Another televised World Poker Tour final table is set. This time, it’s the Season XVIII WPT L.A. Poker Classic. The event drew 490 entries to Commerce Casino and generated a prize pool of $4.727 million. Just six players remain and they’ll be on hiatus until action resumes at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 2. Leading the way in the chase for the $1.015 million top prize is Balakrishna Patur.

Patur brings 6.32 million in chips to the final table. He’ll be joined by two WPT Champions Club members in Matas Cimbolas and James Carroll, Ka Kwan Lau, Scott Hempel, and WPTDeepStacks champion Upeshka De Silva. De Silva will be the short stack with 930,000 when action resumes in April.

WPT LAPC Final Table

Seat 1: Scott Hempel – 1,670,000
Seat 2: James Carroll – 4,125,000
Seat 3: Matas Cimbolas – 4,310,000
Seat 4: Ka Kwan Lau – 2,250,000
Seat 5: Upeshka De Silva- 930,000
Seat 6: Balakrishna Patur – 6,320,000

Each of the six is guaranteed a minimum payday of $185,330. Included in the event’s first-place prize is a $15,000 seat to the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions presented by Baccarat Crystal.

How the Final Table Was Reached

Day 1 saw Demo Kiriopoulos emerge as the event’s chip leader when the first day of play was in the books. Then it was Isaac Baron atop the field at the end of Day 2.

Entering Day 3, 104 players remained and the top 62 were set to reach the money. With 63 players left, WPT Champions Club member Jordan Cristos was all in against fellow WPT champion Daniel Strelitz. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Cristos was all in with the on the flop. Strelitz had made the call with the . The on the turn and 8h on the river allowed Cristos to double up, but that would be the last time he doubled up this tournament.

Shortly thereafter, still on the money bubble with 63 players remaining, Cristos was all in on the flop with the . His opponent, Claude Codru, had the . Once again, it was Cristos needing to fade a draw. This time, the came right out on the turn and gave Codru an unbeatable flush. The river completed the board with the and Cristos was sent home as the “bubble boy.”

Once in the money, the eliminations began to stack up, including Barry Greenstein (61st – $16,905), Jesse Sylvia (55th – $18,845), and Lee Markholt (41st – $21,290). To close out Day 3, 39 players remained with Patur on top of the pack.

Day 4 saw the field whittled down to 11 players. Baron remained in contention and finished Day 4 as the chip leader, with Hempel sitting second and Patur sitting third. Donald Maloney (37th – $24,375), John Hennigan (34th – $24,375), JC Tran (29th – $28,275), and Dylan Linde (14th – $58,215) were among the casualties on Day 4.

Baron couldn’t get anything going on Day 5, though, and he fell in 11th place for $71,950. Charles Kassin and Lau both scored early double ups through Baron, and then De Silva picked off a bluff from Baron. On his final hand, Baron held pocket eights against Hempel’s pocket tens but could not come from behind. Hempel also knocked out WPT Champions Club member Kevin Eyster in 10th place.

Strelitz went bust in eighth, and his elimination came in a three-way clash of WPT champions involving Carroll and Cimbolas. Strelitz was all in preflop with side action between Carroll and Cimbolas. On the flop, Cimbolas bet 300,000 and Carroll shoved for more than 5 million. Cimbolas called all in for 1.56 million total with the . Carroll had the and then Strelitz had the . The turn was the and the river was the , keeping Cimbolas’ aces in front and eliminating Strelitz.

After Strelitz busted, Shi Chen was sent packing in seventh place to set the official TV final table.

Play Resumes in April

Guaranteed $185,330 each with the chance to win $1.015 million, the final six players in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic will resume action on Thursday, April 2, at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas.

The WPT L.A. Poker Classic final table is the third delayed final table during Season XVIII of the World Poker Tour. Taking place in the days before it are the finales to the WPT Gardens Poker Championship and WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open. Chance Kornuth leads the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table, with action set to resume on Tuesday, March 31. Veerab Zakarian leads the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open final table, with action set to resume on Wednesday, April 1.

All three of these final tables – the WPT Gardens Poker Championship, WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, and WPT L.A. Poker Classic – will play out at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.