Day 1B of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star wrapped up late Tuesday night with another 222 players stepping up to the plate and only 96 surviving to fight on Day 2. Leading the way as the proud owner of the both the largest chip stack and the $10,000 bonus that goes along with it was Christ Summers with 188,200 chips. Nipping at his heels was last season’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown champ Taylor von Kriegenbergh, who ended the night with 181,300 chips.
This day saw 28 poker celebrities designated as Shooting Stars, each with a $5,000 bounty on their heads. The Shooting Stars for Day 1B were: Scotty Nguyen, Nam Le, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein, Mike Sexton, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Harman, Jason Mercier, Ben Lamb, Scott Seiver, Men Nguyen, Elky Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, J.C. Tran, Fabrice Soulier, Linda Johnson, Todd Brunson, Alan Sternberg, Freddy Deeb, Allen Cunningham, Michael Mizrachi, Chino Rheem, Matt Giannetti, David Williams, Chris Moorman, Allen Bari, Erick Lindgren, and Marvin Rettenmaier.
Half of them – Tran, Cunningham, Rettenmaeir, Grospelier, Johnson, Williams, Soulier, Seiver, Le, Men Nguyen, Esfandiari, Giang, and Mercier – survived to play on Day 2.
With a total of 364 players combined across the two starting flights, the prize pool for $9,500 + $500 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star was built up to $3,458,000. A total of 36 players will get paid, the final six of whom will earn six-figure paydays in addition to making the televised final table. First place pays out a healthy $960,900.
Aside from the bounties, the other unique aspect of this tournament is the level structure. On both Days 1A and 1B, the levels were just 60-minutes long. Today, the levels increase to 90-minutes in duration, while tomorrow the levels become 120-minutes long. Additionally, once the money bubble bursts and the field is narrowed to 36 players, the tables will be changed to six-handed.
Day 2 begins at 10:45am local time Wednesday and will continue until either seven more levels have been completed or there are just 18 players left, whichever comes first (there are 149 players remaining). Should it be the latter, the money bubble will burst at some point today. Thursday’s Day 3 is then supposed to play down to the final six with the final table scheduled for Friday.
WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star – End of Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Christ Summers – 188,000
2. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 181,300
3. Max Silver – 155,000
4. Scott Baumstein – 133,600
5. Kent Washington – 131,000
6. Michael Mizrachi – 129,900
7. Allen Cunningham – 122,200
8. JC Tran – 114,300
9. Tommy Vedes – 111,000
10. Stephen Chidwick – 107,700
WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star – Combined End of Days 1A and 1B Chip Leaders
1. Bryce Yockey – 245,300
2. Brandon Wong – 195,600
3. Christ Summers – 188,000
4. Shannon Shorr – 183,400
5. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 181,300
6. Amir Khaziri – 177,700
7. Max Silver – 155,000
8. Pete Nguyen – 148,800
9. David Peters – 142,100
10. Neil Blumenfield – 139,400