Sexton WPT Player of the Year Contention with 44 Left at Bay 101

Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton is among the final 44 players in the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star event, and with an eighth-place finish or better he will take the lead in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year standings. Play concluded deep into the California night on when Paul Volpe emerged as the overnight chip leader with 1.7 million chips, while Sexton’s currently sitting on 391,000.

The second day of play started with no less than 264 players, former EPT Prague champion Stephen Graner holding the chip lead with 332,000. Graner opened up quite a gap with Day 1a chip leader Eddy Sabat who bagged 265,000, and heading into Day 3 both overnight chip leaders are still in the hunt for the massive $1,373,000 first-place prize. 

With 81 places paid a long road was traveled by all players looking to make the money, and Shooting Stars Chris Moorman, Richard Seymour, Jason Koon, Anthony Zinno, Cliff Josephy and many others were knocked out before the bubble. The money bubble ultimately lasted one hour and 42 minutes, and 19 total hands, during which Sexton found a way to triple up his stack with queens versus eights and ace-queen suited. Oscar Zarate-Ramirez was the last player to leave San Jose empty-handed, as he missed straight and flush draws versus Sabat to get knocked out.

Poker Central ambassador Tom Marchese got knocked out in 72nd place by Ukrainian pro Igor Yaroshevskyy, and the former collected $15,300 for his efforts.  Defending champion Stefan Schillhabel – and 2017 Super High Roller Bowl debutant – made the money again this year, but only to get knocked out in 47th place collecting $19,120. 

Ultimately, the night ended with 44 players and the following Shooting Stars are still in the hunt.

Garrett Greer – 1,034,000
David Williams – 685,000
Rainer Kempe – 513,000
Mike Sexton – 391,000
Christian Harder – 385,000

Other notables left in the field include Dan O’Brien (1,339,000), Igor Yaroshevskyy (1,190,000), Charlie Carrel (1,042,000) and Matt Affleck (1,018,000).

Play resumes at 1:00 p.m. PT when the remaining players will battle for a seat at the six-handed WPT final table.