The Bay 101 Shooting Star event, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT), began on Monday afternoon in San Jose, California with 142 players. When the drama ended for the evening, just 66 remained with Day 1B looming on the horizon today.
Each Shooting Star had a $5,000 bounty on their head and the end of Day 1A chip leader would earn $10,000 for their stellar performance. Twenty-five Shooting Stars joined the field for Monday’s action, including PartyPoker pro Kara Scott, who ended Day 1A third in chips with 137,100. Scott trails the pile of 187,700 belonging to chip leader Brian Schmidt.
Shooting Star Freddy Deeb suffered an untimely end to Day 1A. He tripled up after being all-in from the big blind with A-K and up against pocket nines and K-10 suited. The board fell 8-6-2-A-J and Deeb dodged a flush draw on the river to stay in the hunt. Soon after, however, Deeb called all-in on a board showing A-Q-4-J-7 only to watch Alex Yi table K-10 for the nuts. Deeb mucked and signed over his Shooting Star shirt.
Also tripling up late was 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Jerry Yang. He was all-in before the flop with cowboys and up against PokerStars pro Greg DeBora’s pocket sevens and Richard Toth’s pocket jacks. Toth had both players covered, but none of the three improved when the community cards came A-10-3-Q-8. Yang tripled up to 38,000 in chips, Toth moved to 67,000, and DeBora’s Bay 101 Shooting Star run abruptly ended. Yang ultimately busted out at the hands of Layne Flack.
Poker’s all-time tournament money leader, Erik Seidel, was bumped from the WPT event on Monday. Seidel ran pocket jacks into the pocket queens belonging to John Pries on his final hand and could not draw out. Following his elimination, Seidel joked on Twitter, “I’m out of Bay 101. In lieu of sympathy cards, please transfer money to me on Full Tilt.” He’ll be one of the many pros battling for the Full Tilt Poker Onyx Cup come May.
Frank Kassela, a Shooting Star and the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year, was sent packing after moving all-in on a flop of J-8-6 holding pocket nines. His timing was less than stellar, however, as Michael Amigleo showed K-J for top pair and the board filled out Q-4. Also eliminated on Monday was former WSOP Main Event champion and 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Dan Harrington.
Scott doubled up midway through the day at the expense of two-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes. She was all-in with pocket kings on a flop of 10-7-3 and had to duck the gutshot straight draw of Hughes, who tabled J-8. The turn was a four and the river was a five and Scott moved to over 100,000 in chips.
Finally, a particularly chatty Daniel Negreanu showed up to Bay 101 on Monday. He Tweeted his chip counts and key hands throughout the afternoon, concluding with, “Ended Day 1 with 64,100. Lost with Q-Q vs K-J then lost with 10-10 vs K-K. Still in good shape. Time to get some grub and come back in 2 days.”
Here are the top five on the leaderboard after Day 1A of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star stop:
1. Brian Schmidt – 187,700
2. Eric Moore – 160,000
3. Kara Scott – 137,100
4. Mehrdad Nouralishahi – 136,000
5. Layne Flack – 131,300
Day 1B kicks off at 10:00am PT today with a brand new field and will stretch for ten levels. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.