A fan favorite, the Bay 101 Shooting Star event always draws a big crowd with a $7,500 buy-in plus re-entry and $2,500 bounties on the heads of 52 big-name pros.
Knock out one of those pros and you get a shirt, medal and the cash, making for a fairly lighthearted if competitive first few days and some added incentive at the tables.
A good 270 players made their way to the casino for Day 1a yesterday with 109 surviving to see Day 2 led by Lichtenberger.
He bagged up 341,000 for the overall lead and the $10k bonus for being the chipleader at day's end.
The top 10 in chips after Day 1a:
1. Andrew Lichtenberger 341,000 2. Stephen Bokor 274,200 3. Andy Hwang 242,000 4. Phaly Nou 232,800 5. James Calderaro 205,200 6. Greg White 183,000 7. Brendon Rubie 180,300 8. Isaac Baron 178,500 9. Faraz Jaka 177,300 10. Lori Bare 156,300Other notables off to a good start with above-average stacks include WPT LAPC runner-up Paul Volpe (146,500), Brit Chris "NigDawG" Brammer (142,800), Antonio Esfandiari (119,200) and Erik Seidel (85,000).
With re-entry available today for those who busted out yesterday, expect to see even more big names in the field and on the leaderboard after Day 1b.
Action picks up at 11 am PT with a new group of Shooting Stars. Follow along with the live updates on WPT.com.
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