O'Brien Holds Top Spot as Day 1c Ends

Dan O'Brien

After running in the first two starting flights, Dan O'Brien broke through to Day 2 and bagged the chip lead for Day 1c.

O'Brien topped a field of 233 players and he will leads 43 more players into Day 2 behind him. He just missed catching the top stack from Day 1a, Ryan Van Sanford. Van Sanford bagged 468,500.

The top four chip stacks behind O'Brien were Alex Yen (332,500), J. Matt Lushin (299,000), Saad Vasquez (279,500), and Andrew Dean (270,500). Dean had also failed to qualify in the previous two flights and has now bagged a healthy stack heading into Sunday's Day 2 flight.

Allen Kessler, Rex Clinkscales, and Jamie Kerstetter were among the bigger names that were in today's flight and have yet to qualify for Day 2. Each of them is expected to be in the field tomorrow for the fourth and final starting flight in the HPT Golden Gates Main Event.

Tomorrow's flight begins at noon and the final players will book their tickets into Day 2, which begins Sunday at noon.

-- Brent Harrington - Hold'em Live Updates