Gardenhire Aiming for Another Big RunGood Score After Bagging Day 1a Lead
Action closed with a bang in the 2016 RunGood Horseshoe Council Bluffs Main Event on Day 1a, as RunGood Pro Justin Gardenhire busted Chunlei Yuan on the final hand of the night to close out the night with the chip lead. Gardenhire bagged 215,000 at the conclusion of the first of three Day 1 flights, and he's looking for another big score on the tour after chopping RunGood Hard Rock Tulsa last weekend for $40,000, officially earning second-place honors.
The closeout hand began with action folding to Gardenhire in the small blind, where he limped in for 3,000. Yuan popped it to 13,000, and "Gardy" responded by shoving all in for 108,000. Yuan had only a smidgen less than that, but he opted to call it off with the 
, much to Gardenhire's surprise. The RunGood Pro showed down the 
and held up as the board ran out 
.
In total, 13 of 66 runners survived the 12-plus levels, with the tournament director calling a stop to things immediately after Yuan's elimination. Jon Lawson (198,000), Steve Pham (166,500), Drew Woodke (70,000), Thadd Wolff (69,000), and Henry Gingerich (38,000) will be joining Gardenhire on Sunday's Day 2.
Lawson found a late double in Level 12 (1,200/2,400/400) when Pham opened the action with a raise to 5,500 on the button, and Lawson reraised to 13,200 out of the small blind. Woodke woke up with an all-in four-bet from the big blind, and Pham folded before Lawson tanked awhile and called off about 90,000.
Lawson: 
Woodke: 
Woodke chided his opponent for not calling right away, joking that he deserved an ace, but the board ran out dead and Lawson doubled up.
Wolff finished runner-up here to Brandon Fish last time the tour came through town, while Gingerich is a former RunGood Horseshoe Council Bluffs winner.
Some of the players taking shots and bricking on Day 1a included RunGood Pros Jose Montes and Ryan Tepen, as well as Ryan Phan, Fish, Duane Gerleman, Jeff Banghart, and JR Reiss.
They'll have plenty of time to try to put chips in a bag as two more flights remain, both on Saturday. Come back to PokerNews for coverage of those, starting at 12 p.m. local time.