A total of 135 players entered the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament on Day 1A. After 10 levels of play in the Matt Savage-run tournament, just 50 remain. Now, all eyes on Tuesday will be focused on Day 1B, which kicks off at 10:45am local time.
David “The Dragon” Pham and Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little are among the chip leaders after the first of two starting days. Pham holds the second largest stack at 160,600, nearly 40,000 less than Michael Nguyen’s pace-setting 198,300. Pham is one of 10 shooting stars remaining. A total of 25 started the day and each has a $5,000 bounty on their heads to the player who can oust them from the popular WPT tournament. This week’s festivities will air on Fox Sports Net as part of Season VII of the WPT. The network will also serve as the home of Season VIII as part of a recently announced agreement.
Jonathan Little was the WPT Player of the Year during Season VI. He triumphed over the field in the Mirage Poker Showdown that season for $1.1 million and finished as the runner up to Scott “BigRiskky” Clements in the North American Poker Championship for another $680,000. Little nearly scored a third final table appearance at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in Biloxi, but ultimately finished seventh for $93,000. He owns the fourth largest chip stack at the Bay 101 after Day 1A with 121,300.
Other shooting stars remaining include Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke. Currently a contestant on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” Duke’s all-female Athena team has won three straight challenges. Although her teammates disapproved of her assertive style during the first two episodes, she changed gears and blended into the background on last week’s show. She, may, however, be switching teams on Sunday, as she appears in a preview commenting on the upcoming “Dennis Rodman Meltdown.” The “Celebrity Apprentice” airs at 9:00pm ET on NBC and runs for two hours. In San Jose, Duke holds the 12th largest chip stack of 73,800, about 20,000 above the average.
Freddy Deeb holds the 15th largest stack after Day 1A of 68,300. The two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner grabbed his first piece of hardware in 1996 after taking down a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball tournament for $146,000. The final table of the tiny 24 player field also included Doyle Brunson and “High Stakes Poker” host Gabe Kaplan. Deeb famously won the 2007 WSOP HORSE Championship for $2.3 million, besting Bruno Fitoussi heads-up. He also took down the 2005 Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic, which was then a WPT-sanctioned event, for $1 million, one of his three final tables on the tournament series.
The top 10 chip stacks after Day 1A are:
1. Michael Nguyen, 198,300
2. David Pham, 160,600
3. Conner Stockett, 124,500
4. Johnathan Little, 121,300
5. Matt Lessinger, 107,700
6. Faraz Jaka, 95,600
7. Vikaly Yarkov, 87,400
8. Jeff Mince, 80,200
9. Chad Brown, 77,900
10. Glen Cabana, 75,800
Other notable chip stacks after Day 1A at the WPT tournament include:
13. Daniel Alaei, 73,500
17. Joe Sebok, 65,200
18. Kenny Tran, 63,700
21. Gabe Thaler, 58,700
23. Hoyt Corkins, 57,200
31. Greg “FBT” Mueller, 30,200
33. Erick Lindgren, 27,400
40. Paul Wasicka, 23,100
41. Tim West, 22,400
43. Maria Ho, 20,100
50. Gavin Smith, 7,100
Shawn Buchanan knocked a total of three bounties out of the tournament, collecting $15,000. Among his victims were David Singer, Jamie Gold, and Marco Traniello. He also had the dubious distinction of being the last elimination of Day 1A, but ultimately profited $5,000 in the $10,000 buy-in event. The tournament room was also buzzing about the prop bet between Will Failla and Kenny Tran over the number of players who would survive Day 1A. Failla claimed there would be 50 or fewer, while Tran wanted over 50. Buchanan’s elimination won the $10,000 bet for Failla, who is now freerolling through the marquee WPT event.
Play resumes at 10:45am PT on Tuesday and plays down to a winner on Friday. Stay turned to Poker News Daily for the latest from San Jose.
