Matt Savage Explains Shooting Star Omission from WPT Schedule

When the World Poker Tour (WPT) released the remainder of their current tour, the season 16 schedule had a surprising omission – the Bay 101 Shooting Star was missing, leading to many asking why the extremely popular stop had been dropped.

The 2017 version of the tournament, which sees popular pros playing with a bounty on their heads, had attracted a record 806 entries – making it one of the best attended events on the schedule, with Sam Panzica coming out on top.

When questioned about the omission, WPT Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage explained to PokerNewsDaily that:

“It was mutually agreed upon between officials on both sides that the Bay 101 would not be a part of the Season XVI World Poker Tour schedule,” adding, “Bay 101 will always have a special place in the WPT history books and we would encourage players to continue to visit our friends at Bay 101 Casino.”

The ‘Shooting Star’ event began back in 2004, Savage himself responsible for its creation, before becoming part of the WPT ‘California Swing’, sandwiched between the WPT L. A. Poker Classic and WPT Rolling Thunder, thus affording players a month-long run in the Golden State.

When quizzed by PND on whether the omission was a permanent decision or not, Savage explained:

“We have seen events return to the WPT schedule in the past, as evidenced by the most recent return of the Lucky Hearts Poker Open (at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL) to the Season XVI schedule.”

Earlier this week Savage had tweeted photos of his visit to the newly-relocated casino, which in 2004 saw the inaugural Shooting Star event where Phil Gordon defeated newly-crowned WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker heads-up.

Evidently, given his later interview with Pokernewsdaily.com, those talks were not enough to get the event back on the calendar for this season.

Asked what his personal opinion of the decision was, Savage said:

“If we are going to do the Shooting Star tournament, I want to do it right. The Shooting Star may be a no-go this year on the WPT, but of course I’d love to run it this year and, hopefully, we can bring it back to the WPT in 2019.”