World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Day 2: Springael On Top with Rajkumar Not Far Behind
Day 2 at the 2011 World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship Event concluded after a long day of play on Wednesday. From the overall starting field of 415 players, 170 of them returned to action on Day 2. At the end of the day, just 24 remained. Topping the pack is Joris Springael with 1.477 million in chips.
Plenty of Shooting Stars were still alive in the field on Day 2 with 19 of them returning. A few of those players were Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Jason Mercier, McLean Karr, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth.
Both Hellmuth and Mericer were eliminated early on in the day. Hellmuth fell first and it was Vivek Rajkumar who collected his $5,000 bounty. According to the World Poker Tour Live Update Team, Hellmuth raised to 2,800 with the blinds at 600/1,200 with a 200 ante. Rajkumar three-bet to 7,500 and then Hellmuth moved all in for about 45,000. Rajkumar called with A♣10♦. Hellmuth held A♠K♥. The board ran out 10♣5♠2♦4♥4♣ to give Rajkumar the pot.
Mercier went down with A♣K♣ to an opponent’s 6♠5♣. The board ran out 10♣9♣5♥A♦6♦ to eliminate the Shooting Star after he was all-in preflop for his last 15,000.
With the field being whittled down to 24 players, that meant the money bubble burst during Day 2 and only 45 spots would pay out. Layne Flack became the bubble boy after being eliminated by Matthew Berkey.
An under-the-gun player raised to 10,500 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante. Berkey flat-called from the small blind and then Flack moved all in from the big blind for 33,500. Action folded back to Berkey and he made the call, tabling A♣K♦. Flack held J♦J♠. The board ran out Q♣10♠2♠4♥K♥ and Berkey picked off Flack with a river king.
As with all WPT events, there were plenty of notable players who made it to the money. Some of those that did, but failed to make it through the day were Shawn Buchanan (44th - $15,000), Jennifer Harman (43rd - $15,000), Hafiz Khan (37th - $15,000), Jordan Young (31st - $18,400) and John Juanda (25th - $22,100). Juanda's 25th-place finish signaled the end of the day. He fell at the hands of Dan Smith.
There’s plenty of firepower left in this field moving into Day 3. Zach Clark, Eric Blair, Kathy Liebert and reigning PokerStars Carribean Adventure champion Galen Hall are all still alive, but under the average in chips. Those in the upper part of the leaderboard include Kevin MacPhee, Steven Kelly and Vivek Rajkumar.
Day 3 will take place on Thursday, starting at 12 p.m. PST, two hours later than the previous days in this event. From there, the day will end when the six-handed final table is reached. Be sure to check back with PokerNews for a recap of all the action.
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