After fifteen levels of play, it's a wrap for Day 1a of the $360 Golden Gates Regional Event.

A total of 120 entry slips were sold for this first starting flight but only 17 players found a bag for Day 2 at the end of the night.

At the top of the leaderboard is defending champion Aaron Frei with 443,000, which is more than double his next closest opponent. Last April, Frei navigated through a field of 778 players and won the title of this event after a three-way chop. He will be looking to defend his title, and add another MSPT trophy to his collection.

Frei caught fire during the last levels of the night and really boosted his stack when he rivered a full house against Zach Gutierrez's top two pair, and managed to get paid, eliminating Gutierrez.

He is followed by Chandler Duncan with 218,000. Duncan has multiple final tables on her resume, but will be looking to claim her first record victory. Jesus Sanchez sits in third with 204,000. Sanchez also has an impressive poker resume with over $320,000 in total live earnings. Edward Plumb (200,000) and Johnny Ambrosio (166,000) round up the top five chip counts of this flight.

Other notable players to advance to Day 2 include Ronnie Lamb (80,000) and Jeff Granowsky (78,000).

Many players attempted to make Day 2 through this first flight but failed in their attempt including Gregory Geller, Steve Abramowitz, Samuel Spiwak, Joseph Giampietro, and Barb Visher. They will have the option to try again in any of the three remaining flights if they wish to advance.

The survivors of Day 1a will combine with the survivors of the other three flights on Sunday November 17th at noon local time to continue to battle it out.

Just like Day 1a, PokerNews will keep you abreast of all of the Day 1b action tomorrow.