Forget $5,000 bounties, day two of the 2007
Bay 101 Shooting Star was all about the tournament's other "b" word - the bubble. A total of 139 players, including 14 "Shooting Stars," returned to action, and each stood within 94 eliminations of cashing in Northern California's richest poker event.
Day two play, which would conclude after the field whittled to 36 participants, began at noon PDT with $600-$1,200 blinds and $200 antes. The tournament's second stage also featured a structure change as level lengths moved to 90 minutes, with breaks occurring between each blind increase.
David Williams netted $90,000, and eliminated an opponent, on the first hand of play. The win bumped the
WSOP bracelet winner's stack up to $280,000, and made Williams the day's early chip boss.
While Williams climbed the leader board, a number of other pros fell during the day's opening levels. Patrik Antonius became the day's third busted bounty (following Billy Baxter and Kenna James) after his limped in pocket aces collided with an opponent's flopped set of sevens. Seconds later, Johnny Chan, a non-bounty player, joined Antonius at the rail courtesy of Michael Harnett's quad jacks.
Along with the money bubble, two of the bigger stories of the tournament's second stage centered on Jeff Madsen and Joe Sebok.
Madsen, who challenged Williams for the chip boss title in early play, crossed the $500,000 mark after his flopped set of aces topped Ed Fernandez's flopped set of eights. While the elimination of Fernandez put Madsen well ahead of Williams, the two-time
WSOP bracelet winner gained even more attention for his next elimination.
At 3:29 p.m., Madsen ended Nam Le's
Bay 101 Shooting Star title defense. Short-stacked and forced to make a move, Le received a loud ovation from the packed rail after his Q-4 off suit fell to Madsen's flopped trip aces.
In pursuit of his first
WPT title, Sebok entered play near the middle of the leader board. An early win bumped his stack up to $170,000, but a run-in with Robert Williamson's turned quad fives cost Sebok the majority of his stack.
The Williamson-Sebok battle continued. On one hand, Sebok, thinking Williamson raised him all in, said "call" and flipped up pocket aces. After a chip count, tournament personnel discovered that Sebok still had an additional $9,000 in his stack. Despite winning the hand, but not doubling up, Sebok received a nine-hand penalty for exposing his cards.
At 6 p.m., and squaring off in their third notable match-up, Sebok moved all in over the top of a Williamson raise on an A
Q
2
J
board. After stating, "I hated that card," Williamson called. The
WSOP bracelet winner took the lead with A
Q
against A
5
, but Sebok doubled through Williamson when the K
landed on the river. Surviving as a short stack for half an hour, Williamson eventually exited play when his pocket eights failed to hold up against Sean McCabe's A-10.
Half an hour after the dinner break, 46 players remained in contention and action switched to hand-for-hand. While play often slows on the bubble, Ed Pellegrini became a topic of discussion as he folded pocket aces preflop twice to avoid finishing outside the money.
Dealt pocket aces for the third time, Pellegrini played the hand, and won.
At 9 p.m., the
Bay 101 Shooting Star bubble burst when David Daneshgar's pocket queens failed to improve against Clint Baskin's pocket kings. Moment's later; Nick Binger became the first player to earn a paycheck at the
Bay 101 Shooting Star ($15,000) when his K
J
collided with Kirk Morrison's pocket aces.
Guaranteed his third-consecutive
WPT cash (13th in the
Borgata Winter Poker Open, seventh in the
L.A. Poker Classic), Bill Edler delivered the final two eliminations of the day. Elder downed Rich Parker ($15,000) with pocket aces, then made Bobby Suer the tournament's 36th-place elimination ($15,000) when his A-K held against Suer's A-7.
The chip counts at the end of action were as follows:
1. Jeff Madsen - $706,000
2. Joe Sebok - $603,000
3. Kyle Wilson - $557,000
4. Amir Shayesteh - $490,000
5. Nenad Medic - $481,500
Other notables still in contention include Joe Pelton, J.J. Liu ("Shooting Star"), James Van Alstyne, Danny Smith, Hans "Tuna" Lund, David Williams ("Shooting Star"), Lee Markholt, Ted Forrest ("Shooting Star"), and Erik Seidel ("Shooting Star").
For a complete list of chip counts and eliminations please click
here.
Play resumes at noon PDT, and the field of 36 will play down to the tournament's final six participants.
Stay tuned to
CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and daily recaps.
Quote of the Day: "Who is this guy? I think I have to beat him up." - Nenad Medic on Ed Pellegrini after hearing of Pellegrini's penchant for folding pocket aces preflop.
