During day 1A at the 2008 World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament, only five of the professional players anointed as Shooting Stars survived. Day 1B of the tournament presented a different scenario as 11 Shooting Stars advanced.
Phil Ivey set the tone early when he got all of his chips into the middle just 10 minutes into play and survived to take the
chip lead. He was joined in the Shooting Star double-up club by Mimi Tran, Jennifer Harman (pictured at right), Eli Elezra, and Dan Harrington before dinner. Harman even followed her double up performance by tripling up to 42,000.
A few Shooting Stars did manage to fall before the dinner break, but only an unlucky seven, as Jennifer Tilly, Kristy Gazes, Robert Williamson III, Tom McEvoy, Phil Hellmuth, Gavin Smith, and Josh Arieh hit the rail to the delight of the opponents who busted them. Shooting Star Amir Vahedi did manage to jump into the early chip lead during this stretch, and he was joined at the top by Ralph Perry after he eliminated Smith. Perry further increased his stack to 94,000 at the dinner break, which was good for the chip lead.
Mike Matusow continued the Shooting Star trend of survival by doubling up right after the players returned from dinner. Matusow was later moved into an interesting situation when he was seated across the table from his agent, Rich Belsky. Joe Hachem upped the ante on this situation even further by offering Belsky an additional $1,000 on top of the $5,000 bounty he would receive for eliminating his star client.
While Belsky never did collect the bounty on Matusow, Steve Billirakis did score $5,000 when he eliminated Michael Gracz. Gracz was the first Shooting Star to get knocked out after dinner, and he was followed into the Silicon Valley night by Shooting Stars Harrington and Tran.
John Phan was at work as a bounty hunter all day, and he collected two bounties by the end of play to make his tournament a $10,000 freeroll. After eliminating Gazes earlier in the day, Phan busted Elezra during the evening in one of the more entertaining hands of the day:
On a flop of J
9
5
, Phan checked from late position, Elezra bet 4,500, and Phan made the call. The turn card was the Q, Phan checked, and Elezra thought for a bit before moving all in for 17,000. Phan called instantly with K 10 for a king-high straight, and Elezra showed 5
5. Tournament Director Matt Savage came by to announce the all-in situation for the crowd, and Phan got up from the table. “I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it!” said Pham. The river card was the K, and Phan won both the pot and his second $5,000 bounty. As Elezra got up to leave, he jokingly told Phan, “Good luck getting this shirt.” Phan laughed and said he wanted the shirt, but Elezra countered that he's giving the shirt to his kids. Phan jumped into the next hand before he realized that Elezra wasn't kidding. He then called out to Savage, smiling and saying, “I want my shirt! Get Eli to sign my shirt!” Phan also said, “Bring another bounty to the table. This is fun!”
Ted Forrest, who is the defending champion here at Bay 101, has hopes of defending the WPT title he won here in 2007. He made some steps in the right direction toward this goal when he grew his chip stack to more than 100,000 in a huge pot that developed between him and Steve Sung late in the day. Forrest induced Sung to fold by moving all in on a board of A 6 5 7 with 85,000 in the pot. Forrest continued to play well and finished the day with 118,600.
A final flurry of Shooting Stars fell during the closing level of the day, and both Vahedi and Antonio Esfandiari bowed out during the closing minutes. Ivey was the last Shooting Star to fall on day 1B when he was eliminated during the final two minutes of play, and Scotty Nguyen was the final Shooting Star to survive an all-in on the final hand of play.
The race for day 1B chip leader (and the $10,000 prize that came with it) also came down to the final bell. With six minutes to go on the tournament clock for the day, Blair Hinkle held 173,000 to Clonie Gowen’s 163,000; both of these players were one pot away from the chip lead. A loss on the last hand of play by the young online professional made this situation even more intense, but when the official counts were tallied, Hinkle (170,800) left the casino with the comforting knowledge that he will take a free ride tomorrow.
The 91 players (11 Shooting Stars) who survived today will join the 47 players (five Shooting Stars) who advanced from day 1A tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. PDT. They will all have their sights set on the $1 million first-place prize and the prestige that comes with a WPT title. Here are the top five chip counts from day 1B:
Blair Hinkle — 170,800
Clonie Gowen — 163,300
Ralph Perry — 136,900
Thahn Phung — 135,600
