High-ticket poker play
With a top prize in the $1 million range (it depends on the number of entrants), the Shooting Star is the Bay Area’s richest poker tournament. The 21st annual Texas Hold’em event takes place Monday-Friday, March 6-10, at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose.
This is the final year the World Poker Tour event will be held in Bay 101’s existing casino. A new facility is slated to open across the freeway in September, said Bay 101 tournament coordinator Brian Gudim.
“We’ve had lots of good memories here,” he said.
There’s still time for players to earn their way into the Shooting Star Main Event. The entry fee is $7,500, but some players win their way in by playing in satellite tournaments. Among the remaining satellites are three singleday $1,100-entry-fee events: Thursday-Saturday, March 2-4.
A two-day $2,100-entry-fee satellite runs Sunday-Monday, March 5-6, and will be limited to 250 seated players plus 50 alternates. It sells out every year, Gudim said. This is the most expensive Shooting Star satellite, but the higher fee ensures that a greater percentage of participants will win seats for the Main Event.
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the Shooting Star — and the most enticing for amateurs — is that at least 50 top pros will be designated as bounties. Any player knocking a bounty out of the tournament wins a $2,500 bonus, and receives a personally inscribed T-shirt with a picture of the vanquished bounty.
For example, the player who knocks out Phil Hellmuth will receive a shirt reading: “I knocked out Phil Hellmuth” with Hellmuth’s photo on it. Then Hellmuth will sign it and take a photo with the player who knocked him out. Unless, of course, no one knocks out Hellmuth and the Palo Alto player wins the event, a longtime goal of his.
Last year, the Shooting Star Main Event had 753 entrants and a prize pool of $5.3 million. German player Stefan Schillhabel won $1.3 million for being the last player standing in the 2016 event.
Among the top players signed up for the 2017 Main Event are Daniel Negreanu, Maria Ho and Antonio Esfandiari, who grew up in San Jose.
Other stars playing in the event are Sacramento’s JC Tran, WPT announcers Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, and Vietnam-born Qui Nguyen, who won the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event.
On Wednesday-Thursday, March 8-9, Bay 101 is hosting a $25,000 High Roller tournament. It’s usually a mix of well-funded players and local businesspeople who enjoy playing with poker celebrities.
For information on all the Shooting Star events, see www.bay101.com.