Attendance was up at the 2009 Bay 101 Shooting Star event, a stop on the seventh season of the World Poker Tour (WPT). This time around, a total of 391 players turned out (up from 376 last year), helped in part by a 256 player showing on Day 1B. The tournament’s champion, who will be crowned on Friday, takes home $1.02 million.
Day 1B saw Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron emerge at the top of the pack, taking home a $10,000 paycheck for finishing as the chip leader. He gained a tremendous amount of fame as well as a sizable bankroll boost after taking fourth in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final for $932,000 last April, an event ultimately won by Canadian Glen Chorny. Baron also has five WPT cashes to his name for a total of $140,000. He’s one of the world’s most respected live and online poker players. Baron amassed a stack of 153,700 after Day 1B, which is good for third overall entering Day 2 on Wednesday. Among those joining Baron on Day 2 at Table 31 will be Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer.
Baron told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman after play had concluded on Tuesday how he collected Chris Ferguson’s $5,000 bounty, “He had about 16,000 chips and it was the last hand of the night. I had A-J and raised. He went all-in for 16,000 and I was pretty sure I was calling even if it wasn’t a bounty. He had A-10 and was drawing dead on the turn.”
Also coming out near the top on Tuesday was Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar, who holds 137,500 chips, the second largest stack of Day 1B and the fourth largest overall entering play on Wednesday. Rajkumar was the champion of the WPT Borgata Poker Open last September, defeating a final table that included Sang Kim, Dan Heimiller, Jason Strochak, Mark Seif, and Andrew Knee. Rajkumar pocketed $1.4 million for his efforts in that tournament. He also won the $10,000 buy-in Heads-Up preliminary event held at Bay 101 this year. Rajkumar can be found in Seat 4 of Table 28 on Wednesday. He’ll be flanked by Daniel Alaei, Freddy Deeb, and Chorny, among others, in a tough draw.
The top 10 chip stacks entering the combined Day 2 field on Wednesday are:
1st: Michael Nguyen – 198,300
2nd: David Pham – 160,600
3rd: Isaac Baron – 153,700
4th: Vivek Rajkumar – 137,500
5th: Danny Kim – 131,400
6th: Luis Veledor – 129,400
7th: Conner Stockett – 124,500
8th: Jonathan Little – 121,300
9th: Gary Tighe – 114,600
10th: Chau Vu – 109,400
A total of 50 players entered the Bay 101 with $5,000 bounties on their heads. After 25 took the field on Day 1A and another 25 hit the felts on Day 1B, just 20 remain:
2nd: David Pham – 160,600
8th: Jonathan Little – 121,300
15th: Kathy Liebert – 97,800
17th: Daniel Negreanu – 95,700
23rd: Allen Cunningham – 84,000
37th: Annie Duke – 73,800
42nd: Freddy Deeb – 68,300
47th: Joe Sebok – 65,200
49th: Kenny Tran – 63,700
52nd: Howard Lederer – 62,200
58th: Hoyt Corkins – 57,200
77th: T.J. Cloutier – 44,800
80th: Brandon Cantu – 41,900
85th: Eli Elezra – 38,900
90th: “Miami” John Cernuto – 36,100
106th: Men “The Master” Nguyen – 27,500
107th: Erick Lindgren – 27,400
117th: Paul Wasicka – 23,100
128th: Jennifer Harman – 19,700
145th: Gavin Smith – 7,100
The winner of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event will see their bankroll balloon by $1.02 million. The top 45 players will finish in the money, with 37th through 45th places pocketing $12,500 in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Here are the prizes at the final table this year:
1st Place: $1,025,500
2nd Place: $550,000
3rd Place: $291,500
4th Place: $230,000
5th Place: $180,000
6th Place: $135,000
Play resumes today at 10:45am Pacific Time. On Thursday, the action kicks off at Noon and the six-handed televised final table will take place on Friday at 4:00pm. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event.
