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Dylan Linde Wins Record-Breaking WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic

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The final World Poker Tour event of 2018 is in the books. As has been customary for the tour, the year-ending event was the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. This year’s Main Event broke records for the largest $10k event WPT history. A field of 1,001 entries took their shot in this event with the top two players walking away poker millionaires.

In the end, it was Dylan Linde that became the latest member of the WPT Champions Club after taking down the event and $1.63 million. The final table was headlined with multiple notable players, including Andrew Lichtenberger who earned his first six-figure score in over two years at this event.

Record-Breaking Main Event Headlined By Stellar Final Table

For those that think that poker is dead, think again. The Main Event of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic drew a field of 1,001 entries, the largest in the tour’s history. This created a prize pool of $9.7 million with $1.63 million going to the eventual winner of the event.

Being a Vegas event, the field was packed with notable players. Among those that made the money in this event were Antonio Esfandiari, Erik Seidel, Nick Petrangelo, and WSOP Main Event winners Joe McKeehen and Joe Hachem.

The final table of this event was also a stellar one. Lisa Hamilton looked to become just the second woman in history to win a World Poker Tour event. Joining her at the final table were Ping Liu, Barry Hutter, Dylan Linde, Milos Skrbic, and Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger. Lichtenberger hadn’t earned six-figures in an event since 2016 and this was only his second live cash of 2018.

Dylan Linde Becomes Final WPT Champion of 2018

At the start of the final table, Milos Skrbic was the chip leader and drew blood quickly, knocking out Barry Hutter in sixth place. A while later, Lisa Hamilton’s bid to become a WPT Champion fell short as her pocket fives were outdrawn by the A-10 of Dylan Linde.

Soon after, Ping Lu was all-in with A-4 and well ahead of the J-2 of Dylan Linde. Linde again caught lucky, spiking a deuce on the flop and knocking out Lu in fourth place. Andrew Lichtenberger was later all-in with top pair against a flush draw for Milos Skrbic. Skrbic caught his flush on the turn and Lichtenberger took home $802,973 for third place. This was his largest live tournament score since 2014.

At the start of heads-up play. Dylan Linde held a small chip lead over Milos Skrbic. Skrbic was unable to get anything going during heads-up action and ultimately shoved with pocket fives. Unfortunately for him, Linde woke up with pocket jacks and made the easy call. The board bricked both players and Linde was the champion.

You cannot feel too bad for Skrbic as he still took home $1.08 million, easily his largest live tournament score to date. Skrbic has been playing well since the end of the summer. He finished the summer with a cash in the 2018 WSOP Main Event and then in October finished fifth at the 2018 WSOP Europe Main Event. That was his first six-figure score with this event serving as his first seven-figure score.

Dylan Linde earned his first major live tournament victory in this event along with his first WPT title. The $1.63 million top prize is his largest live score to date. Linde was a WSOP Circuit Main Event champion but had never taken down a major event on the WPT, WSOP, or EPT. That has all changed with this victory.

In addition to winning the prize money and having his name added to the WPT Champions Club, Linde received a $15,000 seat into the Baccarat Crystal Tournament of Champions at the end of the season.

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