Everything’s coming up Sowers at the 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic. PocketFiver Mike SowersUNCC Sowers finished with the 43rd largest chip stack after Day 1 on Saturday. On Sunday, the rich got richer, as Sowers now sits with the third largest stack at the Commerce Casino with 337,900 chips. Right behind him is another PocketFiver, Anthony babygrand Venturini, who holds 211,800. The survivors are all chasing Antonio Esfandiari, who holds 405,000 chips, and PocketFiver Kofi redsoxsox Farkye, who comes to Day 3 on Monday armed with 391,000. Let’s take a look at the day that was in the L.A. Poker Classic as tracked by PocketFivesLive.com, which is on site providing WPT coverage of online poker players.

Kofi redsoxsox Farkye’s (pictured at left) chip stack received a big boost late in the day in a hand against Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul. With each player holding around 200,000 chips, Saul raised pre-flop to 3,500 and Farkye made it 10,000. Saul re-raised to 27,000 and was called. The flop came K-10-6 rainbow and Saul made a continuation bet of 36,000. Farkye bumped it up to 80,000 and Saul shoved for 164,000 total. Farkye called, flipping over K-J for top pair. Saul showed 8-5 for “squadoosh,” as Norman Chad would say. Farkye’s hand held, giving him the second largest stack entering Day 3 on Monday with 391,000 chips, just 14,000 behind Esfandiari.

Sitting with the third largest stack is Mike SowersUNCC Sowers (pictured at right). For part of the day, the PocketFiver had Jamie thecronic420 Rosen, Scott SCTrojans Freeman, and Shannon ShannonShorr Shorr all to his left. He dropped a pot late in the day with Markus LURPED Gonsalves’ tournament life on the line. Golsaves’ was all in for his last 20,000 in chips holding K-6 of diamonds against Sowers, who showed A-K of spades. A six hit on the flop, pushing Golsaves into the lead for good, as the turn came a nine and the river came a three. Despite doubling up Gonsalves, the 85th player on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings sits with 337,900 chips entering Day 3.

PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington commented on Sowers’ ride on Sunday: "Sowers had a tough table draw with Rosen, Freeman, and Shorr on his immediate left, but he was still able to prosper and put himself in perfect position going into Day 3, when play will begin to close in on the money bubble."

Holding the fourth largest stack at the Commerce Casino is Anthony babygrand Venturini (pictured at left), who sits with 211,800 chips. The 70th ranked PocketFiver won the $300 buy-in $90,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker on Valentine’s Day for $36,000. He won the PokerStars $55 rebuy in January for $29,000 and added $40,000 to his bankroll by taking third in the Full Tilt Super Sunday $500,000 Guaranteed. In tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings, he’s piled up $150,000 in earnings in February.

Harrington explains Venturini’s experience in the WPT event: "After finishing up Day 1 strong, Venturini had another solid showing on Day 2. He goes into Day 3 in fourth place in the chip counts, but has a big gap between himself and the top three. If he keeps playing solid, consistent poker, his name could easily stay near the top of the chip counts for a few more days."

Members of the online poker community remaining in the L.A. Poker Classic include:

2nd: Kofi redsoxsox Farkye, 391,000
3rd: Mike SowersUNCC Sowers, 337,900
4th: Anthony babygrand Venturini, 211,800
9th: Cody thugmoneymkr Slaubaugh, 183,100
10th: Bertrand ElkY Grospellier, 178,900
11th: Jeff ActionJeff Garza, 172,600
12th: Xuan x2then Nguyen, 166,700
25th: Blake Balla-B13 Cahail, 130,300
28th: Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko, 127,900
32nd: Peter Nordberg Feldman - 125,700
41st: Shannon ShannonShorr Shorr, 117,800
55th: Scott SCTrojans Freeman, 99,700
56th: Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania, 98,500
59th: Jimmy Gobboboy Fricke, 96,900
Average Chip Stack – 83,000
84th: Hevad RaiNKhAN Khan, 67,200
109th: Corwin mig.com Mackey, 51,300
110th: Jamie TheNew Robbins, 51,300
119th: Josh pbdrunks Van Duyn, 46,500
121st: Jake TheMuffin Solis, 45,500

The top 10 chip stacks overall entering Day 3 are:

1st: Antonio Esfandiari, 405,000
2nd: Kofi Farkye, 391,000
3rd: Mike Sowers, 337,900
4th: Anthony Venturini, 211,800
5th: Haralobos Voulgaris, 210,400
6th: K.J. Nam, 200,500
7th: Jason Dewitt, 191,800
8th: Adam Geyer, 188,000
9th: Cody Slaubaugh, 183,100
10th: Bertrand Grospellier, 178,900

PocketFivers eliminated on Day 2 included Eric basebaldy Baldwin, Justin looshle Pechie, Jamie thecronic420 Rosen, Chris cdbr3799 Dombrowski, Isaac mr menlo Baron, Justin lockdownpokah Allen (pictured at right), Christian charder Harder, Thayer THAY3R Rasmussen, Peter number1pen Neff, Aaron aaronbeen Been, Dan wretchy Martin, Joe JoeSebok Sebok, Darren darrenelias Elias, Jason JP_OSU Potter, Amit amak316 Makhija, Craig MrCasino Gray, Haffa hafizzle Khan, Matt mattg1983 Graham, and J.C. PrtyPSux Alvarado.

The 167 player field will hit the felts at Noon Pacific Time on Monday. The top 63 will finish in the money, with the L.A. Poker Classic winner banking $1.6 million. Stay tuned to PocketFivesLive.com for the latest WPT coverage of online poker players.