The WSOP Circuit is about to wrap its 2017/18 season and Harrah’s New Orleans is the final stop on the series’ schedule. The first event on the festival’s calendar kicked off a few days ago and its final of four starting flights was completed last night at the host casino.

Day 1D of the $365 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry with a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000 was utter success as it attracted 601 entries to bring the overall field to 1,340 competitors. The massive interest in Event #1 absolutely smashed the $200,000 guarantee and a prize pool of $402,000 was eventually created.

The final flight of the tournament was completed on Saturday night just before the start of Level 20. Of the 601 entries at the initial stages of the day, there were only 31 players to bag and tag for the night. They will return at the casino later today and will be joined by the 38 hopefuls from the previous starting flights.

Day 2 is slated to kick off at noon Louisiana time and the 69 survivors will play down to a winner. The event’s champion will collect $64,205 in prize money and the first gold ring of the Harrah’s New Orleans series.

Poker pro Valentin Vornicu, who currently shares the title of the winner of the most WSOP Circuit gold rings with Maurice Hawkins with ten pieces each, finished Day 1D of the Harrah’s New Orleans $365 buy-in tournament as the chip leader.

The player will thus try to win a record eleventh gold piece and have his name once again recorded in the history of the series.

Vornicu bagged and tagged 456,000 in chips last night. He will enter Day 2 of the event fourth in chips behind the three biggest stacks from the previous days. Timothy McReynolds with 455,000, Nicholas Rodriguez with 422,000, Ron Germany with 325,000, and Raymond Curran with 319,000 were the players to round out Day 1D’s top five. Each of them secured a good position into Day 2, but at the end, there will be a single player to leave with a gold ring and the first-place prize.

The $365 buy-in is the first gold ring one to take place within the Harrah’s New Orleans stop. And the casino is currently hosting the final stop on the schedule of the 2017/18 WSOP Circuit season. While the season is just days away from being completed, its end will be celebrated in a few months, when the Global Casino Championship is set to take place.

The massive tournament will see all Main Event winners from throughout the season gather at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. They will be joined by other select few and will play until the Global Casino Champion is crowned. The Championship is scheduled to take place on August 7-9.

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