Bala Patur Wins the WPT LA Poker Classic, Takes Home More Than $1M

50-year-old Bala Patur from New Jersey won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic tournament on Monday. The tournament final was postponed last year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. After eliminating five opponents, Patur won first place and took home the big prize of $1,015,000.

Bala Patur Won the WPT LA Poker Tournament

In an exciting game, one year after initially planned, 50-year-old Bala Patur from New Jersey won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic tournament on Monday in Las Vegas. The game started at the Commerce Casino in March 2020 but the final table was postponed until this year, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

At the final table, Patur faced 5 opponents – James Carroll, Matas Cimbolas, Scott Hempel, Upeshka De Silva, and Ka Kwan Lau. With the help of his mathematics and academics background, combined with strong analytics skills, and poker experience, Patur gained the upper hand and won first place, taking home more than $1 million.

Cimbolas from Lithuania won second place, taking home $600,060 in prize money. Carroll from the US won third place taking home $431,585, followed by Hempel from Canada who came in fourth and won $323,485. Ka Kwan Lau came in fifth, winning $243,330, followed by De Silva who won $185,330 by taking sixth place.

💪😤😆Congratulations to Bala Patur for winning #WPTLAPC for $1.015 million! Patur also wins a @Hublot watch and @Baccarat Crystal 🥂

🐎https://t.co/FOQmsrNz1N pic.twitter.com/4OzITgK71U

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) May 18, 2021

Patur Takes Home the Big Prize of $1,015,000

In a statement for WPT, the winner said that this is incredible and that he can’t express his happiness right now. Furthermore, Patur acknowledged that he faced good players and said that it was anybody’s game. Besides winning the big prize of $1,015,000, Patur also took home a set of Baccarat Crystal, and a Hublot Big Bang Steel Watch. Furthermore, as the winner of the tournament, he was awarded a Remington trophy from Commerce Casino and a WPT Champions Trophy.

“Every poker player dreams of getting a WPT.”

Bala Patur

Although Patur is not a full-time poker player, winning the WPT undoubtedly will boost his career forward. Before winning the LAPC, Patur has participated in the €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2019. He has also played in the 2018 WPT DeepStacks Montreal. Furthermore, recently, Patur participated in the first WPT Online Poker Open back in December 2020. In that event, as a runner-up, he took home $164,868.

Exciting Action until the Very Last Hand

Although Patur was leading the final table with a high chip count, the game was not without plenty of pressure. De Silva who won sixth place was the first opponent to leave the table after approximately 30 hands. Patur, holding an ace-king won against De Silva with an ace-deuce. 

Kwan Lau was the second player to leave the table after 50 more hands. Holding ace-jack he lost against Cimbolas who had queen-seven. The fourth player to leave the game was Hempel. He hit the rail after holding tens against Cimbolas’ ladies. Carroll was the next player that was eliminated and took third place. Holding king-nine, he lost against Patur’s cowboys.

In the end, it was Patur versus Cimbolas competing for the first place. Cimbolas, who was hoping for a second WPT win, had 7.8 million in chips, while Patur was leading with 11.8 million. Patur’s chip advantage continued growing until the final hand. Moving all-in, Cimbolas bet 3.7 million on a king-six, which didn’t hold against Patur’s ace-nine.