The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship has its final six, and two of poker’s most famous bounties did not make the cut. Phil Hellmuth and his son Nick Hellmuth were both eliminated as marked “Shooting Stars” during the event, according to PokerNews, leaving a six-handed final table of lesser-known grinders to chase the $470,500 top prize at Wynn Las Vegas on December 15.
A Two-Hellmuth Bounty Story
The Shooting Star format is what gives this WPT stop its identity. Roughly 50 professionals and recognizable names are designated as Shooting Stars each year, and knocking one out earns the player who does it a cash bounty on top of whatever they win in the tournament itself. Day 2 of this year’s edition ended with 55 players still alive, including 12 Shooting Stars still carrying their bounties. Phil Hellmuth, a fixture of the event for years, and his son Nick both played as Shooting Stars this time, and PokerNews’s hand-by-hand coverage confirmed both were eliminated before the unofficial final table was reached, a rare shared storyline for a father and son at the same high-profile event.
Their eliminations thinned the Shooting Star contingent considerably. By the time the field was cut to the final six, only one marked bounty remained on the felt, a notable drop from the dozen who were still alive after Day 2.
The Six Who Survived
The 584-entry field is now down to six players chasing the title. Quoc Mai leads with 10,165,000 in chips, good for more than 220 big blinds, with Chahn Jung close behind at 9,075,000, also over 220 big blinds. Ziao “Zeo” Guo sits third with 4,095,000, more than 100 big blinds, while Shawn Daniels holds 3,000,000. Eric Zheng is fifth with 2,065,000, roughly 52 big blinds, and William Davis rounds out the table as the short stack with 700,000, about 18 big blinds, a workable but precarious position heading into a final table with this much money on the line.
Guo brings a built-in following to the table. He has appeared on the popular livestream Hustler Casino Live nearly 100 times since the show launched in 2021, making him one of the more recognizable faces among the six finalists despite not carrying Shooting Star status himself.
Shawn Daniels, the Last Shooting Star Standing
With Hellmuth and his son gone, Shawn Daniels is now the only Shooting Star left in the field, making him a built-in target for the other five players at the final table. Daniels is also the only member of the WPT Champions Club still in the tournament, a status reserved for past WPT title winners, and he has banked more than $3.5 million in live tournament cashes over his career. Whether the other five treat him as the player to beat or simply as another dangerous stack will shape a lot of the final table’s early strategy.
For readers newer to tournament poker who want to understand how bounty formats like Shooting Star interact with a normal prize pool, our how to play poker guide breaks down the basics of tournament structures before diving into bounty-specific wrinkles like this one.
Why This Final Table Pays Everyone
All six remaining players are already guaranteed at least $94,000 apiece, a figure locked in after Jeremy Menard was eliminated in seventh place on the money bubble for the final table. That guarantee alone represents a massive outcome relative to most buy-ins in the WPT ecosystem, and it sets a high floor before a single card is dealt at the final table itself. The gap between that guarantee and the $470,500 reserved for the eventual champion gives every remaining player a real incentive to play patiently rather than gamble away a seven-figure difference in outcomes.
Set for Wynn Las Vegas During the WPT World Championship
Rather than finishing on site at Bay 101 in Northern California, the final table has been pushed to December 15 at Wynn Las Vegas, where it will be folded into the WPT World Championship festival and livestreamed for fans unable to attend in person. That festival is a three-week, season-ending series that includes the $3 million guaranteed Super Gold Million and a separate WPT Prime Championship, meaning the Shooting Star finale will play out amid one of the most stacked stretches of live tournament poker on the calendar.
For a tournament that first launched Phil Hellmuth into Bay 101 lore across more than a decade of appearances, seeing both him and his son eliminated before the real money rounds is a reminder of just how unforgiving bounty formats can be, even for players who have built their entire brand around the room. As always with high-stakes live poker, outcomes like these sit far out on the variance curve, and poker should be treated as entertainment rather than a path to guaranteed income. Players should only compete on licensed, age-restricted (18+) platforms and in licensed venues, with firm bankroll limits set well before the first hand is dealt.
