Hellmuth, Keikoan are Bay 101 finalists

By Arnold Warner

In March a galaxy of poker’s elite made their annual pilgrimage to San Jose for the Bay 101 Casino’s Shooting Star Tournament on the World Poker Tour. As always, this unique event featured $5,000 bounties on 50 of the pros as well as $10,000 bonuses for the chip leaders at the end of Days 1a and 1b.

This tournament also features a non-standard blind structure, with 60-minute levels on the two Day 1s, 90-minute levels on Day 2, and 120-minute levels on Day 3 (at the end of which they have reached the six players who will make up the final table). Days 1 and 2 are played with the standard nine players per table, but beginning on Day 3 play is short-handed, with only six players per table.

Northern California was well represented throughout the tournament and the final table was no exception. Palo Alto resident and famed “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth was second in chips with 1,433,000 and Matt Keikoan of San Rafael, who owns a WSOP bracelet and a WSOP Circuit title was sixth with 371,000.

Representing the rest of the poker world at the final table were Andy Seth (2,164,000), Dan O’Brien (1,129,000), McLean Karr (1,112,000), and Hasan Habib (455,000).

Hellmuth would have had to be considered the favorite with his resume and a solid chip count, but a WPT title continues to elude him as he was the first player eliminated when his Q-Q got rivered by Seth’s Ac-Jc, taking home $117,000.

“I played phenomenal poker on Day 2 and especially on Day 3,” Hellmuth told The Cardroom a few days after it was over. “I started with 530,000 [on Day 3], hit one million right away and kept myself above one million for the rest of the super-long day. We played from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. to hit the final six. I was never all-in for about 18 to 20 hours of play, and rarely played a meaningful coin flip, and that is as good as I can play small ball poker!

“However, that changed when the super, super-aggressive guy (the one I really felt like I would eventually bust, or be a huge favorite against) stepped up his aggression even more. Suddenly, I limped in the small blind with Q-Q (10K/20K blinds), he raised 50,000, I raised 200,000 more and he moved all-in.

“I called fairly quickly, and when he showed Ac-Jc I thought, ‘Sweet, just what I was hoping for!’ The board was K-6-5-10, then Ah! And I finish sixth! One meaningful flip in 20 hours of play, and I lose it. But I didn’t ‘Poker Brat’ it. Rather, I sat there stunned for 30 seconds, shook everyone’s hand at the table, then fell onto the ground in the corner. I was really in pain man, because I couldn’t even imagine a sixth-place finish after starting second in chips, and I wanted to win so, so badly!

“The crowd really appreciated my performance, and the fact that I handled myself with class (outside of falling on the ground), and they gave several standing ovations.”

Keikoan was fighting an uphill battle from the beginning of the final table, playing tight and trying to find the right spots to get his money in. But earlier in the tournament he’d been playing much more aggressively and was one of the chip leaders for most of Day 3.

“The way I play tournaments is usually dependent on the amount of chips I have and my opponents, also,” he said. “I like to be able to open a lot of pots and sort of mix it up, but then if I get kind of short I tend to get extremely tight because I believe that’s the way to play.

“Everything in tournament poker is situational to me. There are times when I’m the tightest player in the room and there are times when I’m the loosest player in the room and everything in between. I was the shortest stack going into the final table, so your hands are kind of tied at that point. You need to sort of pick up some hands, but I think I played pretty well at the final table.”

He was eliminated in fifth place ($175,700) after Seth raised to 56,000 from the cutoff and he moved all-in with 283,000 and Seth called showing 9c-9h to Keikoan’s Ad-7c. The flop of 8c-6c-4s gave Keikoan a gutshot draw and the turn (10c) gave him a double gutshot. His ace came on the river. Unfortunately it was the ace of clubs which gave them both a flush which Seth won with the better kicker.

Despite the way it turned out, Keikoan was happy with his first televised final table experience and always enjoys coming back to the Bay 101 where he has a long history. “I was at the Bay 101 on opening night—I forget how long ago—it was probably 15 years ago. I’ve played hundreds, if not thousands, of hours there. Plus everyone there knows me. People were rooting for me. I did have a big rooting section. My friend Prahlad Friedman drove up from Los Angeles in the middle of the night to come watch. My dad and mom and my brothers came and some other friends. It was nice to have all those people there. I obviously wish I could have got a little deeper.”

He’s also a big fan of this tournament in particular for several different reasons. “I love the Shooting Star format. It seems to draw a lot of action. A lot of loose kind of gambling-type players. Plus it’s nice because it’s in my back yard and I can come home and sleep in my own bed which is always good.”

He added, “Matt Savage is the best tournament director in history. His structures that he’s created—I’m not sure you could have better structures. I think all tournament directors should look at what he does and try to emulate that.”

With the Northern California players gone, it was up to the rest of the field to determine the outcome. Habib went out in fourth place ($234,300) when his flush draw failed to fill in and lost to Karr who flopped trip deuces and made a boat on river.

O’Brien was the next to go after he went all-in with Jd-2d and was called by Karr’s 7-7. The board brought nothing but blanks and O’Brien was the third place finisher ($292,800). This left Karr and his 4,830,000 in chips up against Seth’s 1,785,000 to play heads-up for the title.

After nearly 50 hands, Seth managed to wrest the chip lead from Karr, but only 10 hands later Karr had it back. Then, three hands later with the blinds at 50,000/ 100,000 Seth raised to 210,000, Karr reraised to 585,000 and Seth moved all-in with 4-4. Karr called with 8-8. The board came K-10-3-A-A giving Karr the title, trophy, WPT Championship buy-in (worth $25,500) and $878,500. Seth’s second place finish was good for $521,200.