A Final Look at WPT Bay 101

It was déjà vu all over again at one point late into Day 3 play at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose as Paul Klann and Paul Volpe – who finished 1-2 last week at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic – were once again one and two in chips right here at the Bay 101 – an incredible feat for sure!  And although Klann faded in the end, collecting 11th place money, Volpe was in line to do one better than he did in L.A. when final table play began on Friday.

Despite starting final table play as the chip leader, Volpe (GPI#79) would need to avoid the charge of five other opponents including decorated pro Erik Seidel (GPI#76), rising star Joe Kuether (GPI#137) and local favourite Joe Nguyen.

Sadly for Volpe, his million dollar dream would come to an end late in the night on Friday as he finished in third position.  Still, a very impressive performance by the most valuable player in Fantasy Poker these past few weeks.  Although he won’t leave SJ with the +1M top prize, Volpe does end up collecting $1,086,780 USD for two weeks of work here at the LAPC and at Bay 101 combined.

In the end, American WeiKai Chang earns the big win, his second in a few weeks (he won the 2K PLO prelim at the LAPC) and, by far, the biggest score of his live tournament poker career.  Although he does earn his first ever seven-figure score, Chang is no slouch having earned three six-figure scores, including bubbling the WPT Final Table at the LAPC back in 2008.

Seidel, who won the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic in Season VI, finished fourth and Kuether would end up being the first man eliminated at the final table.

WPT BAY 101 SHOOTING STAR FINAL TABLE RESULTS (USD)

Other notable players who cashed in San Jose include: Antonio Esfandiari 9th, Athanasios Polychronopoulos 10th, Matt Stout 12th, Christian Harder 13th, Bertrand Grospellier 15th, Stephen Bokor 17th, Jordan Cristos 18th, Maria Ho 20th, Isaac Baron 21st, John Racener 22nd, Alex Keating 23rd, Brendon Rubie 25th, Kyle Julius 27th, Andrew Lichtenberger 29th, Kathy Liebert 33rd, Todd Terry 34th, Chamath Palihapitiya 35th, Carlos Mortensen 36th, Zach Hyman 38th, Jeff Madsen 40th, Jason Somerville 42nd, Christopher De Maci 45th, Thomas Gabriel 46th, Steve Gross 47th, Matt Affleck 52nd, Yung Hwang 54th, Michael Benvenuti 55th, Christopher Brammer 61st, Scott Seiver 63rd.

FANTASY FOCUS
WOW!!!  Congratulations to the over 2,700 FPM managers who collected at least 61 FPM points – double the amount of FPM managers who scored FPM points at the LAPC!  And while Bjorn from Sweden held the #1 spot prior to final table play, it’s Jauffrey from France – who had Paul Volpe on his team as final table play began – who finishes the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star with the most FPM points, congratulations!  Team GPI member Fabien made some wise moves which allowed him to finish second in points.  Fabien will be at the WPT Venice Grand Prix in a few weeks.  He and Ophélie will be at the GPI Fantasy Poker Manager booth – make sure you stop by and say hi!

2012 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Champ Sean Jazayeri also had a tremendous FPM result collecting over 600 FPM points with a team that inlcuded Volpe, Jason Somerville, Maria Ho and Isaac Baron.  Daniel Buzgon also enjoyed a nice FPM showing in San Jose.

And what else can we say about the Paul Volpe of FPM?  After scoring the most points out of every FPM manager at the WPT LAPC, our German friend Tobias was third in FPM scoring in San Jose as 9 of his 11 Fantasy players scored points for him at the Bay 101 Shooting Star – keep up the great work, Tobias!

THE PERFECT TEAM
You would have needed to spend every single of you 1,000,000 FPM cap in order to field the best team in San Jose.  999,910 is what it would have cost to field a team that would have scored you a total of 1,021 FPM points at the Bay 101 Shooting Star.  You team would have included final table participants Paul Volpe, Erik Seidel and Joe Kuether as well as, amongst others, Big One for One Drop Champion Antonio Esfandiari:

3rd Paul Volpe (GPI#79) 90,160
4th Erik Seidel (GPI#76) 254,290
6th Joe Kuether (GPI#137) 150,440
<<< 9th Antonio Esfandiari (GPI#71) 269,610
10th Athanasios Polychronopoulos (GPI#309) 20,540
11th Paul Klann (GPI#853) 10,000
12th Matt Stout (GPI#93) 184,870
14th Gordon Vayo (GPI#307) 10,000
16th James Anderson (GPI#723) 10,000

ERIC’S TEAM
As for my team, I’m happy with yet another solid performance, although there was a time where I was sitting with three of the top 5 chip stacks on my team with Jason Somerville, Paul Volpe and Brendon Rubie running like mad for a while.  Sadly, Somerville and Rubie’s tournament runs ended sooner than I would have liked.  But still, a great performance by a few of my selections – including birthday girl Maria Ho who I kept from my LAPC team – great job team!

TEAM DANIS
Andrew Lichtenberger: 81 FPM Points
Yung Hwang: 65 FPM Points
James Calderaro: Eliminated on Day 2
Jesse Yaginuma: Eliminated on Day 2
Taylor von Kriegenbergh: Eliminated on Day 2
Brendon Rubie: 85 FPM Points
<<< Faraz Jaka: Eliminated on Day 2
Jason Somerville: 71 FPM Points
Paul Volpe: 140 FPM Points
Maria Ho: 91 FPM Points
Andy Frankenberger: Eliminated on Day 2: >>>

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