Winner: Alan Sternberg

When heads up play began, Alan Sternberg and Steven Kelly were almost equal in chips.  But at the end of the night, Alan emerged victorious after hitting a 2 outer on the river.  Allen will collect the first place prize of $1,013,500 plus a $25,500 WPT seat, while Steven will collect $595,300 for his second place finish.

Allen Sternberg eyes his opponent during heads up play

Alan Sternberg and Steven Kelly get ready for heads up play

Photos from the final table (part 2)

Mike Matusow congratulates Mike Sexton on his finish

Casey McCarrel can't hide from his elimination

 Vivek Rajkumar takes an iPhone picture of his quad queens

Photos from the final table (part 1)

Final table participants

Tony Dunst handles co-hosting duties with Vince Van Patten in Mike Sexton's absense

The Royal Flush Girls join the final table

Tournament director Matt Savage emceeing the final table

Phil Hellmuth and Sam Chauhan talk with Mike Matusow on a break

Photos from last night

Mike Matusow eliminates Ty Reiman in 7th place

Joris Springael was eliminated in 10th place

Mike Sexton gets a sweat by co-host Vince Van Patten

Vivek Rajkumar with his colorful jacket... and expression

Chris Trapani's ride comes to an end in 12th by the hands of Mike Matusow

Casey McCarrel shows some rare emotion

Plaques!

In what is probably a first on U.S. soil, the WPT and tournament director Matt Savage have decided not to have 100k chips in this poker tournament.  In their place, there are 100k plaques, which are more common in Europe.  The players have been enjoying putting these plaques into play since the end of Day 3.

Audio commentary now running

After a slight delay, the final table is now playing, and short stack Mike Sexton has moved in a couple of times without being called.  We can't bring you a live video stream as it is being taped for television, but we are providing an audio-only commentary stream featured Rob @veeRob Perelman and Sam "SkinnnyTD" Quinto.  Tune in by heading over to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bay-101-shooting-stars

YouTube video: Ty Reiman eliminated by Mike Matusow

Ty Reiman is eliminated by Mike Matusow when Reiman's pocket tens ran into Matusow's pocket queens at the 2011 Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament. Ty got 7th and just missed the TV final table.

Click here to view the video in HD

Final table chip counts & results so far

PLACE	FIRST	LAST	CHIP COUNT/ PRIZE	TABLE	SEAT
1	Steven	Kelly	4,169,000	1	5
2	Alan	Sternberg	3,701,000	1	3
3	Mike	Matusow	2,173,000	1	1
4	Vivek	Rajkumar	1,616,000	1	4
5	Casey	McCarrel	430,000	1	6
6	Mike	Sexton	363,000	1	2
7	Ty	Reiman	$73,900	-	-
8	Danny	Nguyen	$73,900	-	-
9	Andrew	Weisner	$48,100	-	-
10	Joris	Springael	$48,100	-	-
11	Ben	Hamnett	$37,000	-	-
12	Chris	Trapani	$37,000	-	-
13	Kevin	MacPhee	$29,500	-	-
14	Brian	Schmidt	$29,500	-	-
15	Kathy	Liebert	$29,500	-	-
16	Noah	Lathrop	$29,500	-	-
17	Mark	Dickstein	$29,500	-	-
18	Galen	Hall	$29,500	-	-
19	Zach	Clark	$25,800	-	-
20	Eric	Blair	$25,800	-	-
21	Brandon	Crawford	$25,800	-	-
22	Dan	Smith	$25,800	-	-
23	Eddie	Genovese	$25,800	-	-
24	Brian	Park	$25,800	-	-
25	John	Juanda	$22,100	-	-
26	Tuan	Nguyen	$22,100	-	-
27	David	Ong	$22,100	-	-
28	Robert	Thompson	$22,100	-	-
29	Matthew	Berkey	$22,100	-	-
30	Steve	Dempsey	$22,100	-	-
31	Jordan	Young	$18,400	-	-
32	Joanne "JJ"	Liu	$18,400	-	-
33	Tommy	Chen	$18,400	-	-
34	Thor	Hansen	$18,400	-	-
35	Giovanni	Sigurta	$18,400	-	-
36	Chau	Vu	$18,400	-	-
37	Hafiz	Khan	$15,000	-	-
38	Kenneth	Go	$15,000	-	-
39	Richard	Harroch	$15,000	-	-
40	Joshua	Field	$15,000	-	-
41	Dash	Dudley	$15,000	-	-
42	Shawn	Buchanon	$15,000	-	-
43	Jennifer	Harmon	$15,000	-	-
44	Marco	Johnson	$15,000	-	-
45	Weikai	Chang	$15,000	-	-
Play resumes at Level 23, 3,000 Ante, 10,000-20,000 Blinds with 0:37:48 Remaining

