Former WPT, WSOP champ wins more than $1M at Bay 101
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Brandon Cantu, who has won both a World Poker Tour and a World Series of Poker event, won the 2008 Bay 101 Shooting Star main event, pocketing more $1 million with the victory. He ran over the final table after coming into the last day with a huge chip lead.
That final table included Jennifer Harman-Traniello and John Phan — but neither they nor the rest of the competitors could put a serious dent in Cantu’s stack.
In addition to the $1 million first prize, he added $30,000 for knocking out six “shooting stars.” And he won another $10,000 for his chip lead after day 1A.
Here’s how the final three went down, according to poker-king.com:
Jennifer Harman-Traniello went out in third place, collecting a total of $330,000. She was nursing a short-stack and pushed all-in, holding A-K offsuit, and was called by the pocket nines of Brandon Cantu. The first card out was the King of clubs, so Harman was looking good - however, a nine came on the flop as well, and Harman-Traniello would need a miracle to stay alive. The river brought the King of spades, but that was too little, too late, and Harman-Traniello was eliminated in third place.
Steve Sung finished in second, receiving $585,000 for his efforts. He could never overcome the massive stack that Cantu possessed in heads-up action, and ended up being eliminated when he pushed all-in holding pocket threes and was called by the pocket fours of Cantu. The pocket fours held up, and Cantu was the winner.
John Phan finished in sixth.
Amazingly, Cantu won the final 17 hands of the next-to-last day of play to accumulate his huge stack heading into the final table.
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