There were 142 players in Day 1A of the $10,000 buy-in NLHE main event, with only 57 surviving the day. There was a special $10k bonus given out to the overnight leader, who was Brian Schmidt. He edged out poker TV hostess and pro Kara Scott and Layne Flack who both were in the top five despite the added pressure of having bounties on their heads.
Mike "the mouth" Matusow and 2008 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star champ Brandon Cantu also finished the day near the top of the leader board.
Other notables making it through Day 1 A included Jason Mercier with 23,000 chips, Phil Hellmuth with 25,000, Matt Affleck with 35,000, Daniel Negreanu with 36,000, Dwyte Pilgrim with 52,000 and Gavin Smith with 67,000.
$50k in bounties were handed out as ten shooting stars busted on the day, including the Bay Area's own 2007 WSOP Main Event winner Jerry Yang, Joe Sebok, Dan Harrington, Freddy Deeb, Justin Smith, Scott Seiver and poker's new all-time leading money winner, Eric Seidel.
Top five on the leaderboard after Day 1A of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star:
1. Brian Schmidt – 187,700
2. Eric Moore – 160,000
3. Kara Scott – 137,100
4. Mehrdad Nouralishahi – 136,000
5. Layne Flack – 131,300
The second Day 1 flight will go off Tuesday at Bay 101's early start time of 10 a.m. PT.
26 Shooting Stars will be in the mix with $5k bounties on their heads, including Phil Ivey.
