Balakrishna Patur Going Full Throttle in First EPT Main Event in Barcelona
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For those who have been complaining about televised live tournament poker being boring, you should tune in to the live stream of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona’s Main Event feature table, where Balakrishna Patur is putting on quite a show.
The New Jersey amateur poker player originally from India has been stumping the commentators for two days now in his first-ever EPT as he plays lots of hands, zigging when they think he’s going to zag and keeping his foot on the gas.
He’s caught plenty of opponents off guard as well, getting players to fold the best hand repeatedly. His fearless style helped him build from 1,220,000 chips to 5,470,000 on Day 4 to head into the penultimate day of play fourth of 16 remaining. On Day 5, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, applying maximum pressure, positioning himself at the top of the counts by the second break of the day with the final table nearing.
For the Love of the Game
As aggressive as he plays, some may be surprised that his job actually involves risk management as a quantitative analyst at a bank. Patur is a long-time resident of New Jersey, married with two children, and describes himself as a serious recreational player.
He mostly plays mid-stakes tournaments in his local area and in Las Vegas but also enjoys traveling to other interesting locales to play, having made some trips for events in Montreal and the Bahamas. Hence his trip to Barcelona.
"My goal is obviously to win this tournament.”
His best score before this event was $17k for taking ninth in a $1,650 WPTDeepStacks Main Event in Montreal last November and he’s already guaranteed himself a new high. In fact, Patur is already guaranteed to more than double his $90k in total live earnings with his run in the EPT Main Event as just 11 remain, but he has his sights set a bit higher — on the €1,659,000 first-place prize.
“Obviously if I win the money, it’s going to be a dream for me. But I love poker anyway so I’m just going to keep playing.”
Foot on the Gas
In several hands on Day 4 and Day 5, Patur has put opponents to the test with river shoves that have forced folds from players who often held the best hand.
He was successful in applying pressure on Ike Haxton on Day 4 at the feature table, getting the high-stakes legend to fold the best hand on the turn for a big pot and later getting there bling vs. blind with king-eight suited against Haxton’s ace-king. Haxton called his shove in the big blind, both paired their king on the flop and Patur turned an eight to eliminate one of the most dangerous players in the field.
In an interesting hand versus Kully Sidhu early on Day 5, Patur applied maximum pressure to get his opponent to fold a chop. He may be the oldest player left in the field at 49, but you wouldn’t know it from his playing style.
"At the end of the day it’s poker, anything can happen, I understand that."
Asked about his aggressive style, Patur says he goes on intuition, but he’s also been putting in some work of late and doing some reading to improve his game.
For now, he’s enjoying his moment in the sun, chatting it up with several poker friends from home who are part of a “Grinders” group in a WhatsApp group chat, all of whom are following Patur’s run at the title.
“They’re all watching me and they keep updating and I’m in constant interaction with them. Everybody is having fun right now.”
With the final table in sight, Patur is keeping his eye on the prize.
“If I could win this one, that would be really really awesome. But you never know, at the end of the day it’s poker, anything can happen, I understand that. My goal is obviously to win this tournament.”
Keep following all the updates from the EPT Barcelona Main Event to watch Balakrishna Patur and the other remaining players chase an EPT Main Event title and $1,826,639.
