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Move over Chris McClung – there’s a new chip leader at the 2011 edition of European Poker Tour San Remo.

Day 5 of the PokerStars sponsored event began with 24 players and ended with a final table of 8, with a day that was short in comparison to previous ones. When the chip stacks were tallied for the evening, Daniel Neilson of Australia held the lead with 6.7 million. Neilson closed out the day in grand fashion by personally eliminating Johnny Lodden of Team PokerStars Pro, making Lodden the final table bubble boy.

Neilson scored a minor cash a few weeks ago when he finished in 45th place for 13k Euro at the EPT London Main Event. While that performance was no doubt impressive, it pales in comparison to the 800k Euro he stands to win if he takes the title in San Remo.

Former chip leader McClung started the day strong with around 3.15 million chips. While his super-aggressive style paid off in the earlier days of the tournament, it came back to haunt him on Day 5. McClung was at the losing end of several heads-up battles before finally hitting the rail in 14th place.

Much of McClung’s chips went to Kevin MacPhee, who remains in the tournament with over 1.1 million chips. MacPhee’s stack would be even higher if not for a battle with Dimitar Danchev, who is also still in the runnings. In a key hand, MacPhee showed K-10 offsuit for a straight, but it wasn’t enough to top the full house that Danchev completed with his A-Q offsuit. Danchev holds 4.4 million chips, a distant second to Neilson.

Other final table contenders include Barny Boatman, Rocco Palumbo, Andrey Pateychuk, Yorane Kerignard and Jan Bendik. Notable eliminations included Elio Fox (23rd), Mike McDonald (18th) and Lex Veldhuis (15th).