2021 WPT Tampa
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
Event 12
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries:  222
Prize Pool:  $215,340
June 16, 2021

Last month, Balakrishna Patur won the pandemic-delayed televised Final Table for the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, earning more than $1 million. And he came to Tampa for the first time primarily to play in the $2 million guaranteed WPT Tampa main event that begins on Friday.

But when Patur and his friends tried to check into the rental they’d be staying at, it was still occupied and they couldn’t check in. So they came to the Hard Rock to play some poker until they could check in, and Patur just kept going and going until he made the money, then he made the final table, and eventually, he won the whole thing.

Patur won it in a three-way preflop all-in situation, when his pocket sixes held up against the of Jay Giles and the of Derek Bowers.

“It was a tough one,” said Patur about the final table. “There were a couple of top notch pros here, but somehow I was able to navigate it.”

Patur wanted to give a shoutout to his friends, Sri and Sandeep, who stayed for the entire final table to support him.

“We are all grinders,” said Patur. “We discuss different hands and different situations. And everything pays off when we work together as a team.”