Final table of 6 reached

Ty Reiman was eliminated in 7th place when his pocket tens ran into the pocket queens of Mike Matusow.  With his elimination, the remaining 6 players have made their televised final table, including WPT announcer Mike Sexton and Shooting Star bounty Mike Matusow.  The final table will commence tomorrow at 4pm.  Here are the official chip counts for the players as they bag up their chips for the night:

Seat 1: Mike Matusow - 2.173M
Seat 2: Mike Sexton - 363k
Seat 3: Alan Sternberg - 3.701M
Seat 4: Vivek Rajkumar - 1.616M
Seat 5: Steven Kelly - 4.169M
Seat 6: Casey McCarrel - 430k

Due to the World Poker Tour television taping, there will not be a live video feed.  However, we are working to have a live audio commentary running during the final table.  Come back at 4pm

Chip counts at break

Players are returning from a 10 minute dinner break.  When they return they will be playing 10k/20k blinds with a 2k ante.  The average stack is 1.778M.  Here are updated chip counts:

Seat 1: Ty Reiman - 1.569M
Seat 2: Mike Matusow - 1.386M
Seat 3: Mike Sexton - 665k
Seat 4: Alan Sternberg - 3.04M
Seat 5: Vivek Rajkumar - 1.953M
Seat 6: Steven Kelly - 3.388M
Seat 7: Casey McCarrel - 470k

Chip counts at dinner break

Halfway through level 22, the players have decided to take a one hour dinner break.  At 8:15pm the tournament will commence with 62:30 left on the clock at 8k/16k blinds with a 2k ante.  Here are the chip counts:

Seat 1: Ty Reiman - 747,000
Seat 2: Mike Matusow - 1,118,000
Seat 3: Mike Sexton - 1,122,000
Seat 4: Alan Sternberg - 3,052,000
Seat 5: Vivek Rajkumar - 1,858,000
Seat 6: Steven Kelly - 3,822,000
Seat 7: Casey McCarrel - 733,000

Final table of 7 reached

With the elimination of Danny Nguyen in 8th place, we have reached the final table of 7 players.  Players will continue to play 8k/16k with a 2k ante until one more player is eliminated.  They will then bag up their chips for the night and return tomorrow at 4pm to play on the World Poker Tour set.  Here are the seating assignments for the final table:

Seat 1: Ty Reiman
Seat 2: Mike Matusow
Seat 3: Mike Sexton
Seat 4: Alan Sternberg
Seat 5: Vivek Rajkumar
Seat 6: Steven Kelly
Seat 7: Casey McCarrel

Chip counts with 8 remaining

Featured Table:
Seat 1 - Ty Reiman: 550,000
Seat 2 - Danny Minh Nguyen: 395,000
Seat 4 - Mike Sexton: 955,000
Seat 6 - Vivek Rajkumar: 1,734,000

2nd Featured Table:
Seat 2 - Casey McCarrel: 830,000
Seat 4 - Mike Matusow: 915,000
Seat 5 - Steven Kelly: 3,741,000
Seat 6 - Alan Sternberg: 3,250,000

Liebert eliminated

Kathy Liebert, one of the 3 remaining Shooting Star bounties, has been eliminated.  She was all in on the river against Ben Hamnett, who held pocket fives to go along with the two fives on the flop to make quad fives.  Liebert mucked, and Hamnett will collect the bounty and the chips.

Local favorite: Chris Trapani

Chris Trapani was all in preflop holding AK against the pocket kings of Galen Hall.  When another player had said they had folded an ace, and all rags came on the flop, it had looked as if Chris's tournament run was coming to an end.  But an ace fell on the turn, as if put there by Marko himself, to keep Chris alive.  When the river was not a king, Chris doubled up.  Pictured above, you can see the amount of emotion in the room for this local favorite.

Redraw at 18 players

With the elimination of Zach Clark in 19th place, the clock has been paused as the players are now redrawing for seats at the final 3 tables.  The tournament staff are now introducing a purple 25,000 chip now that the players have found their new seats.  When the players return, there will be 1 minute and 6 seconds left in 4k/8k blinds with a 1k ante before moving to 5k/10k.  Here are the new table draws:

Featured Table
Seat 1: Noah Lathrop
Seat 2: Steven Kelly
Seat 3: Galen Hall
Seat 4: Kathy Liebert
Seat 5: Mark Dickstein
Seat 6: Kevin MacPhee

Second Featured Table
Seat 1: Ben Hamnett
Seat 2: Chris Trapani
Seat 3: Casey McCarrel
Seat 4: Mike Matusow
Seat 5: Danny Nguyen
Seat 6: Joris Springael

Outer Table
Seat 1: Vivek Rajkumar
Seat 2: Alan Sternberg
Seat 3: Brian Schmidt
Seat 4: Mike Sexton
Seat 5: Andrew Weisner
Seat 6: Ty Reiman

Day 3: Cards are in the air

Cards are now in the air for Day 3 of the $10k WPT Shooting Star tournament.  The tournament has 24 players remaining, and they are playing as four 6-handed tables.  There's still three bounties in the field including Kathy Liebert, Mike Sexton, and Mike Matusow.

