A total of 490 entries were made in 2020 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, creating a prize pool of $4,727,550. After five full days of tournament action, the field has been narrowed down to just six players left to battle it out for the title and the top prize of $1,000,000.
A champion won’t be decided in this event for nearly a month, as the final table doesn’t resume until 4:00 p.m. on April 2 at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. This is the third delayed final table of 2020 for the WPT, which introduced the new approach to filming their tournaments for televised broadcast in early 2019. The players that have made these delayed final tables will all have their travel accommodations and hotel stays covered by the WPT.
The chip leader heading into the final table is Balakrishna Patur with 6,320,000, which will be good for 158 big blinds when play picks up with betting limits of 20,000-40,000 and a 40,000 big blind ante. The Canadian’s largest prior live score was for $113,020, which he earned as the 11th-place finisher in the 2019 European Poker Tour Barcelona main event. The final six are all guaranteed to cash for at least $185,330, which means that Patur is in fantastic shape to dramatically increase his career live tournament earnings.
Matas Cimbolas will enter the final table in second chip position with 4,310,000 (108 big blinds). Cimbolas finished as the runner-up in this event in 2019, earning $646,930 for his strong showing in this event. The Lithuanian poker pro and 2014 partypoker WPT UK main event winner will have a chance to improve upon that finish when play resumes in April.
Hot on Cimbolas’ heels is two-time WPT champion James Carroll with 4,125,000 (103 big blinds). The 2014 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star and 2019 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown winner will be looking to become just the seventh player to win three or more main event titles on the tour.
The next largest stack belongs to Ka Kwan Lau, whose 2,250,000 will represent 56 big blinds when cards are next in the air. The Spanish player has seven-figures in prior live tournament earnings, including $390,424 earned as the fourth-place finisher in the 2013 EPT Prague main event. Regardless of where he finishes from here on out, his payday in this event will be at least the second-largest of his career.
Scott Hempel enters the final table in fifth chip position with 1,670,000 (42 big blinds). This is by far the biggest score on the Canadian’s tournament resume, with his largest previous cash being for $20,411.
Rounding out the final table is short stack Upeshka De Silva with 930,000 (23 big blinds). The Katy, TX resident is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, but will be looking for his first WPT title in this event.
Here is a look at chip counts of the final six players:
| Rank | Player | Chips |
| 1 | Balakrishna Patur | 6,320,000 |
| 2 | Matas Cimbolas | 4,310,000 |
| 3 | James Carroll | 4,125,000 |
| 4 | Ka Kwan Lau | 2,250,000 |
| 5 | Scott Hempel | 1,670,000 |
| 6 | Upeshka De Silva | 930,000 |
Player photo credits: Joe Giron / WPT.
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