Steve Brecher Takes Down Bay 101 Shooting Star

It looked for quite a bit like Kathy Liebert might finally get the WPT monkey off of her back, but after a grueling heads up match that spanned two hours - a fitting conclusion to a final table that set a WPT record by lasting 319 hands - it was Steve Brecher who walked away with the title and $1,025,500.

Brecher outlasted a final table that went into play with the following chip counts:

Seat 1: Chris Moore — 1,476,000
Seat 2: Thao Le — 711,000
Seat 3: Steve Brecher — 2,016,000
Seat 4: Tony Behari — 2,046,000
Seat 5: Kathy Liebert — 1,180,000
Seat 6: Chau Vu — 352,000

Adding to the disappointment for Liebert, her status as a Shooting Star (one of 50 players with bounties placed on their heads by the tournament) meant that she had to hand over an autographed t-shirt to Brecher after the loss. Brecher also received an extra $5,000 for eliminating Liebert, not that he could probably tell the difference with over one million in front of him. The final finishing placement and payouts:

1st Place: Steve Brecher - $1,025,500
2nd Place: Kathy Liebert - $550,000
3rd Place: Chris Moore - $291,500
4th Place: Tony Behari - $230,000
5th Place: Thao Le - $180,000
6th Place: Chau Vu - $135,000