A record-setting WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic field of 1,001 is down to the final six after 15 hours of play at Bellagio. Milos Skrbic (pictured) headlined the end of Day 1’s action and is back on top heading into Saturday’s final table. Skrbic brings 8.43 million to play with and is trailed on the leaderboard by Dylan Linde (7.78 million) and Ping Liu (7.325 million).
Barry Hutter and LearnWPT instructor Andrew Lichtenberger are at their second and third career Five Diamond final table, respectively. Round out the group is Lisa Hamilton, who went from short stacked to in contention within just a few hands.
WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Final Table
Seat 1: Lisa Hamilton – 5,340,000 (67 big blinds)
Seat 2: Dylan Linde – 7,780,000 (97 big blinds)
Seat 3: Barry Hutter – 5,310,000 (66 big blinds)
Seat 4: Ping Liu – 7,325,000 (92 big blinds)
Seat 5: Milos Skrbic – 8,430,000 (105 big blinds)
Seat 6: Andrew Lichtenberger – 5,865,000 (73 big blinds)
Skrbic is at his second major final table in the last few months following a fifth-place result at the WSOP Europe Main Event.
Play started on Day 4 with 45 players remaining including quite a few WPT Champions Club members. They all bowed out before the final two tables. Simon Lam (45th), Mike Del Vecchio (44th), Darren Elias (41st), Ravi Raghavan (37th), and Keven Stammen (24th) put up a quality fight but this season’s Five Diamond winner will be a first-time WPT Champion.
85-year-old Bob Mantin placed 10th to end his run after winning a satellite seat and being forced to enter rather than take $10,400 cash. Instead, Mantin earned $163,142 and one-of-a-kind WPT experience at Five Diamond.
The unofficial final table of nine took a few levels to go to six but the timeline was not the result of a lack of action. Joe McKeehen busted in ninth when his 
failed to improve versus the 
of Skrbic.
Hamilton started the day 44th out of the 45 on the leaderboard and timely doubles boosted her short stack at the final table. Flips won against Hutter and Lichtenberger gave her enough breathing room before she peaked at the end of the night.
Hutter eliminated Dibella in eighth place to end the PCA Main Event winner’s dream of winning a second major title.
Hamilton closed the night by busting Patrick Mahoney in seventh place when her 
beat Mahoney’s 
.
Liu is at his second final table of Season XVII following a fifth-place finish at the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in October. A win at Five Diamond would propel Liu past Tony Ruberto into first-place on the Hublot WPT Player of the Year leaderboard.
The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic final table starts at 3 p.m. local time at the PokerGO Studio and streams on PokerGO until the first-place prize of $1.631 million is paid.
Stay tuned to WPT.com for complete Five Diamond coverage.
Photography by Jamie Thomson / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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