Taking over $1,000,000 in winnings, WeiKai Chang won the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament sponsored by the World Poker Tour. Out of a total field of over 600 entrants, Chang was able dominate his competitors after four grueling days of gameplay.
The Bay 101 is a popular card room located in the city of San Jose in California. It first was originally named the Sutter’s club and was a hot spot in the South Bay entertainment scene. Back in ’92, the card room was moved to a new site near Highway 101 at East Brokaw Road. It rapidly became an increasingly popular place for gaming and has since become a name sake in the San Jose area.
Marko Trapani, the owner of Bay 101 created this infamous tournament back in ’97 and it has since become one of the most popular bounty tournaments on the World Poker Tour stop. The club is open 24 hours per day and 7 nights per week and also offers fine dining with both an Asian and American menu.
The table of six included poker standout Paul Volpe, who had previously placed third in the L.A. Poker Classic and the Shooting Star. Joe Nguyen was close behind Chang, finishing with over $600,000 in winnings, which is nothing to scoff at. Chang was able to best both Volpe and Nguyen at the final table and it remains to be seen where we will be seeing this young lion compete next.
Chang takes this win to end a somewhat long losing streak since his most notable cash win in 2008 at the No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event 29. One need only look at his poker playing graph for one second to see that there is a sharp spike in March ’13.
Originally from San Carlos, he is somewhat of an unknown on the poker scene and little is known about him. He first became a professional player in 2006 when winning over 2 grand at a poker tournament provided by Harra’s. As noted, his performance in most of the tournaments since then has been anything but stellar, however this recent win should put him atop the poker ratings in the eyes of both his colleagues and fans. This should also equip him to participate in more live cash games and tournaments, meaning we will likely be seeing more of him in high visibility tournaments to come.
