Berger Bags Huge Chip Lead on Day 1b of HPT Golden Gates
Ten hours of play and 15 levels are complete and all chips have been bagged for Day 1b of HPT Golden Gates $1,100 Main Event. After Day 1a drew 82 entries, today’s flight saw 128 join the fun with 18 players remaining when play concluded.
The big story for the day was David Berger, who bagged a whopping 628,000 to finish as the clear chip leader, head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Berger had chipped up to around 300,000 and was already one of the chip leaders when play resumed from the final break of the night before winning two massive pots with pocket aces, holding against top pair with a straight draw and later against ace-king in an all-in preflop situation. From there, he continued to build until play finished for the night.
Second in chips is Michael Sherry, who also led a charge at the end of the evening, building his stack from around 200,000 to its finishing point in the last two levels of the evening. Sherry bagged a stack of 357,500, also above Day 1a chip leader Greg Geller’s 336,000. Other players to finish in the top five include 2015 WSOP Main Event third place finisher Neil Blumenfield (320,500), Keith McCarthy (283,000), and Joel Verbeck (246,500).
There were also a handful of notable players who did not advance, including Ben Keeline, Matt Grisham, Brian Leitch, Chris Moon, and 2019 WSOP Main Event 39th place finisher Dapo Ajayi.
In total, 35 players have advanced to Day 2 on Sunday. Two more starting flights remain, with the next one upcoming Friday at noon local time. Come back to PokerNews for more coverage as the tournament continues.
with two diamonds to give Grisham a little hope at a backdoor flush. However, the turn 
river put Grisham's night to an end around 30 minutes before the end of Day 1.
, Martin Smith had a bet of 6,500 in front of him from middle position. Action was back on him after Joel Verbeck shoved from his left, Lynn Hopkins called all in for less from the hijack, and Steve LePeau also called all in for less from the big blind. 
and he scored the huge pot to vault him to what is likely the chip lead with 32 players remaining.
still tabled.
. The small blind led out for 4,000 and Jensen raised to 15,000. Grisham, having just turned a set, raised to 35,000. The small blind folded and Jensen came over the top to put Grisham all in. He was more than happy to call.
fell. With the pot, Grisham now finds himself as one of the names near the top of the leaderboard.
and action checked to the cutoff who bet 3,200. The players on the button and in the small blind folded and both Fadeyi and Flesher called, taking action three-handed to the turn 
and Fadeyi and Flesher checked once more. The cutoff bet 3,500 and both players called.
for a pair of nines. The cutoff mucked.
for a straight and raked in the pot.
and the player in middle position checked to Sloan, shoved for his remaining stack. The player in middle position folded and it was time to expose hands.
and Paul Bishop bet 8,200 from the big blind. His opponent in the cutoff shoved all in and Bishop asked for a count which was totaled to be 21,900. 