German player Stefan Schillhabel has just triumphed in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event to collect his career largest live cash of $1,298,000, as well as a special WPT Champions Trophy, a pair of gold Monster 24K Headphones, and a Hublot watch. In addition, the winner will have his name engraved on the WPT Champions Cup.
The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event featured two starting flights and three more days of play. This year, the prestigious event attracted quite a lot of attention and a record number of 753 entries paid the buy-in fee of $7,500 in order to enter it. They generated a prize pool of $5.3 million and the top 72 finishers received a share of the money, with lowest payouts worth $14,900.
Here it is important to mention that the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event is not like the typical Main Events in the tournament series’ schedule. It is more like a bounty event. Yet, it is not a traditional bounty tournament, as well. Basically, each table kicks off with a popular poker pro being named a Shooting Star with a bounty on his or her head. The player who eliminates a Shooting Star receives a bounty totaling $2,500 and an autographed bounty T-shirt.
Day 4 of the Main Event was played yesterday with six players returning to determine the winner. Female poker pro Maria Ho was the only Shooting Star left to play in the tournament. Six-handed action kicked off with Schillhabel himself as the chip leader, holding a total of 8,720,000 in chips.
Shooting Star Maria Ho was the first to leave the six-handed final table. She was eliminated in 6th place by Adam Geyer. The female player collected $179,930 for her efforts. As for Geyer, he received the $2,500 bounty.
Several hands later, Geyer busted not one but two players. Griffin Paul hit the rail in 5th place for a payout of $231,310. He was followed by Andjelko Andrejevic, who received $331,500 for his 4th place in the event. Bryan Piccioli was the next to leave the final table. The player was eliminated by Schillhabel to scoop $493,350 of the prize pool.
The heads-up battle between Schillhabel and Geyer started with the two players being almost even in chips. Yet, Geyer had a slight advantage over his opponent. Two-handed action lasted for more than 50 hands, during which chips swung back and forth between the two players.
Hand #102 turned out to be the last one in play. Geyer moved all in for his last 1,850,000 and Schillhabel called with [8s][7d]. Geyer tabled [Kd][9s]. The board ran out [Ks][10c][3c][8h][8c], securing the German with the title and the first-place prize. Geyer took $752,800 for his 2nd place in the event.
