Check Out the Schedule for October’s WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Festival

For the first time since 2017, the iconic Bay 101 Shooting Star will return under the World Poker Tour (WPT) brand next month in San Jose, California.

The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star festival will take place Oct. 17-Nov. 2 in at Bay 101 Casino and will culminate with the 5,300 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship Event. That event will play down to a televised final table that will play out in Las Vegas at a later date.

An Iconic History

The Bay 101 Shooting Star has a rich history that goes back to Sam Merchant winning the inaugural event in 1997 for $29,000. The next year’s title went to eventual Poker Hall of Famer Huck Seed, who defeated a field of 151 players in the $1,000 buy-in event to win $30,250.

The buy-in rose to $5,200 for WPT’s Season 2 in 2004, which saw Phil Gordon (who recently spoke to PokerNews in an exclusive interview) topping a field of 243 players to win $360,000. The next year, the buy-in increased further to $10,000 as Dan Nguyen reigned supreme for $1,025,000.

In terms of prize pool, the event reached its peak in 2017 as 806 players created $5,722,600 in prize money. That year, Sam Panzica won the title and $1,373,000 top prize. That same year, WPT pulled the event from its season schedule.

The Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship ran as a standalone event in 2019 and again in 2020, when it was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Ten players were forced to chop, resulting in Craig Varnell being named champion and receiving $159,710.

Among those in the chop were Kristen Foxen, Tyler Patterson, Anthony Zinno and Lexy Gavin-Mather.

Festival Details

In its return under the WPT brand, action at Bay 101 Casino will kick off with the $600 Shooting Star Opener event with two starting flights, followed by $600 Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha 8 events.

Other highlights on the schedule include a $600 H.O.R.S.E. event, a $15,400 High Roller, a $1,100 Mystery Board Bounty event with two starting flights, and a $600 Shooting Star Closer that will wrap up the series on Nov. 2.

The main attraction of the series, the Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship, kicks off on Oct. 24 and will offer two starting flights before playing to a final table on Oct. 28.

The $5,300 buy-in event offers two starting flights and gives players one re-entry. Tables will start nine-handed before switching to eight-handed on Day 3 and six-handed once it gets down to 36 players.

The full schedule for the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star festival is available in the table below.

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Schedule

_{*Photos courtesy WPT}

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.