- Five of the players will be selected from this year’s Player of the Year leaderboard with another five coming from the GPI 300 Rankings.
- The “elite” players will receive VIP treatment throughout the 2015 event such as a private jet transfer from either Las Vegas or Los Angeles and the ability to earn appearance fees.
Global Poker Index CEO Alex Dreyfus announced Tuesday that the GPI is teaming up with Bay 101 to add 10 of the GPI’s top ranked players to the 2015 WPT event as signature “Shooting Star” bounty participants.
According to the company’s official press release, five of the players will be selected from this year’s Player of the Year leaderboard with another five coming from the GPI 300 Rankings.
The “elite” players will receive VIP treatment throughout the 2015 event such as a private jet transfer from either Las Vegas or Los Angeles and the ability to earn appearance fees.
World Poker Tour Executive Tour Director and Bay 101 Tournament Director Matt Savage said Tuesday that “GPI’s top ranked players are the game’s biggest stars. Enticing them to come and play this event is a great way to help grow it’s reputation as a can’t-miss global tournament stop.”
“At its core Poker is about recognition and achievement, and letting the best players in the world enjoy the fruits of their successful poker journeys with exclusive perks is important. Not just to get them in the door, but as a way to celebrate what they’ve achieved and motivate legions of other players to strive for that same level of success too,” Savage added.
Dreyfus stated that he is looking forward to rewarding the achievements of top-notch poker players who are among the top-ranked GPI talents worldwide. “Our mission is to help poker to become more structured, bring more recognition to players based on performance, results, and consistency,” Dreyfus said.
About the Bay 101 Shooting Star
The Bay 101 Shooting Star event is an official stop on the World Poker Tour and has been running since the mid-1990s at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California.
In March of this year, the $7,500 NLHE Main Event attracted 718 entrants with a $5,133,700 total prize pool. James Carroll of Las Vegas won the tournament for $1,256,550.
The annual bounty series also features a $25,000 NLHE High Roller tournament, which was won by Ryan Fee for $125,000.
There are three players currently ranked among the Top 5 in both the GPI Player of the Year leaderboard and Top 300 global rankings: German phenom Ole Schemion, Scott Seiver and Jason Mercier.
Other big names at the top of the lists are Vanessa Selbst, Daniel Negreanu, Alex Bilokur and Keven Stammen.
