Poker News

One of the most popular events on the World Poker Tour (WPT), the Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event, kicked off on Monday as 311 players bought-in to Day 1A of the tournament hoping to become the next member of the Champion’s Club. Just 106 made it to Day 2 with Bay 101 defending champ, James Carroll, emerging with the chip lead. He has already made a profit on his $7,500 entry, as Bay 101 is giving the chip leaders after the two starting flights $10,000.

As many readers may know, Bay 101 Shooting Star is a unique event on the World Poker Tour, as more than four dozen players are marked as “Shooting Stars” and have a $2,500 bounty on their heads. The Shooting Stars are split relatively equally between the two starting days. As is tradition, they all have a t-shirt with their face emblazoned upon it, which they autograph and give as a trophy to the player who eliminates them. Of course, it is never fun to be knocked out of a tournament, but the Shooting Stars are usually well-spirited when it comes to signing the shirt and posing for a picture with their executioner.

As mentioned, James Carroll won this event last year and currently sits in first place with nearly 300,000 chips. There is a long, long way to go before he can claim victory, but it would certainly be something if Carroll can earn the repeat title, as nobody in World Poker Tour history has ever won the same event in two consecutive years. It would also be that much more spectacular considering we just had a back-to-back WPT champ when Anthony Zinno won his second consecutive WPT Main Event. A back-to-back champ immediately followed by a repeat champ would make this season one for the ages.

Carroll has a healthy resume of live tournament cashes, but the $1.256 million he won at last year’s Bay 101 is by far his largest, making up the bulk of his nearly $2 million in overall earnings. He has a couple six-figure cashes on his record, including a seventh place finish in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker and a win in the 2012 Heartland Poker Tour Las Vegas Main Event.

This is a single re-entry event, which means just what you think it means: players can plunk down another $7,500 one time if they are eliminated to give it another shot. Anyone who was eliminated on Day 1A who did not use their re-entry can still do so until play starts at 11:00am PST on Tuesday.

World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event – Day 1A Chip Leaders

1.    James Carroll – 297,600
2.    Ravee Mathi – 282,000
3.    David Miscikowski – 253,900
4.    John Hennigan – 248,700
5.    Brian Rast – 237,000
6.    Justin Young – 224,300
7.    Faraz Jaka – 219,700
8.    Dean Freedlander – 209,100
9.    Grayson Ramage – 167,000
10.    Steve Na – 166,900

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