David Kluchman Wins WSOP Circuit Foxwoods Main Event

May 26th, 2015 | by Greg Shaun

David Kluchman says he may use his Foxwoods win to play an extended scheduled at the upcoming WSOP. (Image: WSOP)

The Foxwoods World Series of Poker Circuit stop was the final chance to play some WSOP-branded poker before the main series kicks off this week.

For one lucky player, the Main Event at Foxwoods provided the perfect send off to Las Vegas.

David Kluchman won the WSOP Circuit FoxwoodsÂ Main Event, pocketing a $124,370 prize in the process.

The win was a big one for Kluchman, a part-time poker player from Massachusetts, as it nearly equaled his largest career score and earned him a spot in July’s National Championship event.

Second Bullet Hits Mark for Kluchman

Kluchman had to enter twice in order to make his run, busting out pretty quickly the first time he joined the $1,675 buy-in tournament. His second run went much better, even though he needed a little luck to get through the second day of the event.

“I was all in and covered while behind twice during the tournament,” Kluchman told WSOP.com. “Ran queens into aces, and I knew he had them from how he acted, but I had already committed myself and had to call.”

Kluchman says he told his opponent that he would hit the queen of hearts to save himself. Sure enough, that very card hit on the flop, keeping Kluchman in the tournament.

By the end of the second day of play, Kluchman was the clear favorite to win the tournament. He had built a stack of more than two million chips with ten players remaining in the tournament, with only one other player having collected more than a million.

Final Table Domination Leads to Victory

Kluchman then dominated the final table of play in order to ride his big stack to a championship ring. Kluchman was responsible for knocking out his final six opponents in a row, and at no point was he seriously threatened with elimination.

In the final heads-up confrontation, Kluchman won a number of small pots against his opponent, Michael Thibeau. Finally, Thibeau was all-in with AQ against Kluchman’s pocket threes; when the threes held up, Kluchman had his first major tournament victory.

Thibeau took home a prize of $76,883 for his runner-up finish.

That said, it wasn’t the biggest win of Kluchman’s career. Back in 2012, Kluchman made a very deep run in the WSOP Main Event, eventually finishing in 63^rd place to take home over $128,000.

In his career, Kluchman has won just over $387,000 in live tournament play. But while he may not be a household name in poker circles, he hinted at the fact that he works on his game with some very serious gamblers.

“I grew up playing seven-card and five-card draw for pennies really,” Kluchman said. “Then I joined a home game and learned from some really excellent people. Can’t disclose any names, but they were members of the MIT blackjack team, so very mathematical types.”

Kluchman was already planning to take a trip to Las Vegas for the WSOP proper, though he says he may be able to play a biggest schedule thanks to his win at Foxwoods.

A total of 376 players entered the Foxwoods WSOP Circuit Main Event, with 45 players cashing. Notables who made deep runs included Greg Himmelbrand (5^th, $31,431) and Will Failla (10^th, $9,497).