Vidmer Leads Harrah's New Orleans Final Table
On Sunday, the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans $1,600 Main Event continued as the final 72 of a 694-player field returned to battle down to a final table. Day 3 proved to be a fairly expedient affair as the field was whittled down to the final nine in less than 12 hours. Among those returning to battle for the $204,748 first-place prize are Andrew Nguyen, Daniel Lowery, Justin Truesdell, Michael Hallen and Shane Smith ; however, no one has a better shot at the money, and a seat into this year’s National Championship, than Anthony Vidmer, who emerged as the chip leader with 2,523,000.
Things kicked of with a bang in the Big Easy as players immediately began to hit the rail. Among the early eliminations were notables such as Daniel Weinman (70th-$2,797), Mike Holm (57th-$3,046), Darvin Moon (55th-$3,046), Robert Castoire (53rd-$3,336), Kat Bowen (40th-$3,695), Joe Phelps (38th-$3,695) and Day 1a chip leader Jay Kaplan (36th-$4,135).
Speaking of chip leaders, Justin Wainscott began the day with the biggest stack by quite a margin; however, that doesn't always translate to success as he found out. Wainscott lost a good portion of his stack after his 
failed to overcome the 
of an opponent.
Losing that hand knocked him back down to size, which is when Danny Alvarez swooped in and finished Wainscott off. It happened when four players took a 
flop and Wainscott checked from the small blind. He ultimately ended up check-raising all in for around 170,000 and was called by the 
of Alvarez. He got it in good, but a on the river sent a disappointed Wainscott out in 34th place for $4,135; meanwhile, Alvarez took the chip lead with 950,000.
From there, the action continued as one-by-one players fell to the wayside. Chris Gamboa (31st-$4,674), Maurice Hawkins (26th-$6,202), Joel Merwick (22nd-$7,261), Matthew Chang (19th-$8,609) and Blake Barousse (13th-$12,535) were just a few of the players who came up short of the final table.
However, no one went further and came up shorter than Jacob Naquin, who finished as the final table bubble boy. His elimination in tenth place made Vidmer the chip leader and just like that the WSOP Circuit Harrah's New Orleans final table was set.
WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Nguyen | 2,379,000 |
| 2 | Anthony Vidmer | 2,523,000 |
| 3 | George Miro | 629,000 |
| 4 | Ramon Martinez | 809,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Lowery | 1,939,000 |
| 6 | Dominic Gabaldon | 975,000 |
| 7 | Michael Hallen | 1,590,000 |
| 8 | Justin Truesdell | 2,027,000 |
| 9 | Shane Smith | 1,037,000 |
Final table action is set to begin at 2 p.m. CST on Monday and one player will walk away not only with the $204,748 first-place prize, but also seats into this year’s National Championship and WSOP Main Event. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action, so be sure to check back then.