While most of the West Coast poker pros are congregated in Las Vegas for the final Bellagio tournaments series of the year, a crop of East Coast poker pros assembled in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the Main Event of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) stop at the Harrah’s Resort. Around 200 players turned out for the $5,000 buy-in event, including a number of recognizable pros. The end of Day 1 chip leader was Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler, but the notoriously conservative player would fall short of the final table, busting out in 28th place.

The final table was stacked with a number of pros including Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp, Kyle “kwob20” Bowker, Farzad Rouhani and Grayson Ramage. The top nine was a familiar setting for Klodnicki, who final tabled this same event the last time it was in town, finishing in 8th place. This time around, the end would be much more to Klodnicki’s satisfaction as he defeated Bowker heads-up for the ring and the $215,915 first place prize. Klodnicki came into the final day of play in the middle of the pack, but picked up momentum at just the right time and found himself as the last player standing.

Klodnicki began heads-up play against Bowker with an overwhelming 8-1 chip advantage and it was not long before the last two players remaining got it all-in. Bowker appeared poised to double up, holding 5-7 to Klodnicki’s 4-7, but a four on the flop and another on the river sealed the deal for Klodnicki. The 24 year-old poker pro from Voorhees, New Jersey has almost $1.5 million in tournament winnings, including a 12th place finish in the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and a 3rd place showing at a 2009 WSOP Mixed Event, which was won by poker player and author Jerrod Ankenman.

This is Klodnicki’s second major Atlantic City tournament victory. He also took down a $1,000 buy-in tournament with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool in spring of 2008 at the Borgata, earning himself $226,780.