The World Poker Tour returned to the Bay 101 in San Jose this year after a lengthy hiatus. The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star has been a fixture on the tour from Season 2 in 2004 until the WPT’s 15th season in 2017, but had been on hiatus before being added back to the schedule in 2025.
The reborn WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship ran from Oct. 24-28 at the host casino, where it narrowed a field of 672 entries down to a televised final table set to play out in Las Vegas nearly two months later.
The final six reconvened on Friday, Dec. 19 to play down to a champion, with Florida’s Kharlin Sued emerging victorious in the end. He earned his first WPT title and $480,700 as the champion. This was his largest score yet. It grew his lifetime earnings to more than $2.7 million.
“There is nothing that I love more than a WPT main event. I literally live for this,” he said. “I spend all my time playing poker, watching poker, and talking poker, so you can expect to see me all day everyday at every main event possible,” Sued told WPT reporters after coming out on top.
Sued earned 1,680 Card Player Player of the Year points as the last player standing. He now sits just outside the top 150 in the POY rankings presented by CoinPoker.
With this triumph, Sued joined the likes of Phil Gordon (2004), Ted Forrest (2007), James Carroll (2014), Taylor Paur (2015), and Sam Panzica (2017) as a champion of this fan-favorite event. This tournament has long featured a unique bounty format, with each starting table including at least one ‘Shooting Star’ player with a $2,500 bounty on their head.
Last Shooting Star & Rags To Riches Champ Eliminated
Four-time bracelet winner and 2022 WPT Choctaw champion Chance Kornuth was the last ‘Shooting Star’ standing when the final table began. The Chip Leader Coaching founder’s $2,500 bonus was ultimately captured by Sued, who jammed the river with top pair of jacks and received a call from Kornuth’s pocket tens.
Kornuth earned $101,000 as the sixth-place finisher. This score pushed his career earnings past $21.8 million.
That knockout gave Sued more than twice as many chips as the next-largest stack, belonging to Alfie Poetra.
Recent PokerGO Tour True Classic Rags To Riches champion Daniel Maor was the next to fall. He lost a big chunk of his stack with queens up against the rivered queen-high straight of Matthew Widdoes.
Maor, a bracelet winner who works as the Director of Business Development and Liquidity for ClubWPT Gold, was left on fumes after that and was soon eliminated by the low flush of Sued. He earned $132,000 as the fifth-place finisher, growing his lifetime haul to nearly $2.1 million.
Back-To-Back Knockouts For Danny Wong
The final four battled for 45 hands before the next elimination arrived. Widdoes took a stand with top pair against the flush draw of Danny Wong on the flop, only for a third heart to hit the board on the turn. Wong’s nut flush had Widdoes drawing dead. He was awarded $175,000 for his fourth-place showing. This was the largest score yet for the Bay Area resident.
Just a few hands later, Poetra ran A♦Q♦ into the A♥K♥ of Wong. The board came down K♠10♠6♦5♣8♠ and Wong’s top pair, top kicker earned him the pot and the knockout.
Poetra secured $235,000 as the third-place finisher. This topped the $114,000 he earned for a 10th-place showing in last year’s WPT Prime Championship for a new personal best.
With that, Sued took 17,775,000 into heads-up play with Wong, who held 15,825,000.
Final Battle For The Title
Sued was able to extend his lead in the early going, building his advantage to more than 2:1 without any particularly big showdowns.
Then, Wong won a massive pot without showdown to widen the gap to more than 4:1. With blinds of 125,000-250,000 and a 250,000 big blind ante, Wong raised to 575,000 on the button with A♠8♦. Sued three-bet to 1,850,000 with A♦J♦ and Wong four-bet to 3,975,000. Sued called and the flop came down Q♦Q♣10♥.
Sued check-called 1,950,000 and the 6♦ appeared on the turn. Both players checked and the 10♦ river gave Sued a flush while double-pairing the board. Sued thought it over before moving all-in with his flush. Wong went into the tank before folding to fall below 25 big blinds.
Not long after that, Wong jammed from the button for 3,900,000 with Q♥J♠ and Sued called with A♣K♥. The runout of 3♠2♥2♣5♦4♦ gave Sued the wheel and the title. Wong, a bracelet winner with more than $6.1 million in prior earnings, added $315,000 with this runner-up showing.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Kharlin Sued | $480,700 | 1,680 |
| 2 | Danny Wong | $315,000 | 1,400 |
| 3 | Alfie Poetra | $235,000 | 1,120 |
| 4 | Matt Widdoes | $175,000 | 840 |
| 5 | Daniel Maor | $132,000 | 700 |
| 6 | Chance Kornuth | $101,000 | 560 |
Photo credits: WPT.
