One of the most fun World Poker Tour events of the year kicked off Monday as the 2014 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star held its Day 1A at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California. Now in its twelfth year, the tournament features the excitement of $2,500 bounties on as many as 25 “shooting stars” scattered amongst the tables. When eliminated, these stars traditionally autograph a shirt with their picture on it for the player who eliminated them. Though nobody likes to be knocked out of a tournament, the stars usually have a lot of fun with it, happily handing over the t-shirt prize and posing for pictures.
Giorgio Medici emerged as the chip leader at the end of the night, bagging 254,600 chips. Hot on his heels was Hai Tran, who will begin Day 2 with 253,500. David Forster was the only other player to finish with over 200,000, going to bed with 225,200 chips to his name.
Of the 312 players who started Day 1A, 114 finished with chips. Of those 114, twelve are shooting stars: including David Chiu, Jason Koon, Dominik Nitsche, Matthew Salsberg, Jonathan Duhamel, Marvin Rettenmaier, Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast, Loni Harwood, Faraz Jaka, Blair Hinkle, and Eugene Katchalov.
There were 17 shooting stars who hit the rail on Monday, but do have the option to re-enter on Tuesday. Alphabetically, they are Todd Brunson, Tony Dunst, Jay Farber, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Phil Laak, Nam Le, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Noah Schwartz, Erik Seidel, Mike Sexton, Jennifer Tilly, J.C. Tran, and Paul Volpe.
One of those eliminated stars had a good attitude about his bust-out, as he tends to have. Upon his elimination, Daniel Negreanu tweeted, “sick bust out hand. JJ vs QQ board is Q75J with 3 spades I have the Jack of spades. Missed and I’m out and re-entering tomorrow.”
Todd Brunson, on the other hand, was not so chipper, relaying his bad beat story. “Just unreal. Every year something like this happens to me in this tournament,” he tweeted. “Everyone folds to the small blind who calls. I’m BB I check. Flop is 982. I have J9. He bets 2500 I call. Turn a 10. He bets 15k which is all I have. I call. He shows 68. Dead to a 8 or 6. River 6!!!”
The cards have just gotten in the air for Day 1B at the Bay 101 Casino as there are likely to be a few hundred more players going for the gold and aiming for those $2,500 bounties. In addition to the bounties, the leader at the end of each starting flight takes home an additional $10,000. So Mr. Medici is officially freerolling.
2014 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event – Day 1A Chip Leaders
1. Giorgio Medici – 254,600
2. Hai Tran – 253,500
3. David Forster – 225,200
4. Mukul Pahuja – 189,100
5. Bryan Campanello – 182,300
6. David Chiu – 174,000
7. Shawn Buchanan – 164,700
8. Isaac Baron – 160,600
9. Jason Koon – 149,600
10. Chad Eveslage – 137,400
Thank you to WPT.com for tournament updates and chip counts.
