March 07 2012, Brett Collson

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event saw 222 players hit the felts, creating a combined field of 364 between the two Day 1 starting flights. The number was notably smaller than last year’s field of 415 but still created a hefty prize pool of nearly $3.5 million, of which $960,900 will go to the winner.

Part of the draw of the $10,000 buy-in Bay 101 Shooting Star event is its bounty-focused format. Every starting table on Day 1 begins with a designated “Shooting Star,” and anyone who eliminates that player will receive a $5,000 bounty, as well as an autographed t-shirt.

After only five of the 19 Shooting Stars survived Day 1a, the bounties had much more success on Day 1b. The second flight had 28 Shooting Stars, and half advanced to Day 2 after 10 levels of play. Two-time WPT champ Michael Mizrachi had the best day out of the 28 Shooting Stars. “The Grinder” doubled his stack early on by eliminating Dan Kelly to take the chip lead and finished among the leaders with 129,900 chips when the day concluded.

Other Shooting Stars moving on to Day 2 are Allen Cunningham (122,200), JC Tran (114,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (87,200), Men Nguyen (80,600), Fabrice Soulier (78,300), Linda Johnson (76,000), David Williams (61,200), Scott Seiver (56,500), Nam Le (54,800), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (46,100), Chau Giang (41,000), Antonio Esfandiari (35,300) and Jason Mercier (20,300).

While half the Shooting Stars pressed forward, the other half handed over their autographed tee along with a $5,000 check to their bounty hunter. Eugene Katchalov, Erick Lindgren, Chris Moorman, Jennifer Harman, Todd Brunson, Ben Lamb, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen and defending champ Alan Sternberg were all sent to the rail on Day 1a. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Katchalov and Brunson were both eliminated by Michael Wywrot, who was the only player to eliminate two Shooting Stars during the day.

Of the 95 players who survived Day 1b, Chris Summers finished on top with a stack of 188,000 to earn the $10,000 bonus given to the chip leader at the end of each day. He’s followed closely by former WPT champ Taylor von Kriegenberg, who lost the last hand of the night to fall short of claiming the bonus. He’ll take 181,300 chips into Day 2, while Max Silver (155,000), Scott Baumstein (133,600) and Kent Washington (131,000) rounded out the top five on the Day 1b leaderboard.

When the field merges on Wednesday, everyone will be chasing Day 1a chip leader Bryce Yockey, who takes 245,300 chips into Day 2. Play will begin at 1045 PST (1845 GMT) on Tuesday, and the 149 remaining players will attempt to play through the money bubble (36 players will cash) and down to the final 18.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into Day 2:

Check back in to PokerNews.com for daily recaps from Bay 101.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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March 06 2012, Brett Collson

The World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event got under way in San Jose, Calif., with the first of two Day 1 flights on Monday. The $10,000 buy-in event is one of the more popular stops on the circuit each year because of its unique format. Every starting table on Day 1 begins with a notable “Shooting Star,” and anyone who eliminates that player will receive a $5,000 bounty as well as an autographed t-shirt.

The day began with 142 players, and only 54 survived after 10 levels of play. Several bounties were awarded on Monday as only five of the 19 Shooting Stars advanced to Day 2. Among the bounty players sent to the rail were Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Liv Boeree, Joe Hachem, Dywte Pilgrim, Maria Ho, Will Failla, Erik Seidel and Faraz Jaka.

Pilgrim was the first bounty to hit the rail when his flopped set of fours finished second best to Dzung Nguyen’s set of kings. Nearly nine hours later, Jaka was the last Shooting Star eliminated. On the final hand of the night, Jaka was all in preflop with against Brandon Wong’s , and the board gave no help to the WPT Season 8 Player of the Year.

Bryce Yockey collected the $5,000 bounty for eliminating Erik Seidel and also received the $10,000 prize for finishing the day atop the chip counts. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Yockey won a flip with against Seidel’s to send the Hall of Famer packing, and then moments later he made quads to claim the chip lead. On a board of , Yockey three-bet shoved with and Paul McCaffrey called, sending his entire stack over to Yockey on one the final hands of the night.

Yockey holds a sizeable lead with 245,300 going into Day 2, which will commence on Wednesday. Wong (195,600), Amir Khaziri (187,700), Shannon Shorr (183,400) and David Peters (142,100) also finished Day 1a with big stacks.

Only five Shooting Stars survived on Monday, but all are in good shape heading into Day 2. Vanessa Selbst (124,500), Christian Harder (107,700), Jonathan Duhamel (102,200), and Mike Matusow (83,800) are all above the average stack of 78,888, and Kathy Liebert finished with 61,500. Liebert added some much-needed chips to her stack when she knocked out fellow Shooting Star Sam Stein during the final level of the day.

Here’s a look at some of the notable stacks after Day 1a of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event:

Around 30 more Shooting Stars will hit the felt on Day 1b, including Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Allen Cunningham, defending champ Alan Sternberg, and WPT commentator Mike Sexton, who finished sixth in this event last year.

Day 1b begins Tuesday at 1045 PST (1845 GMT). Check back in to PokerNews.com for daily recaps from Bay 101.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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