Cantu Canters At WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star

Cantu Canters At WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star

Monday, 17 March 2008

The Bay 101 Shooting Star contest is that little bit special compared to the other events on the schedule. The $5,000 bounties that lie on the heads of some of the game’s biggest names make aggressive play all the more attractive, and even before sit

The Bay 101 Shooting Star contest is that little bit special compared to the other events on the schedule. The $5,000 bounties that lie on the heads of some of the game’s biggest names make aggressive play all the more attractive, and even before sitting down on the final table, Brandon Cantu had cashed $40,000 in bonuses. Winning the extra million dollars on top must have been nice, of course.
Coming into the final table, the blinds were still incredibly low compared to the stack sizes. Cantu had collected five bounties already, and the temptation to collect the sixth was strong when he called Jennifer Harman’s all in on the flop with his flush draw against her set. Harman faded the flush, and the $5,000 was safe for now.
First of the six to drop was John Phan who ended up shortstacked and sprawling when moving in with Qd-8d. He got the call from Noah Jefferson, who had pocket sixes, and the race was on. Phan missed the flop and when the six came on the turn he was drawing dead, cashing $135,000 for sixth.
Next came the most surprising elimination of the day. Michael Baker was the only player who had a stack capable of hurting Cantu, but when he managed to get 200,000 out in the middle preflop with Kd-3d before calling a check raise all in on a Qs-Td-2d board against Cantu’s pocket Aces, a few jaws dropped. No diamond came for Baker, and Cantu now owned 75 percent of the chips in play.
Nearly 100 hands passed by before Jefferson was knocked out in fourth after he lost a race with AK against the sevens of Steve Sung. Three handed play saw two guys and one girl, but Harman is one of the most formidable players in the world. Sadly for her supporters, she couldn’t over turn the sheer firepower of her male adversaries, and she ended up finishing in third. Her AK improved on the flop against the pocket nines of Sung, but the nine on the flop meant she was drawing incredibly slim – a draw she missed.
Going into heads up play, Cantu held a 4:1 chip lead on Sung, Brandon took a large chunk of Sung’s 1.4m stack when he rivered a set of jacks. From here it was about finding the killer blow, and it came when his pocket fours clashed with Sung’s threes. No trey on the board for Sung, and the tournament confirmed Cantu as its champion.



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