Joe Hachem(credit: Hachem's Official Web Site)
146 players sat down at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Tournament earlier this week for Day 1A. 24 players had a bounty on their heads including John Juanda, Kathy Liebert and Men “The Master” Nguyen. Juanda, a Full Tilt Poker sponsored pro, didn’t last the day. Liebert had only 18,500 in chips and The Master was pretty close to the felt with 6,200. Brandon Cantu was atop of the chip heap with more than 242,000.
225 people partook of the action on Day 1B. Phil Ivey, fresh off his LA Poker Classic championship, hit the felt. Unfortunately, he crashed into the rail almost immediately when his pocket nines came up against a pair of aces. Ouch!
Dan Harrington, Antonio Esfandiari and TJ Cloutier had bounties on their heads. They were collected before the end of the day. Among the chip leaders were Clonie Gowen and Paul Wasicka.
On Day 2, 138 players came to play. By the end of the night, 36 would be left and all would receive some portion of the multi-million dollar prize pool. Men Nguyen, who was on the short stack from Day 1A, didn’t last past the first level in Day 2. Neither did Kathy Liebert, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak and Allen Cunningham.
Barry Greenstein almost made it to the dinner break. Soon after, Phil Hellmuth grabbed the microphone and entertained the crowd. Clonie Gowen busted Ralph Perry in 46th place, giving Perry the dubious distinction of being the “bubble boy.” At least, he collected a $5,000 bounty for KO’ing Gavin Smith on his Day 1 adventure.
Erick Lindgren and Isabelle Mercier hit the rails shortly thereafter. Each grabbed a piece of the pie, leaving the lion’s share of the prize pool for the top 36. Mike Baker has a commanding chip lead with 952,500 of the big ones. JC Tran, Joe Hachem and Jennifer Harman are among the remaining shooting stars left in the tournament.
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