UB.com pro and 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth leads the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star event entering its play down day. By the end of Thursday, six players will be left standing.
It’s hard to believe. Hellmuth holds the record for number of bracelets won and has made three WPT final tables. However, one accolade the decorated poker pro lacks is a WPT title. After a two-year hiatus from reaching a final table on the roving tournament series, Hellmuth is poised to buck the trend by leading the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event after two days of play.
Hellmuth told WPT Live Updates Hostess Jacque following Wednesday’s action, “It feels pretty good. I played about as well as I could play today. I had a huge hand against [Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka]. He’s a great young player and has so much talent. He moves his chips so well and the only way I could beat him was to try to play tight.” In a key hand between the two, the final board read J-J-4-3-Q and Hellmuth led out for 21,000. Jaka made the call and Hellmuth showed Q-J for a boat. Coverage found on the WPT’s website explained, “Jaka didn’t appear to expect such a strong hand, and he says with sincerity, ‘Wow! Nice hand,’ as he mucks his own cards.”
Hellmuth’s competition was anything but soft on Day 2. The feature table included Hellmuth, Jaka, Andy “BKiCe” Seth, Unabomber Poker’s Phil Laak, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Tyler “brainwash” Cornell, J.C. Tran, and Day 1B chip leader Eugene Katchalov. Jaka doubled through Katchalov early on after his pocket queens caught a set against Katchalov’s pocket aces. Jaka ended with the seventh largest stack at 332,500, with Hellmuth amassing 550,000 chips during two days of play.
Seth, an online poker legend, busted Shooting Stars in back-to-back hands at the feature table to collect a pair of $5,000 bounties and autographed shirts. Tran was all-in with K-5 of spades on a board reading K-8-5-10 for top and bottom pair. However, Seth flipped over a wired pair of eights for a set. Tran shouted for a king on the river to stave off elimination, but a seven fell.
On the very next hand, 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang called all-in with pocket fives on a board of 9-5-2. However, he was the victim of a set-over-set situation, as Seth showed pocket nines. The board filled out 10-4 and Seth claimed his second straight Shooting Star bounty. The youngster will enter Day 3 with the third largest stack at 453,000.
The money bubble burst on Wednesday with the elimination of Michael Cooper in 37th place. Cooper ran pocket tens into the pocket aces of Scotty Nguyen. Then, a bevy of bust outs occurred, including Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania in 34th place, Steve “gboro780” Gross in 33rd place, and PokerXFactor instructor Chris “Fox” Wallace in 28th place. Twenty-seven players survived to see Day 3:
1. Phil Hellmuth – 550,000
2. Hasan Habib – 496,000
3. Andy “BKiCe” Seth – 453,000
4. Dan O’Brien – 439,000
5. Matt Keikoan – 426,500
6. Nick Schulman – 381,500
7. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka – 332,500
8. Brian “tsarrast” Rast – 322,000
9. Chau Giang – 307,500
10. David Forster – 305,500
11. Joseph “BigEgypt” Elpayaa – 302,000
12. Vanna Tea – 279,000
13. Lon Diamond – 242,000
14. Lars Elmoe – 216,000
15. Taylor Raines – 198,000
16. John Monnette – 179,000
17. Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – 177,500
18. Dan Gamon – 170,500
19. Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo – 154,000
20. “Miami” John Cernuto – 134,500
21. Scotty Nguyen – 132,500
22. Tom Marchese – 117,500
23. Ted Jivkov – 105,500
24. Tim McDermott – 80,000
25. Thuy Phan – 78,000
26. Kafir Nahum – 73,000
27. McLean Karr – 30,500
When play wrapped up on Wednesday night, the blinds were 1,500-3,000 with an ante of 500. Each player remaining is assured at least $17,000 and today’s action will conclude when the six-handed final table is determined. The survivors will battle on Friday for an $878,000 top prize. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.
