After a hard-fought week, the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star event is set. The group is led by Steve Brecher, who holds 2.06 million chips, barely edging out Tony Behari, who comes armed to the six-handed final table with a stack of 2.05 million. Kathy Liebert is also in contention.
Brecher is a Full Tilt Poker sponsored pro who longtime WPT fans will remember as being the sixth place finisher in the Season II Championship event at the Bellagio. He banked $232,000 in that tournament, which was ultimately won by Martin De Knijff. Also joining him at the final table in Las Vegas were Hasan Habib and Matt Matros, who took second and third, respectively. Brecher finished third in the Main Event of the 2005 United States Poker Championship (USPC) for $220,000. He can be found in Seat 3 at Bay 101 when play resumes on Friday at 4:00pm local time. Brecher told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, “It’s great to be back. My day was great for most of it. I dwindled some in the last couple of levels.”
Behari will be making his first WPT final table appearance. For Kathy Liebert, however, the Bay 101 Shooting Star event will mark her sixth WPT final table, truly an impressive feat. She has three cashes of six-figures to her name on the WPT felts, including a $427,000 payday for placing third in the Borgata Poker Open during Season IV and a $257,000 take for finishing fifth in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals during Season V. In October, she banked $282,000 for a third place finish in the North American Poker Championship.
Liebert owns a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet by virtue of taking down a $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Shootout in 2004 for $110,000. In that tournament, she triumphed over fellow WSOP bracelet winner Kevin Song heads-up. Liebert took third in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em in 2008 for $306,000, earning face time on ESPN in the process. The tournament served as the first of ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP last year and its final table also featured Poker News Daily columnist Mike Sexton, Andy Bloch, Patrik Antonius, Phil Laak, Amit “amak316” Makhija, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Chris Bell, and eventual champion Nenad Medic.
Here are the stacks entering the six-handed televised final table today in San Jose, California:
Steve Brecher – 2,056,000
Tony Behari – 2,046,000
Chris Moore – 1,476,000
Kathy Liebert – 1,180,000
Thao Le – 711,000
Chau Vu – 352,000
A total of 50 players began the Bay 101 tournament as Shooting Stars. Each bore a $5,000 bounty, given to the player who knocked them out. After 49 eliminations, Liebert stands as the only bounty remaining. If she wins the tournament, she will actually collect her own $5,000 paycheck. Ironically, no Shooting Star has ever won the high-stakes WPT tournament. Liebert, who owns over $5 million in career earnings, told Leatherman what she’s done with her winnings: “I invest, [but] it’s impossible to invest well nowadays.”
The top 45 players finished in the money. Notable names that can be found on the leader board include:
7th Place: Michael Kamran (Los Angeles, California) – $90,000
12th Place: Amnon Filippi (New York, New York) – $40,000
16th Place: Vivek Rajkumar (Seattle, Washington) – $30,000
21st Place: Hoyt Corkins (Las Vegas, Nevada) – $25,000
25th Place: Joe Sebok (San Francisco, California) – $20,000
26th Place: Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, California) – $20,000
35th Place: Paul Wasicka (Las Vegas, Nevada) – $15,000
38th Place: Daniel Alaei (Las Vegas, Nevada) – $12,500
Here is what’s at stake for the final six players:
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
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WPT Shooting Star tournament as we crown the newest WPT self-made millionaire on Friday.