WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, Day 1a Recap

By BJ Nemeth

There's an old saying in multi-day tournaments: "It's impossible to win on day one." That's true, because most major tournaments don't award any prizes until the field busts the money bubble, which usually occurs with about 10% of the entrants remaining.

But the Shooting Star tournament at Bay 101 is different, offering bounties and bonuses that can add up to more than a money finish. Even though the money bubble won't burst for another two or three days, Day 1a chipleader Brandon Cantu has already cashed for $20,000 -- double the $10,000 entry fee.

This is possible because each table starts with at least one "Shooting Star" -- a notable pro that carries a bounty. Anyone who busts a Shooting Star receives $5,000 (the bounty) and a unique t-shirt with the busted player's picture (the trophy). If a Shooting Star never busts (that is, they win the tournament), then they collect their own $5,000 bounty and keep the t-shirt.

In addition to the bounties, there are $10,000 bonuses for the players with the most chips after Day 1a, Day 1b, and Day 2.

Brandon Cantu gained momentum in the middle of the day by eliminating Bill Edler, claiming his chips and the $5,000 bounty. Edler's empty seat was filled with early chipleader John Juanda, who still had a big stack. But it wasn't big enough to withstand an unsuccessful race against Cantu -- Juanda's ace-king never improved, and Cantu picked up his second bounty of the day.

In the final level of the day, tournament director Matt Savage gave chip count updates on the big stacks as they vied for the additional $10,000 prize for the Day 1a chipleader. In the final half hour, only Thanh Che and Cantu had more than 200,000 in chips. Thanh Che is a name we aren't familiar with (yet), but he collected the $5,000 bounty on Chad Brown on his way to the chip lead, about 10,000 more than Cantu.

With less than five minutes remaining, Cantu busted one more player. The player wasn't a Shooting Star, so there was no bounty. But the pot was more than enough to give Cantu the chip lead at the end of the day, finishing with 242,300 to receive the $10,000 chipleader bonus. Thanh Che had to settle for second place on the leaderboard (no prize for that) with 215,700.

Day 1 chipleaders often fail to finish in the money, much less reach the final table. But Brandon Cantu has already had a profitable trip, likely cashing for more than some players who will finish in the money. (Details on the prizepool will be released tomorrow after registration closes.)

Of the 146 players who started Day 1a, only 47 survived with an average chip stack around 62,000. Of the 24 Shooting Stars who started on Day 1a, only five survived (see the list below). There will be a fresh batch of Shooting Stars on Day 1b, including Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, and Mike Matusow.

Here are the top five chipleaders, along with the remaining Shooting Stars:

1. Brandon Cantu - 242,300
2. Thanh Che - 215,700
3. Paul Britto - 188,500
4. Chanh Pham - 159,900
5. Zack Felder - 150,500

Shooting Stars
8. J.C. Tran - 115,600
16. Layne Flack - 63,100
30. Miami John Cernuto - 34,600
40. Kathy Liebert - 18,500
46. Men "The Master" Nguyen - 6,200

Day 1b begins tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:30 am PT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete live coverage with chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Kimberly Lansing.

Here are the official chip counts for the 47 players who survived Day 1a. (Action started with 146 players.)

The day started with 24 "Shooting Stars" with $5,000 bounties on their heads. Only five remain, and they are highlighted in bold.

For finishing as the Day 1a chipleader, Brandon Cantu received a $10,000 bonus. He was trailing Thanh Che late in the last level, but Cantu busted a player with two minutes remaining to clinch the win. Cantu also collected two bounties, so he has already converted his $10,000 buy in into $20,000.

1. Brandon Cantu - 242,300
2. Thanh Che - 215,700
3. Paul Britto - 188,500
4. Chanh Pham - 159,900
5. Zack Felder - 150,500
6. Joe Graziano - 143,600
7. Ed Fernandez - 131,200
8. J.C. Tran (Shooting Star) - 115,600
9. Mel Nicholson - 88,500
10. Serena Liu - 88,100
11. David Tran - 84,200
12. Andrew Robl - 74,800
13. Quinn Do - 73,800
14. Lee Watkinson - 70,100
15. Matt Holtzclaw - 69,600
16. Layne Flack (Shooting Star) - 63,100

AVERAGE - 62,128

17. George Panagakis - 51,200
18. Bruce Hoffman - 50,800
19. Dean Sherrell - 50,000
20. Eric Nickelson - 49,600
21. Kevin Croy - 48,100
22. Peng Cheng - 47,700
23. Paul Niemela - 46,500
24. Danny Le - 41,800
25. Danny Radditz - 40,300
26. Clyde Hinton - 39,000
27. Justin Bonomo - 38,400
28. Lu Wang - 37,900
29. Patri Friedman - 37,100
30. Miami John Cernuto (Shooting Star) - 34,600
31. Thuan Nguyen - 34,500
32. Chris McCormack - 33,300
33. David Chau - 31,200
34. Taylor Raines - 30,900
35. Wil Wilkerson - 30,200
36. Russ Lake - 26,600
37. Bobby Suer - 23,000
38. Dao Nguyen - 22,400
39. Cris Ramayrat - 21,000
40. Kathy Liebert (Shooting Star) - 18,500
41. Sovann Sin - 16,400
42. Joshua Wurzer - 15,400
43. Michael McClain - 9,000
44. Allen Kessler - 7,000
45. Howard Andrew - 6,800
46. Men "The Master" Nguyen (Shooting Star) - 6,200
47. Grant Marlow - 2,300

Day 1b begins tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:30 am PT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete live coverage with chip counts, photos, and video interviews with Kimberly Lansing.

