Historical Poker Archive | Reported: March 18, 2011
The televised final table for the 2011 World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star championship was determined after the field narrowed from 24 players to six. Steven Kelly held the lead heading into the last stage of the tournament, with approximately 4.17 million chips reported at the end of the preceding day’s action.
Six Players Remained
The finalists were Steven Kelly, Alan Sternberg, Mike Matusow, Vivek Rajkumar, Casey McCarrel and Mike Sexton. Their presence brought together a mix of established poker figures and challengers seeking a first major WPT title.
Among the notable stories was Sexton’s appearance at the final table of a tour he was closely associated with as a commentator. Matusow and Rajkumar were also familiar names to tournament audiences.
Before the Championship Was Decided
At this point in the tournament, the champion had not yet been crowned. The subsequent final-table action ended with Alan Sternberg defeating Steven Kelly heads-up. The final-table announcement is preserved here as a separate historical moment rather than rewritten as though the result was already known.
Archive note: This is an independently written reconstruction based on contemporary reporting, not an original 2011 IFP article.
Historical references: PokerNews — final table report, March 18, 2011; World Poker Tour — official event archive.
Six Players, One Championship Still to Decide
The March 18, 2011 final-table announcement belongs to the moment before the Bay 101 Shooting Star champion was known. The field had narrowed from 24 remaining players to six, leaving Steven Kelly, Alan Sternberg, Mike Matusow, Vivek Rajkumar, Casey McCarrel and Mike Sexton to contest the last stage.
Kelly entered that stage with a reported stack of approximately 4.17 million chips. A lead of that size was important, but it was a position at one point in time, not a final result. Tournament chips are redistributed as hands are played, and the leader at the start of a final table does not automatically become the winner.
Different Stories Around the Table
The finalists represented a varied group. Matusow was an established tournament personality, Rajkumar was familiar to WPT audiences, and Sexton was especially associated with the tour’s televised presentation. Sternberg, Kelly and McCarrel completed a lineup in which the attention surrounding famous players did not determine the eventual finishing order.
The Shooting Star format added another distinguishing feature to the tournament. Selected notable entrants carried bounties, an element that set Bay 101 apart from a conventional Main Event. By the final-table stage, however, the central question was simple: which of the six remaining players would secure the championship?
What Happened After the Announcement
The eventual result is known from the separate championship coverage: Alan Sternberg defeated Steven Kelly heads-up to take the title. Matusow finished third, Rajkumar fourth, McCarrel fifth and Sexton sixth. That later outcome is included here only to help readers follow the archive chronologically.
It is important not to rewrite a pre-final story as if its reporters already knew the outcome. On March 18 the final-table places had been earned, but the winner had not yet been established. The distinction between a tournament preview and a result is part of what makes historical news useful.
Why Preserve a Final-Table Snapshot?
Not every archived headline needs to report a champion. A final-table announcement records the contenders, the reported chip positions and the stakes of the next stage. It provides a snapshot of the tournament at a moment that the final results alone cannot fully convey.
For a complete account, this entry should be read with the companion article on Sternberg’s victory and the cited contemporary report. Together they preserve the sequence from final-table selection to the championship without introducing unsupported details of individual hands.