With 39 players returning to action at The Commerce Casino, it took four two-hour levels to reduce the field to just 11 by the close of Day 4 as the L.A. Poker Classic gained momentum and lost legends along the way.

As Day 4 began, it was Balakrishna Patur who led the way on well over two million chips, but despite surviving to the close of play, Patur would remain at that level when he bagged chips. Whether he deals well with reaching a plateau between days we’ll only know when play restarts on Day 5, but Patur will be a threat.

It was Isaac Baron who grabbed the lead as the day ended and having been the leader at the end of Day 2, Baron recovered from a slight dip on Day 3 to reach the top of the leaderboard at this crucial stage. One hand that helped him progress with the most chips was when he was all-in with the ace-king of spades against Blair Hinkle’s ace-king, and saw three spades make him a flush by 5th street to eliminate Hinkle before the play went to three tables.

Plenty of other big names had already departed. Ali Imsirovic (39th) and John Hennigan (34th) each cashed for $24,375, while J.C Tran (29th) and Mike Eskandari (25th) joined Hinkle in 27th as they all cashed for $28,275. Other former champions were out too, with Dylan Linde one of the biggest names to get close to the business end of the tournament, but not close enough, cashing for $58,215 in 14th place.