Numerous Big Names Lined up for WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars

The line-up for the upcoming World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Stars championship has been announced – and it’s one heck of a stellar-packed list.

Already confirmed for this year’s $9,500+$500 buy-in event are reigning champion Alan Sternberg, as well as the likes of Team [geolink href=”https://www.pokernewsreport.com/pokerstars”]PokerStars[/geolink] Pros Daniel Negreanu, Liv Boeree, Joe Hachem, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Jonathan Duhamel, David Williams, Barry Greenstein and Jason Mercier.

If those nine superstars are not enough to convince you that this will likely be the most impressive line-up you’ll see all year, then consider some of the other big-name poker pros involved.

How about Phil Hellmuth? Or Antonio Esfandiari? Then there’s Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla, Team [geolink href=”https://www.pokernewsreport.com/partypoker”]PartyPoker[/geolink] Pro Tony G, Fabrice Soulier, Todd Brunson, Eugene Katchalov, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, JC Tran, Ben Lamb, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Erick Lindgren, Michael Mizrachi, Lock Poker Elite Pro Chris Moorman, Men Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Scott Seiver, Team PartyPoker Pro Mike Sexton and Sam Stein – to name just a select few.

$5,000 Bounty on Top Pros

All those previously named will, of course, have a $5,000 bounty on their heads when the action kicks off at the Bay 101 Casino on Monday, March 5, and ends on Friday the ninth.

In total, 49 pros in the field will be worth $5,000 to the player who knocks them out, and also includes the likes of Allen Bari, Freddy Deeb, Andy Frankenberger, Matt Giannetti, Jennifer Harman, Maria Ho, John Juanda, Kathy Liebert, Dwyte Pilgrim and David ‘Chino’ Rheem.

As well as the bounties, there is a $10,000 bonus up for grabs for the chip leaders after Day 1a and Day 1b, so there is plenty on offer – even for those who don’t make the money.

New York State’s Sternberg picked up $1,039,000 for taking down the event last March in San Jose after defeating fellow American Steven Kelly in their heads-up battle.

The runner-up, from California, left with a nice little bundle of cash, too, though, with Kelly pocketing $595,300, while Las Vegas-based Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow earned $369,800 for securing third place.

Alan Sternberg Back to Defend Title

Sternberg’s victory was a true thriller as he also had to see off the likes of Indian star Vivek Rajkumar – who finished fourth for $295,800 – as well as Sexton (sixth for $148,000), Tyler Reiman (seventh for $73,900) and Danny Nguyen (eighth for $73,900) at the final table.

The full Shooting Stars list is:

• Allen Bari
• Liv Boeree
• Todd Brunson
• Allen Cunningham
• Freddy Deeb
• Jonathan Duhamel
• Antonio Esfandiari
• Will Failla
• Andy Frankenberger
• Chau Giang
• Matt Giannetti
• Barry Greenstein
• Bertrand Grospellier
• Tony ‘G’ Guoga
• Joe Hachem
• Christian Harder
• Jennifer Harman
• Phil Hellmuth
• Maria Ho
• Linda Johnson
• John Juanda
• Eugene Katchalov
• Phil Laak
• Ben Lamb
• Nam Le
• Kathy Liebert
• Erick Lindgren
• Mike Matusow
• Jason Mercier
• Michael Mizrachi
• Chris Moorman
• Daniel Negreanu
• Men Nguyen
• Scotty Nguyen
• Dwyte Pilgrim
• Marvin Rettenmaier
• David ‘Chino’ Rheem
• Erik Seidel
• Scott Seiver
• Mike Sexton
• Gavin Smith
• Fabrice Soulier
• Sam Stein
• Alan Sternberg
• Joe Tehan
• Jennifer Tilly
• Yevgeniy Timoshenko
• JC Tran
• David Williams