Famous poker names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and Howard Lederer took part in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star but it was a not-so-famous player who won. Alan Sternberg showed he was the best player in the poker tournament and claimed the large $1,039,000 first prize plus the WPT title.

Sternberg said he went to the poker tournament feeling pretty with his position. “I had a plan and I stuck to it and it worked out really well. It was an honor to play with Mike Sexton. Mike Matusow is interesting to play with. This was my 4th WPT tournament, but I never cashed,” he added.

From all the stars who entered the tournament, only Mike Sexton and Mike Matusow made it to the final table, which was completed with Alan Sternberg, Vivek Rajkumar, Steven Kelly and Casey McCarrel. Sexton was the first to go home and received a prize of $148,000. McCarry finished fifth and won $221,800.

Rajkumar was fourth and he left the poker table with $295,800 while Mike Matusow followed him in third place with a prize of $369,800 and really close to make it to the final heads-up. Kelly played good poker but could not defeat Sternberg and had to settle for the second place and a prize of $595,300.