Dylan Linde Wins 2018 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event

The 2018 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic $10,400 no-limit hold’em main event attracted 1,001 entries, setting the record as the largest ever field in a $10,000 buy-in event on the WPT. The huge turnout built a prize pool of $9,709,700. After five full days of intense poker action, the lion’s share of that money was awarded to Dylan Linde. The poker pro from Coeur d’Alene, ID emerged victorious with his first WPT title and the $1,631,468 first-place prize.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Linde was also awarded 2,400 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second title and fifth final-table finish of the year, and this huge win was enough to see him climb into 30th place in the overall POY race standings for 2018.

Linde entered the final day of this event in second chip position with six players remaining, sitting behind only Serbia’s Milos Skrbic. It took 37 hands for the first elimination to take place. With a flop of 865 Barry Hutter got all-in holding the A8. He was called by Skrbic, who had flopped two pair with the 65. Hutter failed to improve on the turn or river and was sent home in sixth place ($344,529).

Lisa Hamilton was the next player to hit the rail. Linde raised to 350,000 from under the gun with the blinds at 75,000-150,000 with a 150,000 big-blind ante. Hamilton shoved for 2.5 million from the big blind with 55 and Linde called holding the A10. The 1073103 runout gave Linde a full house to win the hand. Hamilton earned $451,880 as the fifth-place finisher.

With that Linde took the chip lead. He soon furthered his advantage by knocking out Ping Liu in fourth place. Linde shoved with the J2 when it folded to him in the small blind and Liu called for his last 16.5 big blinds with the A4. Linde ended up pairing his deuce on the flop and holding from there to secure his second bustout of the day. Liu earned $599,147 for his deep run.

Linde looked to be running away with the final table, but Milos Skrbic closed the gap a bit by winning the next key hand. The final three saw a flop of K73. Skrbic and Andrew Lichtenberger both checked. Linde bet 275,000, only to have Skrbic check-raise to 925,000. Lichtenberger moved all in for 3,575,000. Linde folded and Skrbic called with the 106 for a flush draw. Lichtenberger had the K5 for top pair. The 8 turn completed Skrbic’s flush draw right away and the 4 sent Lichtenberger to the rail in third place ($802,973).

With that Skrbic took 17,675,000 into heads-up play against Linde, who sat with 22,375,000. Linde was able to steadily increase his lead as the match wore on. By the time the final hand arose Linde had more than a 6-to-1 advantage. Skrbic picked up the 55 on the button and moved all-in for for 4,925,000. Linde quickly called with the JJ. The board ran out K999A and Linde’s superior full house earned him the pot and the title. Skrbic took home $1,087,603 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the final nine:

Photo provided by World Poker Tour.

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