Paul Klann Wins WPT LA Poker Classic 2013

Paul Klann Wins WPT LA Poker Classic 2013

Paul Klann is the latest WPT champion after claiming victory in LA. He steered clear of trouble for a long time and let the others fight it out until finally putting his foot down when it mattered most.

The LA Poker Classic festival is finally coming to an end after nearly seven weeks of poker, taking in a whole 68 events each awarding one of the famous Bronco Buster trophies. Only one tournament had a million dollar first prize waiting for the winner though and that was of course the $10,000 WPT championship event.

Thursday’s final table began with Toby Lewis as the smallest stack and needing to make something happen to get himself back into contention after being chip leader at one point. Just 13 hands into the final table he looked to have found a great spot after shoving over a raise and a call with his A10 and getting Danny Fuhs to come along with A9. A devastating 9 on the flop though ended Lewis’ tournament abruptly and he exited in 6th place.

That stroke of luck appeared to be a significant turning point for Fuhs and shortly afterwards he doubled up against Paul Volpe when Fuhs’s set of deuces held after getting it all in on the flop against Volpe’s straight flush draw. A further few smaller pots for Fuhs saw him take control of nearly half of the chips in play, and with plenty of experience of big tournaments as well he was a massive favourite at this point. A further addition to his stack came courtesy of David Fong who raced his QQ against Fuhs’ AK but everything seemed to be going the way of Fuhs who found a king on the turn to bust Fong in 5th.

The exact same race against Jesse Yaginuma just four hands later had a different outcome though and all of a sudden the stacks were fairly evenly spread amongst the four:

Paul Klann  -  4,995,000
Jesse Yaginuma  -  3,860,000
Danny Fuhs  -  4,555,000
Paul Volpe  -  2,095,000

A prolonged period with little post flop action came to a juddering halt when Danny Fuhs open jammed from the small blind for 3,7750,000 (25 big blinds) and Volpe found a hand to call with in the form of AQ. Fuhs looked to be in terrible trouble with A7 until the 7 popped up on the flop to send him miles ahead. Paul Volpe seemed to be heading for the rail but running clubs turned things round miraculously for him to complete his flush and leave Fuhs on just 2 BBs.

Unsurprisingly Fuhs busted out soon afterwards and his once monster stack turned out to be good only for 4th place in the end. It’s a top heavy prize structure here, favouring accumulation over survival but the loss of nearly 4 million chips to Volpe for the sake of stealing the blinds could be said to have been a somewhat rash end to his tournament.

So with Volpe as the new chip leader, there again ensued a period during which few chips changed hands until Jesse Yaginuma 3 bet all in pre flop with QJ and found himself behind to Volpe’s A10. A board with no card higher than a 9 saw Yaginuma confirmed as the 3rd place finisher, leaving Volpe and Paul Klann to do battle heads up.

A back and forth struggle was effectively brought to an end after Klann min raised to 600,000, Volpe shoved over the top for 8,000,000 and Klann called. Surprisingly king high for Klann was the best hand of the two and Volpe’s J9 found no help, leaving him crushed on just 2 BBs. The very next hand Klann claimed Volpe’s last few chips and was confirmed as the new WPT LA Poker Classic champion, taking home $1,004,090.

Final table payouts were:

1. Paul Klann - $1,004,090
2. Paul Volpe - $651,170
3. Jesse Yaginuma - $429,810
4. Danny Fuhs - $316,650
5. David Fong - $236,250
6. Toby Lewis - $193,560

Next up for the WPT is the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event in San Jose. Look out for our day by day coverage on the event which starts on Monday 4th March.

More reports from WPT LA Poker Classic 2013:

Report from Day 3

Report from Day 4

Report from Day 5

For updates and results from other land-based poker tournaments, visit the live poker news section.