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, who 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 of, or perhaps get an autograph from, players they had previously only seen on TV. The big-name stars had nowhere to run or hide. In the bathrooms, the parking lot, and everywhere in between lines, formed around professionals for a variety of requests. Regardless of celebrity-status, each player who put up the $10,000 entry fee was treated with awe and respect from the fans, who 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 during the first level. 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 to their conquerors, as well as a personalized bounty T-shirt. Click here for a full list of the shooting stars.
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 large coin flips twice. 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, J.C. 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 Sebok 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 five 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. PDT, and the estimated field size is roughly 225 entrants. The second flight will also play 10 one-hour levels, and the prize pool will be available after registration closes early tomorrow afternoon.
Here are the top five chip counts from today's field:
- Brandon Cantu — 242,300
- Thanh Che — 215,700
- Paul Britto — 188,500
- Chanh Pham — 159,900
- Zack Felder — 150,500
