Birthday rungood powers Kliment Tarmakov at WSOPC Playground

Kliment Tarmakov’s 38^th birthday is one he’ll never forget after winning the WSOPC Playground Main Event for $481,500 and his first WSOP Circuit ring, topping a field of 1,483 entries in the venue’s latest massive marquee event.

The win is also the first recorded live result for the Torontonian in over six years, with his first-ever cash for just $510 coming here at Playground back in 2015. Quite a full circle moment for the champion.

“It’s surreal. I’ve played quite a few of those and never even come close. So, it’s actually possible. I didn’t think it was possible to win one of these.”

It all went Kliment Tarmakov's way on Monday.

Final table adversity

The champion’s road to the title on Monday was a unique one, as his first couple of days fortunately set him up for what was to come on Monday.

“Everything went smoothly. It’s one of those tournaments where everything up until the final table, there were barely any tough decisions, cards were going my way, bluffs were getting through, never really had to make some kind of big fold.”

But then, only thanks to the second-place stack he had built for the final day was he given a chance to win. Tarmakov’s wheels were spinning throughout the final table, leaving him alive but short-stacked by the time play was down to four-handed.

To that point with his dwindled stack, he was left with one-street poker, folding or moving all in, hoping that something drastic could happen to either ladder him up or get him back into contention. He got both as Ricardo-Cermeno Sandoval, who was second in chips, busted in a huge pot that gave Tarmakov’s eventual heads-up opponent, David Quang, an overwhelming chip lead.

“(Cermeno-Sandoval) was playing a lot of hands, so I thought there was a decent shot that he might go before me, even though he had more chips for a good part of four-handed. I didn’t have much going for the whole final table. I was just trying to play what I was dealt, but I just didn’t get any good spots.

Equally short-stacked Behnam Patros would fall shortly after in third place, and out of nothing, without a single elimination to show on the day, suddenly, Tarmakov was heads-up, though trailing 55,000,000 to 18,000,000.

Kliment Tarmakov made his big move late.

The tables turn for Tarmakov

But as they say, it’s better to run good late than early, and Tarmakov epitomized that on Monday.

“I didn’t get a lot of really good hands until we got heads up, so I was just trying to stay in there. Obviously, I got the run of cards when we got heads up, and it completely changed.”

Within minutes, Tarmakov had closed the gap and then taken a slight lead, which swung back and forth briefly until the tournament-defining hand, when, with Quang holding the lead again, Tarmakov got a sizeable double-up with pocket sevens against Quang’s pocket fours, giving him a nearly 3 to 1 lead.

From there, Tarmakov bled the start-of-day chip leader down and eventually finished him off with the same pocket fours that had cost Quang most of his stack just minutes before.

So now, following a victory that comes with a payday more than ten times his largest previous tournament score, will the birthday boy be treating himself to a revival in his poker career?

“Honestly, I don’t know if there’s going to be a poker career. I used to play a lot more, like ten years ago or so. Between 2015 and 2020, I played quite a bit, but I have two kids, so the money’s going to go towards the family. Maybe a bit more poker trips here and there, but nothing much, I imagine.”

2025 WSOPC Playground Main Event final table results