WPT Five Diamond Down to 45 with McKeehen Near The Top

The biggest WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic in history is down to just 45 players with plenty of big names still in contention. After a long day on Thursday during which the bubble burst, it was Mo Arani who bagged the chip lead with 2.2 million chips followed by former WSOP Main Event winner Joe McKeehen (2,030,000).

McKeehen is going for his fifth WPT final table, while record-holder Darren Elias remains in contention for his fifth WPT title. The day started with 178 players with 126 places getting paid, and, Adrian Mateos, Dominik Nitsche, Justin Bonomo, Noah Schwartz, and defending champion Ryan Tosoc, were among those falling short of the money.

Anthony Zinno (122nd – $18,584), Sergio Aido (118th – $18,584), Christoph Vogelsang (115th – $19,332), Brian Altman (114th – $19,332), Scott Vener (112th – $19,332), Justin Young (108th – $19,332), Mike Leah (96th – $20,381), Matt Glantz (94th – $20,381), Cliff Josephy (93rd – $20,381), Shannon Shorr (90th – $20,381), Joe Hachem (85th – $21,789), Nick Petrangelo (83rd – $21,789), Joe Cada (75th – $23,595),  Mohsin Charania (74th – $23,595), Kristen Bicknell (72nd – $25,886), Erik Seidel (69th – $25,886), Antonio Esfandiari (66th – $25,886), Tom Marchese (61st – $28,780), and Andy Andrejevic (46th – $36,945) made the money but will not return on Day 4.

Here’s an overview of the notable remaining players headed into the penultimate day of action. Play will conclude tonight when there are six players remaining.

The remaining payouts of this record-breaking WPT Five Diamond Main Event are as follows.

Stay tuned to the World Poker Tour live blog today and tomorrow before the PokerGO final table stream kicks off on Saturday. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now.