Shooting Star tourney brings big prize money
By Raymond T. Akers

The stars will be out in force when the World Poker Tour comes to San Jose’s Bay 101 Casino for the 12th annual Shooting Star tournament. This five-day, $10,000 ($9,600 + $400) buy-in event is the biggest poker tournament of the year in Northern California. It begins at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 10 with the final, televised table taking place the following Friday at 5:00 p.m.

The biggest names in poker will be participating again, and most of them will have a $5,000 bounty on their heads. The list of bounty players includes returning champion Ted Forrest, runner up J.J. Liu (Palo Alto), Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto), Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen, J.C. Tran (Sacramento), Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, and … well … the list just goes on and on! If you’ve seen them on television, chances are they’ll be sitting at one of the tables when the action gets under way.

There will also be a bounty on Jerry Yang, the man who came out of nowhere to take the world championship (and over $8 million) at the 2007 WSOP Main Event.

“The Bay 101 Shooting Star Tournament is a must for every professional poker player’s schedule and the best tournament on the World Poker Tour,” said Tournament Director Matt Savage, taking the reins as TD of this event for the fourth time. Savage is commonly regarded as the world’s foremost poker tournament director and is the founder of the Tournament Director’s Association.

The prize pool is anticipated to be over $4.5 million (based on 500 players), with first place taking home over $1.2 million and a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championship Event in Las Vegas.

Sunday, March 9 will feature a $2,000 ($1,920 + $80) buy-in event that will finish up with the final table on Monday at 4:00 p.m. The field will be limited to 250 players with the top three finishers receiving cash and a $10,000 buy-in to either the Shooting Star Tournament or the WSOP Main Event.

Satellites to the Shooting Star will run through March 8. Weekly Super Satellites are currently held on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 8:15 a.m. with a $125 ($105 + $20) buy-in and $100 rebuys. Signups for these tournaments are accepted the morning of the event only.

Beginning February 19 Super Satellites will be held daily at 9:30 a.m. (except Saturday, February 23 when the tournament begins at 8:15 a.m.). There is a $225 ($200 + $25) buy-in and $200 rebuys for these events. Then, from March 1 to March 8 the satellites will all be held at 9:30 a.m. and have a $1,050 ($1,000 + $50) buy-in with no rebuys. Seats for these events can be purchased in advance.

When asked about some of the more memorable moments that have occurred at past Shooting Star Tournaments, Savage recalled Phil Gordon taking out both Masoud Shojaie and Chris Moneymaker on one hand to take the 2004 title, as well as the final table in 2005 when Danny Nguyen (San Jose) went all-in with Ad-7d only to be called by the A-K of Shandor Szentkuti (Pacifica). The flop was K-5-5 with only one diamond, leaving Nguyen dead to either running diamonds or running 7s. Sure enough, the turn and river brought him the necessary 7s to take down the pot and stay alive and go on to win the tournament. His 330-to-1 miracle is easily one of the most hellacious bad beat stories in WPT history.

For more information about the Shooting Star Tournament and Super Satellites, contact Matt Savage, Steve Hoshi, Karl Fox or June Richardson at 408-451-8888 or 408-437-5506, or see the Bay 101 website at www.bay101.com.