with it and avoid playing outside of your roll. I’ve seen a lot of good players go broke by playing outside of their bankrolls.” He added that in standard multi-table tournaments, players should be wary of buying in for more than 1/100th of their bankroll.

As I’ve been writing WSOP recaps for PocketFives.com, one tournament I’ve found myself running across winners of with regularity is the $100 rebuy. I asked Klodnicki to comment on this tournament, which is a proving ground for some of the top online poker players you’ll find today: “The $100 rebuy might be the toughest tournament that’s played. It’s all of the best online players in the field. You don’t start with that many chips and it doesn’t give you much of an edge to exploit the few weak players in the field.”

Another aspect of poker that professionals have to keep in check is tilting after bad beats. They happen with such regularity that avid poker players often develop strategies for dealing with hardship. Klodnicki comments on how he handles adversity: “Dealing with bad beats is one of my biggest weaknesses. I was doing really well in Day 2 of the Main Event and was near the top in chips. I lost kings to A-K and tilted away after that. I do have a problem tilting after bad beats.” On what strategy he’s found useful for handling beats, he claimed, “The best thing for me is taking a break. Hopefully I’ll have a 20 minute level break after it happens or I’ll just walk away. Any kind of break helps me calm myself down and realize that there’s still plenty of poker to be played.”

The 37th ranked player on PocketFives.com took down the $100 rebuy on PokerStars one month ago for $44,750, the same tournament that he won in February for $46,275. In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives Worldwide Rankings, he pocketed over $125,000 in June. Look out for this rising star on the virtual felts.