A new field-size record was set in the Season XV World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event, with 806 entries tallied to generate a prize pool of $5.722 million. First place was set at a life-changing $1.373 million, and the top 81 spots will finish in the money.
The event’s field surpassed last season’s record of 753 entries.
Following the completion of the event’s second starting at Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, CA, Stephen Graner led the pack with a stack of 332,700 in chips. Graner earned the $10,000 bonus for being chip leader at the end of one of the starting flights and will lead the entire surviving field into Wednesday’s Day 2.
“I got aces literally nine times,” Graner admitted.
One of the times Graner didn’t hold aces was when he held pocket jacks against the 
of WPT Champions Club member of Shooting Star player James Calderaro. The two found all the money in the middle preflop, and the 
run out gave Graner the large pot to help land him the chip lead. Calderaro was eliminated.
The event saw 119 players advance to Day 2 from Day 1a, and another 145 came out of Day 1b, for a total surviving field size of 264 players for Wednesday’s Day 2.
Among the 264 were plenty of Shooting star players, including Rainer Kempe who finished with the largest stack of the bounty players. Kempe bagged up 284,300 in chips.
Also on Day 1b, Charlie Carrel (320,800) and Igor Yaroshevskyy (286,200) finished with heaps, and Bruce Buffer (49,800) and Mike Sexton (43,100) both advanced.
Day 2 of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event will begin on Wednesday at 12 p.m. PT.
Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for continued coverage of the Season XV WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event.