WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Returns For the First Time in Five Years—Who’s Got a Bounty on Their Head?

The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship returns to the World Poker Tour calendar for the first time since 2016. Starting on Friday, Oct. 17, Bay 101 Casino in San Jose will host the return of the WPT to the iconic Bay Area location. It has a long history, featuring on Season 2 of the WPT and sticking around for more than a decade.

The series begins on Oct. 17, while the $5,300 championship event runs from Oct. 24 through Oct. 28. The series will conclude on Nov. 2. Buy-ins for the tournaments in the festival range from $600 up to the $15,400 High Roller. Satellites started as early as Oct. 15.

The final table of the championship event will take place in Las Vegas at a later date, with a delayed televised broadcast.

History of Bay 101 Shooting Star

The Bay 101 Shooting Star dates back to 1997 and ran each year before the COVID pandemic put it to a halt. It was part of the WPT from 2004 through 2016 and ran as an unaffiliated event from 1997-2003 and 2017-2019.

The most recent version of the event, in 2020, was cut short by the pandemic. The final 10 players had to split the prize pool.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska was excited to welcome Bay 101 back to the WPT schedule:

Bay 101 Casino has long been a staple of the World Poker Tour’s rich history. The players, the fans, and the incredible team at Bay 101 create a fantastic environment. We look forward to returning to this iconic venue once again.

The Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship peaked in 2017 with 806 entries on Season 15 of the WPT. The $7,500 buy-in event was won by Sam Panzica, who took home the top prize of more than $1.3 million. From 2005 to 2012, it was a $10,000 buy-in event, with most of the years giving a seven-figure top prize to the winner.

Shooting Star Bounty Format

This year’s Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship will follow the classic rules of the bounty format from previous years. The “Shooting Star” players each have a $2,500 bounty on their heads. At least one of the Shootings Stars will start out at each table as the other players will aim to knock them out for the bounty. If a Shooting Star wins the event, they will collect their own bounty.

The 2025 Shooting Stars include several well-known names in the poker world. They include:

• 2025 Card Player of the year leader Jesse Lonis, who made an audacious bet on himself in the WSOP Main Event this year
• Jesse Yaginuma, who was at the center of the Club WPT Gold promotion controversy at the WSOP Millionaire Maker that lead to the WSOP stripping him of his bracelet
• Notable women in poker such as Esther Taylor, Jamie Kerstetter, Kathy Liebert and Xuan Liu, who became the first woman to win a Triton series event earlier this year
• Adam Hendrix, who made the WSOP Main Event final table this year
• WPT champions Matt Salsberg and David “ODB” Baker

In addition to the Shooting Stars, players can collect bonuses of $5,000 for bagging the chip lead in each of the two Day 1s.

Full List of 2025 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars

Here’s a look at the full list of WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars for the 2025 event, along with some relevant WPT stats, courtesy of the Card Player archives.