Yousef Saleh Wins WSOP Circuit New Orleans Main Event After Six-Year Wait

The return of the World Series of Poker Circuit stop in New Orleans brought a story of patience, resilience, and redemption. Six years after falling short at the same final table, Yousef Saleh captured the $1,700 Main Event title and his first WSOP Circuit ring.

Good to know

• The Main Event drew 510 entries and generated a prize pool worth over $770,000.
• Saleh earned $149,268, the biggest cash of his career, pushing his lifetime earnings past $500,000.
• The win came at the first WSOP Circuit New Orleans stop since before the pandemic.

Saleh was no stranger to this stage. Back in 2019, he placed seventh in New Orleans and walked away wondering what could have been. On Tuesday night, he finally closed the deal.

“It is so awesome to come back and just get it all,” Saleh said after the victory. “It was a hard job. I was down a lot after taking three bad beats earlier in the tournament, and I didn’t think I was going to recover. But I was never all in, and I think this proves you can win a tournament without flipping.”

The $149,268 payday more than doubled Saleh’s previous best score and cemented his place among Louisiana’s most successful players. What made the story sweeter was how he managed his stack. Saleh avoided major risks through much of the tournament, picked his spots carefully, and clawed back from setbacks to stay alive.

At the final table, he navigated steady swings, holding on until the decisive heads-up battle against Kane Keller. A cooler hand ended the match: Keller rivered a straight, but Saleh’s full house locked up the ring and the championship.

Final Table Results

1. Yousef Saleh – $149,268
2. Kane Keller – $99,135
3. Andrew Dykeman – $67,291
4. Alexander Jones – $46,704
5. Samuel Rosen – $33,161
6. Andrew Yurchak – $24,100
7. Joshua Pridgen – $17,938
8. Luke Martin – $13,681
9. Brandon Butler – $10,699