Stefan Schillhabel Wins First Major Title at WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star

After five days of no-limit hold’em, Stefan Schillhabel navigated his way through a massive field of 753 players to earn his first WPT title at the Bay 101 Shooting Star and $1,298,000.

It is the biggest score of Schillhabel’s career and more than quarduples his career tournament earnings, bringing it to a total of $1,762,188. Along with the prestige and the cash, Schillhabel earns his name engraved onto the Champions Cup, a Hublot King Power Unico watch, a pair of Gold Monster 24K headphones and an automatic entry into the inaugural WPT Tournament of Champions, held at the end of the season, next month at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

The German student defeated a tough final table, culminating in an almost three hour heads-up battle against seasoned American pro Adam Geyer.

Schillhabel may not have had an extensive list of tournament cashes, but he’s certainly surrounded himself with some of the brightest poker minds from the country. Dietrich Fast, who just won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic a couple weeks ago, was on Schillhabel’s rail. As well as Ismael Bojang, another highly respected German pro with almost $2 million in earnings.

At the start of the final table, Schillhabel was the one with the overwhelming chip lead, but most of the attention was on Maria Ho, who had the chance to make WPT history.

Ho was the last bounty remaining in the tournament and could be first bounty to win the event since it became part of the tour, as well as becoming the first woman to win a WPT open event. Ho’s shot at history was short lived, however, falling to Geyer when she ran her ace-king into Geyer’s pocket aces.

Geyer started the day in the middle of the chip counts, but after eliminating Ho in sixth place, he found momentum and eventually took over the chip lead during five-handed play. After earning the chip lead, he sent two players home in one hand to amass half of the chips in play with three players remaining.

Griffin Paul moved all in and was called by Geyer. Andjelko Andrejevic moved all in over the top and Geyer called, putting two players at risk. Geyer showed ace-nine and was dominated by Andrejevic’s ace-king and Paul’s ace-queen. The flop brought a nine and both players were eliminated.

Paul fell short of his second WPT title after winning $1 million at last season’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, finishing in fifth place since he had less chips than Andrejevic.

Andrejevic finished in fourth place, recording his third top seven finish this season and moves into second place in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. Mike Shariati is in the lead with 2,400 points and Andrejevic has 2,200 after his final table in San Jose. There are three events left on the schedule for Andrejevic to pass Shariati.

The double knockout left Geyer with a big chip lead as three-handed play began, but Schillhabel knocked out Bryan Piccioli in third place with his ace-queen trumping Piccioli’s king-queen after all the chips got in the middle preflop. Piccioli couldn’t find the king he needed and Schillhabel was basically even with Geyer to start heads-up play.

They were basically even at the start of the match, but it was Schillhabel dominated heads-up play, winning the majority of the pots and most without showdown. He gradually extended his lead and and opened up three-to-one chip advantage which slowly turned into a 10-to-one chip lead. He whittled Geyer down to just under seven big blinds before Geyer finally made his stand.

Geyer got his chips in the middle with king-nine against Schillhabel’s eight-seven. The flop brought a king, but running eights on the turn and river sealed the deal for the student from Dusseldorf.

Here is a look at the final table results:

1. Stefan Schillhabel – $1,298,000
2. Adam Geyer – $752,800
3. Bryan Piccioli – $493,350
4. Andjelko Andrejevic – $334,500
5. Griffin Paul – $231,310
6. Maria Ho – $179,930

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive