It took only nine hours for the players at the World Poker Tour’s Bay 101 Shooting Stars to determine the final table, with a historic occurrence once the final six were determined.
Twenty men returned for battle on Thursday, looking for one of those coveted seats at a WPT final table. Leading the way was Scott Baumstein’s 1.3 million chip stack, but hot in pursuit were 2010 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner Jonathan Duhamel, top pros Joseph Elpayaa and Erik Cajelais and a short stacked J. C. Tran (along with Duhamel, the only Shooting Stars left in the tournament). From the start, the pros were active in trying to move up to challenge Baumstein for the lead.
Duhamel and Amir Lehavot clashed in the early going, with Lehavot taking a double up first and then Duhamel returning the favor. Local player Steven Michaelis and Moon Kim battled in a dramatic hand, with Michaelis holding Big Slick and Kim Big Chick, that wasn’t decided until the river. After a Queen flopped, Kim took the lead, but a King reversed that on the turn to Michaelis. Stunningly, a second Queen came on the river to give the hand to Kim and eliminate Michaelis in 20th place.
Cajelais made his move to the top of the leaderboard (a place that he would reside for much of Thursday’s play) in a pivotal hand against former WPT champion Taylor von Kriegenberg. With a good stack of chips in the center on a J-9-4 flop, von Kriegenberg checked his option to Cajelais, who fired a 100K bet that was called by von Kriegenberg.
A nine on the turn brought the same actions from the players, but it was the Jack on the river that opened the floodgates. Von Kriegenberg checked once again, followed by a bet from Cajelais, and von Kriegenberg made the call. Once Cajelais turned up his K-J for a boat, von Kriegenberg was knocked down to just 100K in chips and eliminated in 19th place on the next hand by Cajelais, who assumed the chip lead.
Down to three tables, the two remaining Shooting Stars would soon meet their demise. Mike McClain was able to defeat Tran, with McClain holding pocket fours against Tran’s A-8 off suit (it was the second bounty claimed by McClain in the tournament). Almost three hours into play, Duhamel was the final Shooting Star to fall when his A-6 failed to catch up against Ubaid Habib’s A-10. With Duhamel’s elimination in 13th place, the Bay 101 event would not have a Shooting Star at its final table for the first time in its history.
While the carnage was going on with the Shooting Stars, Cajelais continued his excellent play. Down to two tables, Elpayaa was only about 100K in chips behind Cajelais and Joe Serock had climbed into the third place slot. Over the next six hours, the twelve men would be whittled down to the final six who will determine the champion.
It wasn’t easy for the leaders to get there, however. Cajelais doubled up McClain and Brandon Wong, but was able to get those chips back against Baumstein. Elpayaa was able to increase his chip stack also by eliminating McClain from the tournament in ninth place. Serock rode a rollercoaster to the final seven players, who took four hours to knock out the final table bubble boy.
Over the span of 100 hands, the final seven played aggressively but intelligently, knowing what was at stake. Cajelais was particularly active, pushing his stack up to 2.8 million about two hours into bubble play. The players even decided against a dinner break, attempting to end the event with the final elimination of the day.
The end of the day came with a battle between Kim and Amir Khaziri. After a raise from Kim and a call from Habib, Khaziri made his stand for less than 500K. Kim made the call and, after a fold from Habib (showing pocket deuces), they were off to the races, with Kim holding pocket nines and Khaziri holding a suited A-K. Once the board came ten high, Amir Khaziri was eliminated in seventh place and setting the final table for Friday’s play:
Seat 1: Joe Elpayaa – 908,000
Seat 2: Joe Serock – 952,000
Seat 3: Moon Kim – 2,098,000
Seat 4: Ubaid Habib – 2,274,000
Seat 5: Erik Cajelais – 3,640,000
Seat 6: Andrew Badecker – 1,040,000
Cajelais has to be considered the favorite and not just because he is the chip leader. The Canadian pro has shown he can close big tournaments, with a 2009 WSOP bracelet win under his belt and over $2.5 million in career earnings. Badecker could prove to be a dangerous opponent and, although they are on the short stacks, Serock and Elpayaa could make some noise as well.
The final table of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars will be streamed on the WPT website this afternoon at 4PM (Pacific Time), with host Tony Dunst and a cadre of top pros offering commentary, and be taped as a part of the WPT’s Season X schedule for later this year.
