There were 27 players remaining at the start of day 3 at the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event. At the end of a very long day of play just six players remain, including one of the biggest names in poker, Phil Hellmuth (pictured right). The Poker Brat is also the final shooting star remaining in the event from the 50 select players (333 entered overall) that began with a $5,000 bounty on their heads in San Jose.

Heading into day 3 it appeared that the television table of six would be reached relatively early, especially with an 11 a.m. start time. Fast action was aided by the fact that tables would remain six-handed until a final table of seven would battle for the final elimination of the night. Things started out according to plan and the final two tables were reached just before 4 p.m. John Cernuto busted in 11th place just after 6 p.m. and then the tournament hit a road block.

The deep blind structure set up by Matt Savage and his tournament staff took over and the players settled in for a skilled battle to advance to the final day. The battle for 10th place lasted five and a half hours before David Forster was eliminated (see below). After he hit the rail the flood gates opened up and Brian Rast (ninth place) and Scotty Nguyen (eighth place) fell in the next 15 minutes.

The final seven players took their seats at the final table just after midnight to determine who would finish in the unenviable position of television-table bubble boy. It took 44 more hands of poker to determine the final elimination and just before 2 a.m. the television table was reached and play ended for the night, 15 hours after cards initially got into the air.

Hellmuth will enter his fifth WPT final table in second chip-position with 1,433,000 and he will be joined by professionals Hasan Habib (455,000), Matt Keikoan (371,000), and Dan O’Brien (1,129,000). The winner will walk away with $878,500. Here is a look at the seating chart for tomorrow’s final table with chip counts:

Seat 1: Hasan Habib — 455,000
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth — 1,433,000
Seat 3: Andy Seth — 2,164,000
Seat 4: Matt Keikoan — 371,000
Seat 5: Mclean Karr — 1,112,000
Seat 6: Dan O’Brien — 1,129,000
by Ryan Lucchesi | Published: Mar 12, 2010 | E-mail Author from cardplayer.com

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