Monday, March 10, 2008

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WPT Shooting Star returns players to spotlight

Reigning WSOP Champion Jerry Yang will be one of the many pros with a bounty on his head at the WPT Shooting Star event.

By Earl Burton

After a couple of weeks in which poker players welcomed many celebrities into their felted battleground at the WPT Invitational and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the World Poker Tour's Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament, which kicks off today, will see poker players themselves take center stage.

The tournament, a $10,000 buy-in event, has been on the WPT schedule since the second year of the organization's existence. While it has generated huge prize pools for the victors in the past, the unique feature of this tournament is the bounties that are placed on 50 of the top names in the game.

Each bounty player has a $5,000 bounty placed on them (the figure dates from the buy-in in the early years of the event). The money, along with a commemorative T-shirt that immortalizes the victory, is awarded to the player who eliminates a given bounty-holder from the tournament.

By the looks of the names on the bounty list this year, it could be a daunting task to knock one of them out.

On Day 1a of the tournament, none other than World Champion Jerry Yang is expected to be on hand with a bounty on his head. As if that wasn't enough, players such as Todd Brunson, Hoyt Corkins, Kristy Gazes, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, current PokerListings Player of the Year leader Men "The Master" Nguyen, Vanessa Rousso, Erik Seidel and WPT champion Roy Winston are also on the bounty list.

Players bellying up to the felt on Day 1b will find the likes of the legendary T.J. Cloutier, Allen Cunningham, defending Shooting Star champion Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, and former world champions Phil Hellmuth, Dan Harrington, Tom McEvoy and Joseph Hachem on the bounty list. For the full bounty list visit Bay101.com.

While the bounty carriers will be on hand representing the pros, players can also expect to see some non-bountied pros taking their shot at the top prize in the tournament and making sure that next year they won't be overlooked for the bounty list.

For a bounty tournament, professionals have done rather well in this event. Tiltboy Phil Gordon was the first champion of the tournament back in 2004, defeating the reigning world champion, Chris Moneymaker.

Newcomer Danny Nguyen captured a $1 million prize the next year with Gus Hansen and Men Nguyen at the final table. Professional Nam Le was the victor in 2006 with David Williams and Chad Brown at the final table and Forrest outlasted Joanne "JJ" Liu last year.

The playing field for the event is capped at 500. If it meets that number, the top prize in the event is expected to pay out an estimated $1,200,450 and a seat at April's WPT Championship to the winner.

PokerListings.com's reporting team will be there for every turn of the card and details on the shot-down bounties, so be sure to tune in to the Live Tournaments section today for all the action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star.

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