We are streaming two tables today.  Our featured table is table #43 with Kathy Leibert, Joris Springael, Brian Schmidt, Mark Dickstein, Vivek Rajkumar, Casey McCarrel.  You can watch by clicking on "Watch LIVE Video" at the top of this page.

Our secondary featured table is table #22 with Ty Reiman, Chris Trapani, Steven Kelly, Galen Hall, Kevin MacPhee, Dan Smith.  You can watch this secondary feed by going to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bay-101-shooting-stars

There will be a redraw when the tournament hits 18 players, so expect to see our two featured tables have some new names shortly.

Photos of Day 3 table draws

Table 22: Ty Reiman, Chris Trapani, Steven Kelly, Galen Hall, Kevin MacPhee, Dan Smith

 Table 23: Edmond Genoves, Alan Sternberg, Brandon Crawford, Mike Sexton, Zach Clark, Brian Park

Table 24: Mike Matusow, Noah Lathrop, Eric Blair, Andrew Weiser, Ben Hamnett, Danny Nguyen

Table 43: Kathy Leibert, Joris Springael, Brian Schmidt, Mark Dickstein, Vivek Rajkumar, Casey McCarrel

Day 3 chip counts & seating assignments

PLACE	FIRST	LAST	CHIP COUNT/ PRIZE	TABLE	SEAT
1	Joris	Springael	1,477,000	43	2
2	Alan	Sternberg	1,106,000	23	2
3	Vivek	Rajkumar	1,076,000	43	5
4	Casey	McCarrel	874,000	43	6
5	Brian	Schmidt	842,000	43	3
6	Andrew	Weisner	755,000	24	4
7	Dan	Smith	703,000	22	6
8	Steven	Kelly	653,000	22	3
9	Kevin	MacPhee	542,000	22	5
10	Mark	Dickstein	477,000	43	4
11	Ty	Reiman	450,000	22	1
12	Galen	Hall	429,000	22	4
13	Mike	Sexton	361,000	23	4
14	Mike	Matusow	352,000	24	1
15	Kathy	Leibert	351,000	43	1
16	Chris	Trapani	330,000	22	2
17	Eric	Blair	297,000	24	3
18	Noah	Lathrop	291,000	24	2
19	Zach	Clark	238,000	23	5
20	Ben	Hamnett	220,000	24	5
21	Danny	Nguyen	211,000	24	6
22	Brandon	Crawford	203,000	23	3
23	Brian	Park	128,000	23	6
24	Edmond	Genoves	98,000	23	1
25	John	Juanda	$22,100	-	-
26	Tuan	Nguyen	$22,100	-	-
27	David	Ong	$22,100	-	-
28	Robert	Thompson	$22,100	-	-
29	Matthew	Berkey	$22,100	-	-
30	Steve	Dempsey	$22,100	-	-
31	Jordan	Young	$18,400	-	-
32	Joanne "JJ"	Liu	$18,400	-	-
33	Tommy	Chen	$18,400	-	-
34	Thor	Hansen	$18,400	-	-
35	Giovanni	Sigurta	$18,400	-	-
36	Chau	Vu	$18,400	-	-
37	Hafiz	Khan	$15,000	-	-
38	Kenneth	Go	$15,000	-	-
39	Richard	Harroch	$15,000	-	-
40	Joshua	Field	$15,000	-	-
41	Dash	Dudley	$15,000	-	-
42	Shawn	Buchanon	$15,000	-	-
43	Jennifer	Harmon	$15,000	-	-
44	Marco	Johnson	$15,000	-	-
45	Weikai	Chang	$15,000	-	-
Play resumes at Level 19, 1,000 Ante, 4,000-8,000 Blinds with 1:27:07 Remaining

Play has completed for the night

With John Juanda's elimination in 25th place, play has completed for the night.  24 players will return at 12pm to play down to the final 6.  Still in the hunt are Shooting Stars Mike Matusow, Kathy Liebert, and Mike Sexton, along with names like Galen Hall, Zachary Clark, and Dan "KingDan" Smith.

Chip counts and seating assignments will be posted as soon as they are available.  The tournament room will be relocating inside the Bay 101 Casino, and we will do our best to have the live stream up and running as soon as possible.

