It
’s a long way from the Garlic City Club to the poker palaces of
Las Vegas. Or at least it used to be. Gilroy’s Joel Gaeta and
George Pagan were in the field of World Poker Tour hopefuls Monday
morning when the ninth annual Shooting Star Tournament opened a
five-day run at Bay 101 casino in San J
ose. They’ll be hoping to hit a run of success this week akin to
the recent tournament wins by amateur players fresh from friendly
games and Internet play. Poker’s popularity soars with each
televised event … and the old pros increasingly grumble about the
fresh faces at the table who are taki
ng their money.
It’s a long way from the Garlic City Club to the poker palaces of Las Vegas. Or at least it used to be.
Gilroy’s Joel Gaeta and George Pagan were in the field of World Poker Tour hopefuls Monday morning when the ninth annual Shooting Star Tournament opened a five-day run at Bay 101 casino in San Jose. They’ll be hoping to hit a run of success this week akin to the recent tournament wins by amateur players fresh from friendly games and Internet play. Poker’s popularity soars with each televised event … and the old pros increasingly grumble about the fresh faces at the table who are taking their money.
Gaeta, a restaurateur, qualified in November for a seat in the sold-out No-Limit Hold ’Em event that runs Monday through Friday’s final table by surviving a 120-player satellite tournament last month. Pagan, a contractor, earned a seat in the tournament in the final satellite event held last week.
The tournament drew a field of 253 players last year when the entry fee was at $5,000. This year’s Bay 101 event carries a $10,000 per seat cost, yet has drawn a sold-out 440 entrants.
“Surprisingly wonderful,” said tournament director Matt Savage of the local response to the Shooting Star Tournament.
“It’s nice to know you can sell out a local event. A few years ago, we had to work to fill the 150 seats at $1,000 each. That shows you how much poker on TV has helped.”
The World Poker Tour is in its third season of broadcasting final table action at leading casino tournaments on the Travel Channel. Airing every Wednesday night at 9pm, the WPT is the highest-rated series in the network’s history. The Bay 101 Tournament is tentatively scheduled to air on June 8.
The Bay 101 opened its week-long event with a weekend slate of sold-out smaller events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Pagan was entered in the third event, a 150-player, $1,000 Spread Limit tournament that started on Sunday.
The Shooting Star Championship opened at 11:15am on Monday when the first half of the field began play on 22 tables. The second group plays from Tuesday through nine levels, with play concluding at 10pm.
Gaeta was to begin play on Monday. Pagan has not been given his first-day assignment.
Days Three and Four of the championship pare down the competition to the Final Table of six players, who begin play at 4pm on Friday.
Seating will begin at 3:15pm, and although the public is welcome to attend on a first-come, first-serve basis, spectators are likely to be getting in line early that morning to get a possible seat.
One challenge at the Shooting Star Tournament is that each of the 44 tables of 10 players includes one “star” – a champion poker player or celebrity. If a player knocks out a star, the player collects an immediate bounty of $5,000.
“In one early tournament when there were only 15 stars, one player finished with six bounties,” said Savage of the potential of an entrant earning considerable prize money by knocking out famous names.
Poker stars who competed in the field on Monday included Phil Gordon, the 2004 Shooting Star champion, 2003 World Series of Poker champion and 2004 Shooting Star runner-up Chris Moneymaker, 2004 WSOP champion Greg Raymer, Dan Harrington, 2000 WSOP champion Chris Ferguson and Jennifer Harman.
The Tuesday field of stars includes actors James Woods and Mimi Rogers, and poker heavyweights T.J. Cloutier, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Annie Duke, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen and Howard Lederer.
Actor Tobey Maguire is also scheduled to begin play Tuesday.
Savage said that the local players are very qualified to battle for the championship.
“We would love to see a local player win the tournament,” said the tournament director, a 2003 inductee into the Poker Room Managers Hall of Fame. “They are very good players and can compete with the stars.”
Gaeta earned his Shooting Star chair by defeating Masoud Shojaei, last year’s third-place finisher in the Shooting Star, in head-to-head play.
While Pagan has been playing in poker tournaments for several years, Gaeta’s victory in November came in only his second live tournament try.
This year’s champion will pocket $1 million as well as a $25,000 seat at the season-ending WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas on April 24.
