The $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star bounty tournament wrapped up on Friday night, with Mclean pureprofitfour Karr taking down the $878,000 top prize along with a sleek championship trophy. Heads-up, Karr defeated fellow online poker community member Andy BKiCe Seth, who had a sizable rail rooting him on. A total of 333 players bought into the event and Seth was a one-man wrecking crew down the stretch. Let’s take a look back at the final table of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event.

Seth knocked out the first two players from the televised six-handed table on Friday. After jostling with UB.com pro and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (pictured at left) throughout much of the week-long event, Seth sent “The Poker Brat” out in sixth place as the first casualty of the Bay 101 final table.
After a series of raises pre-flop, Hellmuth committed his 40 big blind stack with pocket queens and found himself up against Seth’s A-J of clubs. Hellmuth was sitting pretty when the first four cards came K-6-5-10, but an ace on the river sent the esteemed pro away in sixth place for $117,000. Seth picked up Hellmuth’s $5,000 Shooting Star bounty, his fourth of the WPT tournament.

Hellmuth performed his usual theatrics following his exit, hunching over on the floor in a ball. His antics sparked a blog entry from fellow poker pro Tony G that explained, “I am worried about his mental health.” However, Tony G, a sponsored pro of PartyPoker, facetiously rallied behind Hellmuth, later saying, “See you soon champ, hopefully at the PartyPoker Cash Game in April or at a WPT soon. I might not be feeling as generously spirited as I am now, but I want you to know that the G is here in your hour of need. I have big heart, you know that.”

Seth then struck again. Matt Keikoan pushed pre-flop with A-7 and Seth woke up with pocket nines. The flop of 8-6-4 gave Keikoan a straight draw if a five hit, but Seth ultimately came out on top with a higher club flush to record his second straight elimination. Keikoan earned $175,000 for his efforts.

The next player to go was Hasan Habib, who has made the final table of the $25,000 WPT Championship twice. Habib finished second in the annual end-of-season tournament during Season 2 and returned to the feature table in Season 3, when he took third. All told, Habib has $2.5 million in career WPT earnings. Habib was all-in with K-10 of clubs on a flop of J-2-2 with two clubs. However, Karr held 4-2 for trip twos and a jack on the turn improved him to a boat. Habib earned $234,000 for his fourth place showing.

Dan O’Brien moved all-in pre-flop with J-2 of diamonds and Karr tanked before calling with pocket sevens. The board ran out 5-5-3-10-8 and O’Brien hit the skids, $292,000 richer for his efforts. Karr held nearly a 3:1 chip lead entering heads-up play against Seth, who had a bevy of online poker players singing his praises in the Official BKice Is Gonna Be On TV Thread that appeared in Poker Discussion.

On the final hand of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event, Seth (pictured at right) moved all-in with pocket fours and ran up against Karr’s pocket eights. The board came K-10-3-A-A and Karr nabbed the $878,000 top prize. Here’s how the final table looked in the San Jose, California tournament:

1st Place: Mclean pureprofitfour Karr - $878,500
2nd Place: Andy BKiCe Seth - $521,200
3rd Place: Dan O'Brien - $292,800
4th Place: Hasan Habib - $234,300
5th Place: Matt Keikoan - $175,700
6th Place: Phil Hellmuth - $117,000

Bay 101 marked Seth’s largest poker cash to date. He was the runner-up in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $372,000 and won a $3,000 tournament in Reno last March for $131,000. Karr, meanwhile, held the shortest stack in the room when 27 players remained. On his heads-up match against Seth, Karr told WPT officials, “We didn’t have that many big hands or many big showdowns. Andy’s a great player, so not a lot of hands are going to get all the way to the river. He’s very aggressive and picks his spots very wisely.”

Next up for the WPT is the Hollywood Poker Open, which takes place from March 20th to 24th in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, just outside of Cincinnati.