Guy Klass Wins The 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic For $58,608
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Nine months after winning the 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event, Buffalo, NY's own Guy Klass took down the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event in dramatic fashion inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort Monday.
Klass, a 46-year-old heavy-duty truck salesman, actually started the final nine on Monday last in chips. He tripled up early, and ran good all day to make a miraculous comeback and earn the event's $58,608 first-place prize. His winner photo will now grace the cover of an upcoming issue of CardPlayer Magazine.
The tournament drew 271 entries over two starting flights, creating a $239,212 prize pool. The top 27 players got paid. A total of 57 started Day 2 Sunday and they played into the money and down to the final nine.
Middletown, NY's Ernie Guardarramas came into Monday's final table with the chip lead, but it didn't last. All the short stacks doubled up early, and by the time Cleveland, OH's Tommy Tomasello busted ninth, Canadian Jason Sagle had moved into the lead.
Guardarramas chipped his way back on top and busted North Collins, NY's Rob Bourkney eighth to extend the lead. However, after British expat Bradley Girdler was eliminated in seventh, and Klass busted Syracuse, NY's Lou Procopio sixth, Guardarramas was no longer in the lead.
Rochester, NY's Hassan Jamil held it for a while, but Klass just kept on coming, moving over the two-million-chip mark in the event's 26th level to take the lead. He really never looked back.
Klass busted Guardarramas fifth to extend the lead, and kept his foot on the gas the rest of the way. By the time Sagle busted fourth he had come from five big blinds to start to more than half the chips in play and was running away with the title.
Fellow Buffalonian Mark Roberts had played a controlled game throughout, laddering up until he doubled through Jamil in a classic race to leave Jamil short. Ultimately Jamil busted third to Klass, giving Klass a 3:1 lead heads up.
It looked like Roberts was going to snatch that lead away when he got it in with aces up versus Klass' ace, but in a day, or perhaps a year, where Klass can do no wrong, he hit the better two pair on the river to win it all.
| Place | Winner | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guy Klass | $58,608 |
| 2 | Mark Roberts | $36,839 |
| 3 | Hassan Jamil | $26,553 |
| 4 | Jason Sagle | $19,615 |
| 5 | Ernie Guardarramas | $14,592 |
| 6 | Lou Procopio | $11,004 |
| 7 | Bradley Girdler | $8,612 |
| 8 | Rob Bourkney | $6,698 |
| 9 | Tommy Tomasello | $5,382 |
That wrapped up the 2017 Seneca Fall Poker Classic, another well attended event at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort that was first Klass all the way. Pardon the pun.
Look for PokerNews to return to Niagara Falls in the Spring, when Klass will have the chance to defend one of his two Seneca Niagara titles in the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge.