The final table has been determined for the 2016 World Poker Tour’s Bay 101 Shooting Star event in San Jose, CA and only one Shooting Star, poker professional/announcer Maria Ho, remains with their bounty intact.
To say the Day 3 field was a competitive one would be a huge understatement. Dylan Linde brought the 36 survivors to the line for the start of action on Thursday, looking at a long day of work to reach the six-player final table before stopping. There were still five Shooting Stars left in the field at this time – Noah Schwartz (1.32 million chips), Dominik Nitsche (1.043 million), Connor Drinan (359K), Matt Salsberg (340K) and Ho (462K) – along with other contenders such as Kyle Julius and WPT Champions’ Club members Shawn Buchanan, Anthony Gregg, Alexander Lakhov and Griffin Paul. In addition to this title, two players – Jake Schwartz and Andjelko Andrejevic – were looking to add some points to their WPT Player of the Year total to push them up that leaderboard.
Noah Schwartz would see his dreams of the Bay 101 championship disappear within the first hour of play on Thursday in a cooler of a hand. After Stefan Schillhabel bumped the action from the cutoff, Schwartz three-bet from the small blind. The big blind wanted nothing to do with the big stacked Schwartz but Schillhabel wanted to dance, four-betting Schwartz to 181K. Schwartz didn’t back down, making it 356K to go with a five bet and Schillhabel dumped his remaining chips in the center with a six bet, which Schwartz called.
If you couldn’t figure out what the hands were by now, you’ve probably not played enough poker. Schwartz’s pocket Kings looked really good but they were dominated by Schillhabel’s pocket Aces. Needing those Aces to dodge the vagaries of a five card board, Schillhabel saw a Queen high board roll out to give him the two million chip pot; once among the chip leaders, Schwartz saw himself fall to 265K in chips as he went into survival mode.
As Schillhabel soared, other players would find their way to the Bay 101 exits. Nick Rampone (33rd place, $25,690), Buchanan (32nd) and Lakhov (27th, $30,310) all were gone within the first three hours as the Shooting Star bounties held onto their tee-shirts, their medals and their $2500 in cash. Between those five players, Nitsche was the only one over a million in chips while Ho struggled with 295K in chips.
As Level 23 began, the action picked up. Drinan defeated David Miller in 26th place and Andrejevic eliminated Jake Schwartz in 25th place to enable both men to crack the million chip mark. Meanwhile, Ho began to come to life, doubling up through Linde with a pocket pair of Jacks that flopped a set against Linde’s A-9 off suit. In a fight of Shooting Stars, Nitsche was able to take a decent pot when he flopped trip sixes and rivered a sixes over Aces boat to take about 300K in chips off of Noah Schwartz. Schillhabel, though, continued to charge, nearly besting the three million chip mark in sending Ankush Mandavia to the rail when his pocket Jacks withstood the race with Mandavia’s A-10 off suit.
Ho became a threat in the tournament once she decided to take on Schillhabel. After Schillhabel raised from the button and Ho defended her big blind, a 9-8-6 flop seemed to help no one. Ho would check-call Schillhabel bets on both the flop and the turn (a ten), then both players shut down when the board paired with a six on the river. First to act, Ho showed a 9-7 for the turned straight and Schillhabel had nothing for her, mucking his cards as Ho’s stack broke the million chip mark.
Schwartz and Nitsche were arguably the most entertaining of the matchups around the Bay 101 tournament arena during Day 3. The twosome fought it out all the way to dinner, at one point Schwartz doubling up through Nitsche to slightly more than 1.5 million, only to see Nitsche turn around on the next hand and double back through Schwartz. The battle waged onward until it was interrupted by the dinner bell when they and the remainder of the 15 player field took a break.
Coming back from the break, Griffin Paul began to take over. Sitting on a massive stack, Paul knocked off Nitsche in 14th place to rocket over the five million mark in chips. Ho made a charge, doubling though Drinan to reach 1.5 million, and she was joined by Andrejevic (who eliminated Noah Schwartz in 13th place) and Gregg. Still ruling the roost was Schillhabel, though, as the final 12 players joined together in two tables.
Paul would continue his ascent, eliminating Salsberg in 12th place to take over the chip lead as Schillhabel saw Ho take chips from his stack as he fell under four million (Ho was threatening the 2.5 million mark at this point). Schillhabel wasn’t Ho’s only “whipping boy” as Paul also felt the sting of Ho’s excellent play, folding to her all in five bet and sacrificing more than 600K in chips in the process. Drinan recovered from his bouts with Ho, securing his own double up through Jim Collopy when Drinan’s pocket Aces lived to tell the tale over Collopy’s Big Slick.
Once Bryan Piccioli eliminated Paulo Treu in 10th place, the two tables stayed in place. Gregg would complete the elimination of Collopy (left with crumbs after his clash with Drinan) in ninth place, but it was the battle between Schillhabel and Drinan that actually pulled the remainder of the field to one patch of felt. In that hand between Schillhabel and Drinan, a 9-7-6 flop saw Drinan push all in and Schillhabel call, Schillhabel’s pocket Aces leading Drinan’s J-10 (gut shot straight draw). When the turn six and the river four failed to complete Drinan’s gutter, he was out in eighth place as Schillhabel collected his bounty and took over the chip lead.
The departure of Drinan left Ho as the final Shooting Star and she showed no intentions of letting go of her bounty. Over the course of the 30-plus hands of play on the WPT television “bubble,” Ho fought off challenges from every one of her opponents. Having similar success was Schillhabel, who crafted a massive chip stack that only got larger when he laid a bad beat on Gregg, his A-4 rivering an Ace (Q-J-8-3-A) to knock off Gregg’s pocket Kings and send him out of the tournament in seventh place.
1. Stefan Schillhabel, 8.72 million
2. Griffin Paul, 5.205 million
3. Maria Ho, 3.115 million
4. Adam Geyer, 2.03 million
5. Andjelko Andrejevic, 1.985 million
6. Bryan Piccioli, 1.535 million
It’s not meant to be a joke, but any one of these competitors is well-equipped to be the champion of this tournament. Piccioli is a WSOP bracelet holder, Geyer has 74 cashes in his tournament poker career (and more than $1.6 million in earnings), Andrejevic won the 2015 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Super High Roller Championship (for a tidy $1.125 million score) and Paul is looking for his second WPT title. Ho has a long history of success in poker ($1.7 million career earnings, 64 career cashes) and Schillhabel’s previous work has primarily come in Europe, but it is a solid if unspectacular career (28 cashes, slightly less than $500,000 in career earnings). Should any of the competitors get on a run – or, as in the last hand for Schillhabel against Gregg last night, get really lucky – it is anyone’s tournament to take.
We will know the latest champion on the WPT come this evening. The final table will begin at 4PM (Pacific Time) and will be recorded for broadcast on the Season XIV television schedule for the World Poker Tour on Fox Sports.
