Stephen Graner will start Monday’s third day of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship at the top of the counts, with 55 players still in contention for a first prize of $470,500 at Bay 101 Casino in San Jose. Phil Hellmuth and England’s Chris Moorman are among a dozen invited Shooting Stars who survived Sunday’s money bubble.
Graner bagged 1,527,000 at the end of Day 2. According to the official World Poker Tour chip counts, Shawn Daniels is closest to him on 1,409,000, ahead of Eric Zheng (1,301,000), Haidang Nguyen (1,283,000) and Quanliang Gao (1,189,000).
A $2.6 million prize pool
The $5,300 Championship drew 584 entries across its two opening flights and late registration. The WPT tournament staff put the numbers out on Sunday afternoon local time: 236 entries on Day 1A, 310 on Day 1B and a further 38 on Day 2, producing a prize pool of $2,613,200.
The official payout structure paid 73 places with a min-cash of $9,600. Everyone still in the field is now guaranteed at least $11,400. Second place pays $305,000 and third $226,000, while the $470,500 top prize includes a $10,400 seat in the WPT World Championship, the tour’s year-end showpiece at Wynn Las Vegas.
The numbers are in for the $5,300 @WPT @Bay101Casino Shooting Star Championship 🏆🌠
584 Entries – $2,613,200 Prize Pool 💰
1st Place – $470,500, including a $10,400 WPT World Championship @WynnLasVegas entry 🥇
73 Places Paid – $9,600 Min. Cash 💵
World Poker Tour (@WPT) October 25, 2026
That is a smaller turnout than in 2025. PokerNews noted when the event was announced that last year’s edition attracted 672 runners and a prize pool of more than $3 million, with Florida’s Kharlin Sued beating Danny Wong heads-up for $480,700.
Twelve Shooting Stars still standing
The tournament’s signature feature is its list of invited professionals and personalities, each carrying a bounty for the player who knocks them out. At the time of the July announcement, that bounty was set at $2,500.
Twelve of them made it through to Monday. Adam Hendrix is the best placed on 699,000, having finished 19th in this event a year ago. Joe Nguyen (511,000), Hellmuth (485,000), Justin Zaki (419,000), Faraz Jaka (327,000) and Matt Salsberg (311,000) all have workable stacks. Brian Yoon, D.J. MacKinnon, Tyler Patterson, Harvey Castro and Mike Meskin complete the list.
Moorman has more work to do. He returns with 147,000, a little over 12 big blinds at the Day 3 starting level of 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante. Viny Lima has the shortest stack in the room at 60,000.
What happens next
Play resumes at 11:15 a.m. PDT, which is 6:15 p.m. in the UK. The WPT plans around nine hours of action, with the aim of reaching the final two tables before bagging up. The Championship is scheduled to conclude on Tuesday, 27 October.
It has been a busy autumn for the tour. Earlier this month a freeroll qualifier, Shrikant Pillamarapu, claimed a WPT Prime title, and whoever lifts the Shooting Star trophy in San Jose will join the field for the WPT World Championship at the end of the year.
