Day Two saw 138 players return, with 16 bounties still in the hunt
Thursday 13th March 2008
Of the remaining 138 players who came back for Day 2 of the Bay 101 Shooting Star event, sixteen had $5,000 bounties on their head. Despite the fact that the tournament started early and there was a feeling in some quarters that the event was lacking firepower, the fans still came out in their masses to watch the action in San Jose.
The first of the Shooting Stars to fall was Men Nguyen, who was knocked out when Robert Cheung’s draw got there – via a runner-runner that is. With ‘The Master’ out, a string of eliminations followed, with thirty falling in the first level of play. Those who were eliminated included Matusow, Laak, Scotty Nguyen, Liebert, Cernuto and Cunningham. Lack of firepower? With those eliminations? We didn’t think so either.
One player who fought well with the short stack was the Robin Hood of poker, Barry Greenstein. He eventually come unstuck though when his overpair was chased down by a flush draw that came good. One Big Game regular who surged on though was the diminutive but deadly Jennifer Harman, who ended up with a stack of 952,500.
The bubble was burst when two well known professionals locked up in a big hand. On a flop of 8d-7d-5s, Ralph Perry moved all in with the 6d-5d, giving him a mass of outs against Gowen’s top set. The turn and river brought none of the outs for Perry in what was effectively a coin flip, and Gowen raked in a monster pot.
The remaining 36 players return later today to play down to the final table. The tournament takes another interesting twist, with the final 36 now playing six-handed – sure to spice things up further still.
