On Wednesday, the record-setting Season XV WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event field was whittled down to the final 44 players. It was a day that saw the money bubble burst, bounties handed out, and Paul Volpe emerge with the chip lead, but all eyes are once again on Mike Sexton, with what’s become a common theme on Season XV of the World Poker Tour.
Sexton has had a season for the ages. He first won WPT Montreal back in November for his first WPT title and $317,896 in prize money. He added a fourth-place finish in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic just last week for $300,690, and both finishes have helped him climb to second in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race for Season XV. Now, just 500 points short of the leader Ben Zamani, Sexton will be gunning for an eighth-place finish or better to move into the top spot in the competition to become the Hublot WPT Player of the Year.
Sexton’s Day 2 wasn’t easy, and he found himself very short on the money bubble with 82 players left. With just 34,000 in chips left in Level 18 with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante, Sexton was all in with pocket queens. He was up against pocket eights and ace-queen, and his hand held to give him a much-welcomed triple up.
From there, the Poker Hall of Fame member worked his way to end the day on 391,000 in chips and among the final 44 players heading to Day 3.
Sexton, along with another 42 players, were all left looking up at the towering stack of Paul Volpe to finish Day 2. Volpe finished Wednesday’s action with a stack of 1.749 million, more than 400,000 ahead of Dan O’Brien’s second-place stack of 1.339 million. Both players are looking for their first WPT title and also to improve upon prior third-place finishes in this very event. In Season VIII in 2010, O’Brien took third out of 333 entries in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $10,000 Main Event for $292,800. In Season XI in 2013, Volpe took third out of 643 entries in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event for $435,610.
Joining Volpe and O’Brien in the top 10 on the leaderboard were Sam Panzica (814,000) and Brian Altman (762,000), both WPT Champions Club members looking to add a second title.
In addition to Sexton, four Shooting Stars remained to end Day 2. Garrett Greer bagged the most chips of the group of five with 1.034 million. David Williams (685,000), Rainer Kempe (513,000), and Christian Harder (385,000) were the other Shooting Star players who advanced to Day 3.
With the top 81 spots reaching the money and 264 players returning for Day 2, plenty would be forced to leave empty handed, but none came as close to a cash as Oscar Zarate-Ramirez did. Zarate-Ramirez became the tournament’s “bubble boy” when he busted in 82nd place at the hands of Eddy Sabat. Zarate-Ramirez moved all in on the 
flop with the 
for a combo draw. Sabat made the call with the 
and held after the 
turn and 
river.
Sabat went on to finish the day with 370,000 in chips.
Others who advanced to Day 3 were Matt Affleck (1.018 million), Chino Rheem (703,000), and Ravi Raghavan (600,000). If Rheem were to go on to victory, he would become the first player to win four WPT titles.
Day 3 will begin at 1 p.m. PT on Thursday. Led by Volpe, the remaining 44 players will return to play for a share of the $5.7 million prize pool. Everyone left is guaranteed at least $21,850, but they all have their eyes on the huge $1.373 million first-place prize.
Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for continued coverage of the Season XV WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event.
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