Canada's Paul Klann put himself on the poker map by winning the 2013 WPT L.A. Poker Classic along with a $1,004,090 first place prize. This certainly wasn't an easy victory though because Klann survived six days of play and a field of 517 players. But he pulled out the victory and excelled on the final table, which you can read about below.

A Big Comeback

When the 6-player L.A. Poker Classic final table started, Klann was in pretty good shape with the second largest chip stack, behind America's Paul Volpe. However, he eventually fell further behind Volpe since the American eliminated both Danny Fuhs (fourth place) and Jesse Yaginuma (third place).

This pitted Klann and Volpe in a heads-up match, with the latter holding a 2:1 chip advantage. And while this was indeed a big hurdle to overcome, Klann was able to gradually whittle away his opponent's stack and grab a big chip lead. The final hand saw Volpe go all-in preflop with 9-10 and Klann called him with Q-5. The board of J-8-4-2-A failed to help either player, and the Canadian won with his queen-high hand.

A Career-Defining Win

Before winning the L.A. Poker Classic, Paul Klann wasn't a very well known player in poker circles. He'd cashed in just three tournaments prior to the L.A. Poker win, and had around $26k in winnings. However, people will definitely take notice of Klann now that he has a major World Poker Tour title and $1,031,113 in live poker tournament earnings.

As for Volpe, he was already a semi-well known player in the poker community after finishing 20th in the 2012 WSOP Main Event ($294,601) and tallying nine career WSOP cashes. Now he adds another $651,170 to his resume and has $1,182,947 in overall poker winnings.

2013 L.A. Poker Classic Final Table

1. Paul Klann - $1,004,090
2. Paul Volpe - $651,170
3. Jesse Yaginuma - $429,810
4. Danny Fuhs - $316,450
5. David Fong - $236,250
6. Toby Lewis - $193,560