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The World Poker Tour will bring the Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship back to Bay 101 Casino in San Jose this fall, restoring one of the circuit’s best-known California stops.
The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Festival is scheduled for Oct. 16-Nov. 1, while the $5,300 Championship event will run Oct. 23-27. The tournament uses the series’ signature bounty format: players who eliminate a designated Shooting Star bounty earn $2,500.
WPT CEO Adam Pliska said in a press release, "Few tournaments carry the tradition and prestige of the Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship."
For California poker players, the key takeaway is that the festival is back on the live tournament calendar, though some details are still pending. The full schedule, the list of Shooting Star bounty players, and the number of bounties for this year’s event have not yet been announced. The WPT said the festival will also include a range of side events.
Last year’s championship gives a sense of the event’s scale. The 2025 edition drew 672 runners and produced a prize pool of more than $3 million. Kharlin Sued won the title for $480,700, while Danny Wong finished second for $315,000.
The 2025 final table also included Alfie Poetra, Matthew Widdoes, Daniel Maor, and Chance Kornuth. Other deep runs last year came from Michael Berk, Victoria Livschitz, Nick Palma, and Adam Hendrix.
The Bay 101 return is part of a broader stretch of upcoming WPT stops. In the lead-up to San Jose, the tour also has festivals planned in Cyprus, at bestbet Scramble in Florida, in Australia, and at WPT Prime Lodge in Texas.
For players considering the Bay 101 stop, the main dates to watch are the festival opener on Oct. 16 and the championship start on Oct. 23. More event details are still to come from WPT and Bay 101 Casino.
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Source: As reported by Connor Richards.
