Stars Fall as Ke Lights Up WPT Bay 101

Stars Fall as Ke Lights Up WPT Bay 101

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Day 1A of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event may have been big but when the registration desks had closed on Day 1B the field was even bigger.

Thanks to more than 300 players anteing up $7,500 to take part in the bounty event, this year's total number of entrants hit a record high of 713, surpassing last season's high of 643.

With one final chance for players to enter on Day 2 that figure could rise still and as a result the organisers have had to alter the structure and made the first six levels of the session one hour long. This means that today's returning cohort will be playing down to a final 36 or until 2:00am (whichever comes first).

On a day that saw a record high, a slew of shooting star players were eliminated including the always vocal Bruce Buffer who got the session underway with a hearty "Shuffle Up and Deal". Unfortunately, however, the UFC announcer's cards couldn't do the talking for him when the action started and as the day wore on he eventually found himself ousted Joey Weissman.

Also turning into a fallen star on Day 1B was the likes of Vanessa Selbst, Ryan Riess, Dan Smith and recent WPT champion, Chris Moorman. However, one shooting star who did make it through the session unscathed was Jeff Madsen. The American pro managed to bag up 173,200 chips to finish amongst the day's top six players.

Leading the way at the close though was Lucas Ke with an imposing mountain of chips worth 252,000.

Day 2 will kick off later today and play down to the final four tables ahead of the event's penultimate session on Thursday.

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Chip Counts:

1. Lucas Ke - 252,000
2. Ron Minnis - 232,300
3. Shankar Pillai - 201,000
4. James Carroll - 191,100
5. Carlos Villamarin - 182,000
6. Jeff Madsen - 173,200



Tags: WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars, Jeff Madsen