Bounty Hunting at WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Begins Today

Bodog poker pro David Williams is one of the 50 big names who will have bounties on their heads at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars. (Bodog Beat Image)

One of the most inventive formats on the World Poker Tour gets underway at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose today. The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars event is a $10,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem poker tournament, but has a little bit of a twist.

Spread throughout the field will be 50 of the top poker players in the world, or at least the most recognizable ones, all with a $5,000 bounty on their heads. So, basically, if you are playing in this event and knock out, say, Phil Hellmuth, you would get $5,000 and a t-shirt with his face on it, which would most likely piss off and delight the "Poker Brat" at the same time.

As another incentive to players, the chip leader at the end of each flight of Day 1 will receive a $10,000 bonus. Like we said, it can make for an interesting Day 1 strategy when your whole goal is to bust poker pros out and amass as many chips as possible.

Anyway, instead of listing all the notable players who are in the field, we'll give you a quick list of the 50 players who have the bounty on their heads, aside from Hellmuth, who we already mentioned:

Defending champion Ted Forrest, Team Bodog poker pro David Williams, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Joe Hachem, Jerry Yang, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Erick Lindgren, Mike Mizrachi, Scotty Nguyen, Dan Harrington, J.C. Tran, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Sebok, Phil Laak, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Erik Seidel, T.J. Cloutier, Freddy Deeb, Chad Brown, Jennifer Tilly, Mimi Tran, Sully Erna, Cyndy Violette, John Cernuto, Roy Winston, Barbara Enright, Amir Vahedi, Antonio Esfandiari, Eli Elezra, J.J. Liu, Layne Flack, Chau Giang, Robert Williamson III, Isabelle Mercier, Kenna James, Hoyt Corkins, Kristy Gazes, Tom McEvoy, Men Nguyen, Kathy Liebert, David Pham, Gavin Smith, Jennifer Harman and Michael Gracz.

And if that weren't enought for you, the final table of this tournament usually features some pretty spectacular fireworks. Last year, Forrest went up against Liu and 2007 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Bill Edler. Two major tournaments in a row with good final tables, could it be possible? First Ivey, Hellmuth and Nam Le at the WPT LA Poker Classic and now possibly this? Sweet manna from poker heaven.

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.