The field of this year’s edition of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Championship was whittled down to just 13 contenders from a 493-strong field. Dennis Blieden, a player with two previous live tournament cashes, will be leading the pack of survivors into the penultimate day of WPT action at the host venue, Commerce Casino.
Blieden is a Los Angeles-based player. As mentioned above, his HendonMob profile shows only two previous in-the-money finishes in live poker events. They were both tournaments on the schedule of the World Series of Poker.
Being one of the 13 finalists, Blieden has already secured a minimum payout of $57,300 from the WPT LAPC Main Event to boost his current poker bankroll of a little less than $22,000. What is more, the player has a real shot to win his first WPT Main Tour Main Event.
Blieden bagged and tagged 2.88 million at the end of Day 4, which was played on Tuesday at the host venue. The player was the only one of all three survivors to pass the two-million mark and is well ahead of his fellow contenders. Toby Lewis had the second largest chip stack when play concluded last night, bagging a total of 1.76 million. Derek Walters rounded out the top three of the chip counts chart last night with 1.501 million.
Former WPT Champions Still in Contention
One-time WPT winner Zachary Smiley is going for his second title from the series. The player ended Day 4 with the shortest stack, but has every chance to improve on Day 5. Anthony Zinno, holder of three WPT titles, is also still in contention.
If he wins the event, he will become the first player in WPT history to hold four Main Event titles from the series. At present, Zinno is tied with Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, Darren Elias, and Chino Rheem, with each of them being winner of three titles. Zinno bagged and tagged 1.024 million last night and is in the middle of the chip counts chart for Day 5.
Here it is also important to note that he can also become the first player ever to win the same WPT Main Event twice. Zinno captured his first LAPC Main Event title in 2015.
Play is set to resume today at noon local time at the host casino. As mentioned above, each of the 13 finalists has locked a minimum cash of $57,300 from the series. The remaining survivors will play down to official six-handed final table. That concluding stage of the tournament will take place on Thursday, March 1, at the host venue. The finalists will play until a winner is determined. The last person standing will receive a first-place prize of $1 million, a seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions, and a fancy Hublot watch.
