Day 1a HPT Golden Gates: Ryan Van Sanford Bags Massive Lead

Ryan Van Sanford - Day 1a Chip Leader

Ryan Van Sanford bagged a whopping 468,500 to end Day 1a of the Heartland Poker Tour Golden Gates Main Event. He was more than 200,000 ahead of the next closest player, Bobby Garua who bagged 265,500. Eric Leone (), Chris Horter (), and Faraz Jaka () round out the top five stacks of the 28 players advancing to Day 2 on Sunday.

Torii Beeding

Van Sanford was hovering around the middle of the pack, but ended up being sat Torii Beeding. Beeding was over 400,000 shortly after the dinner break and eventually ended the day with 159,500. Van Sanford did get a little lucky when he spiked an ace to knock out a player with pocket kings. That pot was good for more than 100,000 and put him in the chip lead. He would not look back.

The field was filled with notables and former champions, including Aaron Thomas who made it through with 60,000. He was seated to the right of Matt Stout (106,000), who knocked out both Dan O'Brien and Ben Keeline. On both occasions, Stout had pocket kings and flopped a set.

Below are the end of Day 1a chip counts:

Player	Chip Count
Ryan Van Sanford	468,500
Bobby Garua	265,500
Eric Leone	246,500
Chris Horter	196,000
Faraz Jaka	191,000
Bruce Russell	187,000
Nicholas Pupillo	177,500
Sam Phillips	175,000
Travis Miller	166,500
Wally Printz	164,500
Torii Beeding	159,500
Daniel Loizzo	146,500
Al Hart	144,000
John Graham	126,000
Robert Goldstein	113,000
Matt Stout	106,000
Xao Yang	100,500
James Mack	100,000
Bobby Sanoubane	95,500
Jason Vanstrom	88,000
Craig Crivello	87,000
Ben Ector	72,500
Aaron Thomas	60,000
Riley Fuller	43,000
Svetlana Martie	42,000
Chandler Duncan	39,000
Nick Blackburn	35,500
Andy Smolen	21,000

-- Brent Harrington - Hold'em Live Updates