Chis Klodnicki Wins EPL Mix-Max Event

Chris Klodnicki swept a best-of-three heads up battle against Andrew Lichteberger to win the 3^rd Epic Poker League Main Event. Klodnicki won $801,680 for his first place finish, which was enough to move him into 2^nd place overall in the EPL league standings.

The 3^rd event of the first EPL season featured the unique Mix-Max format, in which table sizes progressively grew smaller as the tournament progressed. Early on, the tournament began with eight players at each table, but this was reduced to as few as four by the later stages.

Eventually, the final table was set at just five players. Scott Clements was the first to be eliminated there, followed by Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Joe Tehan, who had the chip lead for a long stretch, ultimately bowed out in 3^rd place.

This set up the final stage of the tournament – a best of three heads-up battle that would give one player their first EPL victory. Klodnicki entered the heads-up portion of the tournament with a significant edge; he held nearly 3.5 million chips, as compared to the 1.5 million help by Lichtenberger. But Lichtenberger had a better chance than those chip counts might have suggested; although the players would start the first two matches with their chip totals from the tournament, if there were a third and deciding match, it would be played with even stacks.

Of course, with a big lead, Klodnicki was devoted to making sure that the tournament never got that far. The first match took over 140 hands, but eventually saw Klodnicki get his pocket kings all-in against a flush draw and hold up to take a 1-0 lead.

The second match was another lengthy affair. After 70 hands, Klodnicki got his flush draw with A4 all in against Lichtenberger’s AK. Klodnicki spiked a 4 on the turn which ultimately held up, earning him his first major title.

The final table took 15 hours to complete, ending at around 3 am local time on Monday morning. The following were the final table payouts for the top five finishers:

1^st – Chris Klodnicki - $801,680

2^nd – Andrew Lichteberger - $514,480

3^rd – Joe Tehan - $306,800

4^th – Michael Mizrachi - $174,640

5^th – Scott Clements - $89,680