After a lengthy hiatus, the World Poker Tour returned to the Bay 101 Casino this year for the first WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $5,300 no-limit hold’em event since 2017. The fan-favorite event that features at least one ‘Shooting Star’ player with a $2,500 bounty on their head per starting table drew a total of 672 entries to create a final prize pool of $3,225,600.
After two starting flights and three more days of combined-field action, there are now just six players remaining with a shot at the title and the top prize of $480,700. Play was halted on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 28 at the official final table, with action not set to resume until Dec. 19 in Las Vegas.
That gives the half-dozen players still in contention more than a month and a half to prepare before they square off for the opportunity to have their name added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. The final tablists have all locked up at least $101,000 for their efforts by making it this far.
Here is a look at the remaining payouts that are up for grabs.
- 1st – $480,700*
- 2nd – $315,000
- 3rd – $235,000
- 4th – $175,000
- 5th – $132,000
- 6th – $101,000
The final day of play at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California saw 16 players return to action with a shot at making the final table. That meant that 10 would hit the rail before the day was done. Several big names were eliminated on the march to the last six, including bracelet winner Nicholas Palma (16th), WPT champion and two-time bracelet winner Taylor Paur (15th), Victoria Livschitz (13th), and WPT champion Justin Young (9th).
The last hand before the bags were brought out saw the A♥K♦ of Alfie Poetra hold up against the K♠J♦ of Aobo Li. Both players flopped top pair, and Poetra’s superior kicker played through the river to earn him the pot and the knockout. Li secured $78,000 as the seventh-place finisher.
Sued In The Lead
Kharlin Sued is the clear chip leader with 11,030,000 (184 big blinds). His mammoth stack represents nearly a third of the total chips in play. Sued has nearly $2.2 million in prior tournament cashes, including a runner-up showing in a $10,000 buy-in event at the Wynn Millions this spring.
Second in chips is Poetra with 6,895,000 (115 big blinds). The California resident already has $653,000 in career earnings, including a 10th-place finish in last year’s WPT Prime Championship for a career-best score of $114,000.
Daniel Maor bagged up 4,875,000 (81 big blinds) to put himself in the middle of the pack. The director of product marketing and business development at Club WPT Gold already has a bracelet to his name, and also took down last year’s BetMGM Poker Championship for $613,914, or roughly a third of his $1.8 million in total career cashes.
Kornuth Chasing A Second WPT Title
Chance Kornuth
The fourth-largest stack belongs to four-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth. The 2022 WPT Choctaw main event winner will have 4,265,000 (71 big blinds) to work with as he looks to capture his second title on this tour. The Chip Leader Coaching founder already has more than $21.6 million in career cashes. He would surpass $22 million with a win in this event.
Kornuth is the final Shooting Star bounty player remaining. If anyone where to eliminate him at the final table, they would earn the last $2,500 bonus awarded in the event.
Next on the leader board is Matthew Widdoes, whose 3,380,000 represents 56 big blinds. The Bay Area resident has already locked up a career-high score just by making the final table. He would more than double his career earnings of $202,000 by surviving to the top three in this event.
Rounding out the final table is Danny Wong with 3,160,000. The bracelet winner from Los Angeles may be the shortest stack, but he’s far from short on blinds. With the blinds sitting at 30,000–60,000 with a big blind ante of 60,000 for the remaining 10:58 of level 25, Wong will have 53 big blinds to work with when play resumes. Wong already has more than $6.1 million in career earnings across 243 recorded cashes, and could add to that total in a big way in December.
Seat Draw And Chip Counts For The Final Six
| Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Chance Kornuth | 4,265,000 | 71 |
| 2 | Matthew Widdoes | 3,380,000 | 56 |
| 3 | Danny Wong | 3,160,000 | 53 |
| 4 | Kharlin Sued | 11,030,000 | 184 |
| 5 | Daniel Maor | 4,875,000 | 81 |
| 6 | Alfie Poetra | 6,895,000 | 115 |
Photo credits: WPT.
