Balakrishna Patur leads WPT L.A. Poker Classic as 39 players remain

With just 104 players returning to action at the start of the third day, the WPT L.A. Poker Classic saw the money bubble burst and Balakrishna Patur take the chip lead after a dramatic day at the felt in Los Angeles.

The City of Angels promised heavenly rewards for the winner, with some added value bringing the top prize up to $1 million. That it took just five levels to reduce the field from 104 to 39 players says a lot for how quickly the bubble burst.

Plenty of big names made the cut, however, with players such as Barry Greenstein (61st for $16,905), former LAPC champion Toby Lewis (52nd for $18,845), Bryan Piccioli (49th for $20,067), Chance Kornuth (43rd for $21,290). Kornuth was particularly desolate after the defeat, summing up his final hand on Twitter:

Busted. Should of gotten away from Jacks.

— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) March 3, 2020

Kornuth had five-bet all-in and was called by eventual chip leader Balakrishna Patur with pocket aces and Paul Brar with ace-queen. Staggeringly, Mike Eskandari showed tablemate Matt Giannetti the hand he folded… pocket kings!

Another former WPT champion who had better luck was the popular professional Dylan Linde, who managed to bust another former WPT winner in Lee Markholt. The latter was all-in with the best hand, pocket queens, and was called by Linde’s pocket jacks. Linde did not suffer the same fate as Chance Kornuth, however, with a jack on the flop and no more drama seeing him bust Markholt and further boost the possibility of him winning another seven-figure score.

Linde, of course, won the $10,000-entry WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event for $1.6m. How he would love the LAPC trophy to go with it, and of course the million dollars it would come with.

With those 39 players remaining, Patur holds the chip lead with 2,289,000 in chips and it’s a big lead. The New Jersey player has 68 big blinds more than his nearest rival, Shi Chen, who ended the day with a shade over 1.6 million chips. There are still plenty of big names in contention with former WPT champion Kevin Eyster (1,131,000), former WPTDeepStacks champion Upeshka De Silva (1,002,000) both well-placed.

Other talents such as Matt Giannetti (820,000), Daniel Strelitz (805,000), the aforementioned Dylan Linde (607,000), James Carroll (294,000), John Hennigan and Matas Cimbolas (130,000) have varied levels of expectation about Day 4. All of them, however, will be dreaming of victory in just a couple of days’ time.

With every remaining player guaranteed at least $24,375, everyone will have their sights set on the final table as two-hour levels sort the determined from the delusional on Day 4. Here are the Top 10 chipcounts from the end of Day 3.

WPT L.A. Poker Classic Top 10 End of Day 3 chip counts: