Look Out: Benjamin Klier

Benjamin Klier started playing poker in 2005 while attending Marymount Manhattan College in New York. “I learned how to play in college with friends, and after a while, I started playing online. Initially, I lost online, because I was facing better players. So, I just started to teach myself the game, and once PartyPoker shut down, instead of switching to another online site, I started grinding cash games in Atlantic City, and I’ve been doing that for quite a while,” said Klier. “I went broke quite a few times while I was learning bankroll management.”

Experiencing the school of hard knocks has worked out rather well for the 28-year-old poker professional, and he is now running deep in major live tournaments. In September, he made the final table of the largest World Poker Tour tournament of all time, finishing sixth, for $148,427, in a Borgata Poker Open field that consisted of 1,042 players. He followed up that performance with a deep run at the WPT World Poker Finals in early November; he finished 10th at Foxwoods, which was good for $46,678. He now has $325,530 in career tournament earnings.

He has 11 live-tournament cashes to his credit in 2010, and this is his first year of focusing on live tournaments. “I really started playing live tournaments this year. I kind of got bit by the bug at the 2009 World Series of Poker. I played my first real tournament there. I was so tired of cash games at that point that I wanted a change of pace, and it has actually worked out really well for me. Tournaments, to me, are so much more exhilarating, and I’m always going to play them,” said Klier.
Klier said that he has gained a lot of confidence from the consistent results that he has posted recently, and he knows that will be a big help as he continues to pursue his first major title. He also has enjoyed the deep structures of the larger buy-in events. “I just started playing in the large events, where you really get great structures. In smaller buy-in live events, the structures provide only 40 minutes per level. It’s a lot more of a crapshoot. So, now I’ve been able to spread my wings and give myself the time to play really well. It feels a lot more comfortable,” said Klier.

He also appreciates the higher level of skill brought to the table by players in large buy-in events, even if it presents more of a challenge to him. The smaller events that he used to play in Atlantic City presented a lot of variance to sweat. “There are several major metro areas around Atlantic City, so there are a lot of people who just want to play. They can get in for a lower buy-in, so the field sizes are bigger and you have to play well and survive more situations; but, the upside is that the fields are a lot softer,” said Klier.

Klier now resides in Astoria, New York, but he is traveling a lot more to play in live tournaments. “They always say to strike while the iron is hot, so I’m going to keep trying to move around and travel to live tournaments. I’ve been on the circuit for the last few months. I just got back from London, and I’m heading to L.A. next,” said Klier. ♠