Blair Hinkle Ends Day 1B of WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars on Top For $10k

Blair "blur5f6" Hinkle ended Day 1B of the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event as the chip leader and earned a $10,000 bonus for doing so. (Bodog Beat Image)

The second flight of Day 1 of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Stars event ended last night with more than twice the number of Shooting Stars (name pros with a $5,000 bounty on their heads) left in the field than Day 1A, that is to say, 11.

Twenty-six of those "Shooting Stars" were scattered throughout the poker room yesterday, including Phil Ivey, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Team Bodog poker pro Josh Arieh, Jenn Tilly, Allen Cunningham, Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari and Joe Hachem. As we said, only 11 of them survived, which is markedly better than what their compatriots accomplished on Day 1A when only five made it through, and include Ted Forrest, Phil Laak, Erick Lindgren and Scotty Nguyen.

Not a "Star" but still outplaying all of them was online poker player Blair "blur5f6" Hinkle, who earned a $10,000 bonus for finishing with the lead when play wrapped up last night. Hinkle has been running hot lately, finishing 11th place at the WPT LA Poker Classic against a very tough field just a couple of weeks ago.

Here are the top ten chip counts from yesterday:

1. Blair Hinkle - 170,800
2. Clonie Gowen - 163,300
3. Paul Wasicka - 140,600
4. Ralph Perry - 136,900
5. Thanh Phung - 135,600
6. Neil Ho - 129,100
7. Mary Jo Belcore - 121,600
8. Tuan Le - 120,500
9. Ted Forrest - 118,600
10. Aneel Choppa - 99,400

The 91 players, including the 11 Stars, who survived today will join the 47 players, with those five Stars, who advanced from Day 1A to begin Day 2 tomorrow at 10:30 am local time. The top 45 place get paid out with the winner receiving $1 million plus a seat in the $25,000 buy-in WPT World Championship in April. The leader after Day 2 will also get a $10,000 bonus.

If you want a chance to play in a World Poker Tour event and go up against the best the poker world has to offer, then head over to Bodog and qualify online for the WPT and win a $12,000 "Player's Choice" package.