YouTube video: Matt Berkey interview

Matt Berkey is interviewed by tournament director Matt Savage as the players had just hit the money in the 2011 WPT $10k Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament

Click here to view the video in HD

YouTube video: Steve "Chainsaw" Dempsey interview

Steve "Chainsaw" Dempsey is interviewed by tournament director Matt Savage as the players had just hit the money in the 2011 WPT $10k Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament

Click here to view the video in HD

Redrawing at 36 for 6-handed tables

With the elimination of the 37th player, the clock has been paused, and the remaining 36 players will now be redrawn into six 6-handed tables.  All remaining players are now guaranteed $18,400, with the pay jumps coming at every six eliminations.  We have a new featured table with Ty Reiman, JJ Liu, and Dan "KingDan" Smith.

YouTube video: Dan "KingDan" Smith interview

Dan "KingDan" Smith is interviewed by tournament director Matt Savage as the players had just hit the money in the 2011 WPT $10k Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament

Click here to view the video in HD

YouTube video: Layne Flack: bubble boy

Layne Flack was all in preflop holding pocket jacks against his opponent's AK. When his opponent hit a king on the river, Layne became the official bubble boy of the 2011 WPT Shooting Stars tournament

Click here to view the video in HD

Players are now in the money

With 46 players left in the tournament, play had gone hand for hand.  There had been a few allins, but no eliminations yet.  On table 23, a player had raised and Matt Berkey had called before Layne Flack moved all in.  The original raiser folded, and Matt called, tabling AK.  It was a race as Layne had pocket jacks.  The board ran out clean until a king hit the river, making Layne Flack the official bubble boy.  The day wasn't all bad for Layne, however, as he banked $15,000 for eliminating three bounties.  All remaining players are now guaranteed $15,000, with 1st place paying $1,013,500 + $25,500 WPT seat.

Jen Harman makes a good read

Jen Harman has had a few ups and downs today, and unfortunately her most recent hand was one of the latter.  Jen had 3-bet preflop before Joris Springael cold 4-bet.  Jen called, and the flop fell ace-ten-ten.  Both players checked, and a third ten came on the turn.  Joris check-called Jen's bet, and they both saw a jack fall on the river.  Joris checked one more time, and after thinking for a bit, Jen checked behind.  Jen showed AQ for a full house, tens full of aces, but Joris had rivered the best hand as he held pocket jacks for jacks full of tens.  Jen was unlucky to have her opponent hit a 2-outer on the river, but she had a great check to keep her in the tournament right outside of the money bubble.

20k or 120k?

 

Some controversy broke out on table 23 when Layne Flack (above right) checked the river and Matt Berkey (above left) bet.  Matt had bet "120" dark before the river hit for 120,000, but Layne had thought the bet was 20,000.  Layne called, but a floor had to be called over to decide the bet amount.  A few players at the table all chimed in that they heard "120," as did a few members of the media.  Tournament director Matt Savage ruled the bet 120,000, and Layne was forced to put most of his chips in the middle.  Layne had top pair, top kicker with his AK, but Matt had made a straight.  Layne is left crippled with approximately 50,000, and is very steamed at the decision.  With the blinds at 2k/4k, it is anticipated that Layne will be all in a few times before the end of this level.

Lots of chips on the featured table!

The featured table has been a wrecking ground for players today, and before the dinner break began, Jonathan Little busted out, making way for three new players to come to the table, including Shooting Star bounty Jennifer Harman.  53 players remain in the tournament, and the top 45 pay.  There is a total of 12.45 million chips in play among the six remaining tables, and the featured table has a whopping 3.855 million on it, or almost 31% of the total chips in play.  You can watch the live stream when the players return from dinner break at 7:10pm by clicking on "Watch LIVE" Video at the top of this page.  Here are the players seated here and their respective chip counts:

Seat 1 - Jennifer Harman - 243,000
Seat 2 - Andrew Weisner - 434,000
Seat 3 - Joris Springael - 475,000
Seat 4 - Josh "JJProdigy" Field - 274,000
Seat 5 - Gary Tighe - 239,000
Seat 6 - Vivek Rajkumar - 572,500
Seat 7 - Galen Hall - 698,500
Seat 8 - Steve "Chainsaw" Dempsey - 480,000
Seat 9 - Brian Schmidt - 439,500

Photo blog: Chip leaders

Vivek Rajkumar

Zackary Clark

Andrew Weisner

YouTube video: Kara Scott doubles up

Click here to view the video in HD

Photo blog: Day 2 bounties

2011 champion McLean Karr (right) was eliminated by Layne Flack (left)

Phil Hellmuth (left) was eliminated by Vivek Rajkumar (right)

Daniel Negreanu (left) was eliminated by Andrew Weisner (right)

Dwyte Pilgrim (left) was eliminated by Richard Woodall (right)

Gavin Smith (right)

Nam Le (right)

Men "The Master" Nguyen

 Howard Lederer (right)

Jason Mercier (left)

 David Williams (right) was eliminated by Eric Blair (left)