Dylan Linde Wins WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1,631,468
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The World Poker Tour (WPT) wrapped up its 2018 schedule with the $10,000 buy-in Season XVII WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The tournament attracted 1,001 entries, which made it the largest $10K tournament in WPT history.
After five days of play, poker pro Dylan Linde emerged victorious to capture a career-high $1,631,468 and a $15,000 seat into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal Tournament of Champions.
Prior to the win, Linde had $2,031,685 in lifetime earnings with a prior best of $348,269 for winning the 2016 World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Hammond. His only other six-figure scores are $140,900 for finishing eighth in the 2015 PCA, $117,894 for taking fifth in the 2018 WSOP event #43: $2,500 NLH, and $113,438 for placing fifth in the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open High Roller.
WPT Five Diamond Results
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dylan Linde | $1,631,468 |
| 2 | Milos Skrbic | $1,087,603 |
| 3 | Andrew Lichtenberger | $802,973 |
| 4 | Ping Liu | $599,147 |
| 5 | Lisa Hamilton | $451,880 |
| 6 | Barry Hutter | $344,529 |
Among those to earn a portion of the $9,707,700 prize pool were 2015 World Series of Poker champ Joe McKeehen (9th - $163,142), Andre Akkari (23rd - $58,967), Calvin Anderson (39th - $42,645), Nick Pupillo (49th - $32,401), Antonio Esfandiari (66th - $25,886), Erik Seidel (69th - $25,886), Nick Petrangelo (83rd - $21,789), and 2005 WSOP champ Joe Hachem (85th - $21,789).
Final Table Action
According to , Milos Skrbic began the final table as the chip leader and he scored the first elimination 37 hands in. It happened when Barry Hutter got it all in on a 6♦8♠5♠ flop holding the A♣8♠ and was up against Skrbic’s 6♥5♦. Neither the 2♥ turn nor K♣ river helped Hutter and he hit the rail in sixth place for $344,529.
On Hand #69, Lisa Hamilton got her stack all in preflop and was racing with pocket fives against Linde’s ace-ten suited. The board ran out with two tens on in and that was all she wrote for Hamilton, who took home $451,880 for her fifth-place finish.
Fourteen hands later, Linde jammed the small blind to put the pressure on Ping Liu, who was in the big. Liu called off with ace-four and was ahead of Linde’s jack-deuce suited. Unfortunately for him, the flop brought a deuce and Liu failed to retake the lead. Not only did Liu earn $599,147 for his fourth-place finish, he earned precious Player of Year points to move into second place behind Tony Ruberto on the Hublot WPT POY leaderboard.
On Hand #100, Andrew “Lucky Chewy” Lichtenberger got his chips all in on the flop holding top pair against Skrbic’s club flush draw. A club on the turn left Lichtenberger drawing dead and he had to settle for third place and $802,973 in prize money.
Linde took a slight chip lead into heads-up play against Skrbic, but the duo would battle for 35 hands before things came to a head. In the final hand of the tournament, Skrbic shoved his last 17 bigs from the button with pocket fives and Linde woke up with jacks. A five failed to materialize and Skrbic fell in second place for $1,087,603.
The WPT will hold its next event beginning January 12 with the $10,000 buy-in WPT Gardens Poker Championship at The Gardens Casino.
Images courtesy of the WPT.
