DUSTIN STEWART LEADS ON DAY 3 OF THE MAIN EVENT

Day 2 of the $1,700 Main Event at Harrah's New Orleans is complete after 10 levels of play. Out of 582 entries in this tournament, just eight players remain.

Leading the field is World Series of Poker Circuit champion Dustin Stewart. He bagged a hefty 5,030,000 chips, good for 100 big blinds coming in to Day 3 on May 20th at 12:00PM. He is closely followed by John Cressend with 4,665,000 chips, and Yousef Saleh rounds out the top three with 3,365,000.

Here is a look at the final 8 players in this Main Event, coming back to Level 27: 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante: 

Seat 1: Allen Brivic - 505,000 (10 bb)
Seat 2: Dustin Stewart - 5,030,000 (100 bb)
Seat 3: John Templeton - 745,000 (14 bb)
Seat 4: Chris Lane - 1,200,000 (24 bb)
Seat 5: Yousef Saleh - 3,365,000 (67 bb)
Seat 6: Bill Phillips - 630,000 (12 bb)
Seat 7: John Cressend - 4,665,000 (93 bb)
Seat 8: Jon Guidry - 1,100,000 (22 bb)

The remaining players are guaranteed a payout of $21,620, but all eyes are on $185,158 for the winner, along with a gold WSOP Circuit ring and a seat into the 2019 Global Casino Championship.

The route to Day 3 was eventful as usual. Day 2 began with 101 players and the bubble burst just a couple of hours into play. Raymond Curran was the unfortunate player to be eliminated one spot before the money, running his ace-king into the aces of Jacob Foley. All remaining players guaranteed themselves $2,883 and a shot at glory. 

Once in the money, players started to drop in quick succession. The Global Casino Championship race is still tight, so many players tried to hold on as long as possible. Familiar faces that finished in the money but were unable to make Day 3 included the likes of Stephen Song (10th - $13,826), Foster Hays (11th - $13,826), Dylan Wilkerson (15th - $11,269), DJ Alexander (18th - $9,302), Darren Martin (29th - $4,894), Caufman Talley (31st - $4,303), Tim Burt (38th - $3,439), Michael Lech (40th - $3,439), Dan Lowery (43rd - $3,439), Cory Waaland (46th - $3,130), Barbara Sargent (53rd - $3,130) and Kevin Eyster (55th - $2,883).

The final table normally comes together when just 10 players remain, however Foster Hays and Stephen Song were eliminated in 11th and 10th place, respectively, and the official final table of 9 came together. Hays had his aces cracked by Yousef Saleh on a flop with two sixes on it. Saleh held ace-six and Hays was sent to the rail. Over on the other table, Song lost a series of big pots after having 3.8 million in chips with two tables left. He ran jacks into the aces of John Cressend, and then lost a flip with sevens to Stewart's ace-king, send him to the rail in 10th place. 

Stephen Bierman was the first to go on the final table and found himself in a battle of the blinds. Cressend limped from the small blind and Bierman shoved for about 1.4 million from the big blind. Cressend snap-called and Bierman was unable to improve, going home in 9th place. Play continued for just another 30 minutes before the final 8 players bagged for the night. 

Day 3 begins at 12:00PM on May 20th for the final day of the final US Circuit stop of the season. Play will conclude once a winner is crowned, so follow along on WSOP.com for Live Updates.

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