The Stars Fall as the Droves of Fans Sweat the Rail

A shooting star is considered to be a rare occurrence, but in San Jose's Bay 101 Casino the hundreds of fans who lined the rail were treated to 24 of the world's best poker professionals, which all represented an official shooting star in the tournament. Perhaps even more rare of a sight is a falling star, but the fans got plenty of that as well, as pro after pro busted at a rapid rate.

It is safe to say that the residents of San Jose are some of the most excitable and knowledgeable fans on the World Poker Tour. They packed the rail, squeezing in shoulder to shoulder, all hoping to catch a glimpse or perhaps get an autograph from players they had previously only seen on TV. The big-name stars had no where to run or hide. The bathrooms, the parking lot, and everywhere in between lines formed around professionals for a variety of requests. Regardless of celebrity-status, each player that put up the $10,000 entry fee was treated with awe and respect from the fans that were truly grateful for the visit.

It didn't take very long to lose the first two shooting stars. David Williams and Jerry Yang were both quickly eliminated with big pocket pairs against their opponents' pocket aces. After their $5,000 bounties were distributed, the bustouts kept coming and some of poker's most well-known players failed to survive until the dinner break. Gus Hansen, Gavin Griffin, Vanessa Rousso, Hoyt Corkins, Chad Brown, David Pham and Erik Seidel all left the tournament prematurely, leaving behind cash for their conquerors and a personalized bounty T-shirt.

After dinner the action failed to slow down as Michael Mizrachi, Nam Le, Chau Giang and last year's runner up J.J. Liu all fell victim to the minefield of amateurs. World Series of Poker bracelet winner Brandon Cantu certainly wasn't complaining, as he took out both Bill Edler and John Juanda when his pair held against A-K in two very large coin flips. After collecting the $10,000 for their eliminations, Cantu is now freerolling in this event and he finished the day with 242,300, good for the chip lead. The chip lead came with the award of an additional $10,000, so Cantu has already doubled his money here in San Jose.

Playing as a shooting star himself, JC Tran got in on the bounty fun by taking on his longtime nemesis, Joe Sebok. Sebok was all in with A-K against Tran's pocket jacks but the board brought no help for him and sent him to the rail yet again at the hands of Tran.

As the players bagged and tagged their chips at the end of the night, only 5 bounties remained. Tran, Men Nguyen, Kathy Liebert, Layne Flack and Miami John Cernuto all held on to advance to day 2, which will combine both starting days and resume on Wednesday.

Day 1B will begin tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. PST and the estimated field size is roughly 225 entrants. They will also play 10 one-hour long levels and the prize pool will be available after registration closes early tomorrow afternoon.

Thanh Che held a solid lead in the chip count as the final minutes of the day ticked away, but Brandon Cantu was able to eliminate one final player with two minutes left. Play has ended and he holds 245,000, which should be enough to win the $10,000. Matt Savage is verifying this right now as the rest of the field bags up their chips for the night. Final chip counts and recap coming soon.

This just in: Cantu is the day 1A chip leader and he will take home $10,000.

Justin Bonomo raises 2,200 from middle position and Men Nguyen makes the call from the cutoff. Seat 5 also makes the call from the big blind after originally checking, and the flop rolls out KQ5. All three players check and the 5 falls on the turn. Seat 5 moves all in for 11,000 and Bonomo makes the call. Nguyen folds and the final two players turn up their hands:

Bonomo: KQ
Seat 5: QQ

River: J

Bonomo loses the pot and is knocked down about 13,500.

Kathy Liebert moves all in for 12,900 from the small blind preflop and Brandon Cantu makes the call from the big blind. They then open up their hands:

Cantu: KJ
Liebert: A8

Board: Q9249

Liebert doubles up to 28,700 on the hand and Cantu takes a hit down to 197,000.

There are currently six tables playing nine-handed poker. Approximately 52 players are left in the late stages of day 1A.

Joe Sebok moves all in from the cutoff preflop for 14,500, and J.C.Tran calls him down in middle position. They then open up their hands:

Sebok: AK
Tran: JJ

Board: 655107

Sebok is eliminated on the hand and Tran collects the $5,000 bounty on his head. This is Tran's second bounty claim of the day and he now has 98,000.

Only 5 Shooting Stars remain. Here are their chip counts:

Layne Flack: 75,000
J.C. Tran: 74,000
John Cernuto: 23,400
Men Nguyen: 17,000
Kathy Liebert: 28,000