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A total of 23 players remain in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Two PocketFivers sit among the top three in chips, as Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo leads the way with a stack of 2.7 million. In third place heading into the play down day in this high-dollar event, the second of the 2009 WSOP, is David Bakes Baker (pictured at right), who will come armed to Saturday’s play with 2.4 million. Meanwhile, Event #3, a $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better event, attracted the largest WSOP field ever for that genre of poker at 918 players. The event kicked off on Friday, with Jordan Octavian_C Rich holding one of the top stacks when play concluded. PocketFivesLive.com, which provides WSOP coverage of online poker players, has been following the action inside the Rio.

Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo (pictured at left) is the talk of the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP. The Bodog pro eliminated fellow PocketFiver Marco CrazyMarco Johnson in 33rd place, just outside of the money. Johnson was all-in pre-flop with A-Q offsuit against Bonomo’s K-10 of clubs. A king fell on the flop, sealing Johnson’s fate and preserving Bonomo’s place atop the leader board. Heading into Saturday’s play, Bonomo holds a 100,000 chip edge over the second place stack of Ted Forrest, who owns 2.6 million chips. The pair will headline Table 1, which also includes PocketFiver Andrew good2cu Robl, the short stack in the room with 112,000.

PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Rachel Crader talked about Bonomo’s steady rise on Friday, a day in which he entered with the third largest stack: “It seemed like Justin wasn’t involved in a big hand all day. I never saw him get in any big confrontations, as he chipped up throughout the day. He took a few small hits during the day and doubled up a few short stacks, but remained near the top of the chip counts, where he’s been for virtually the entire tournament.” Bonomo and the remaining runners in Event #2 have their sights set on the $1.9 million first place prize and a bundle of exposure on ESPN. The event is one of four that will air on the cable station.

Third in chips in the $40,000 event is David Bakes Baker. He went on a tear late in the day on Friday, eliminating Sorel Imper1um Mizzi (pictured at right) in 25th place holding A-K against Mizzi’s pocket queens in a classic race situation. Baker hit both a king on the turn and ace on the river to send Mizzi packing $71,000 richer for his efforts. Just minutes earlier, Baker eliminated Kirill Gerasimov and Evan McNiff on the same hand. He held pocket queens against Gerasimov’s K-5 and McNiff’s A-8. The flop came ace-high, but a queen on the turn saved the day and catapulted Baker’s stack. He comes armed to Day 3 on Saturday with 2.4 million.

PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Jessica Welman, who followed Baker throughout the day, commented, "Baker has been on a real tear lately both live and online. He's #4 in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, made a deep run at this year's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and seems to be in the zone. While other players stressed out under the pressure of this high buy-in event, David was in an upbeat mood all day. I really think that attitude is having a positive effect on his game in the late stages of this tournament." Play kicks off today at 2:00pm PT.

Also taking place is the largest Omaha High-Low Split event in WSOP history. The third tournament of this year’s WSOP generated a record-breaking field of 918 entrants. Holding the sixth largest stack is Brock t soprano Parker (pictured at left). He picked up a massive pot to cross the 28,000 chip threshold holding 2-3-4-6 on a board of A-Q-2-6-9. He held the qualifying low and took down the high with just bottom two pair despite capped action pre-flop. Parker has nearly 49,000 chips after the first day of play and will be seated at Table 63 when the action resumes.

Claiming the 10th largest stack after the final cards had been dealt is Jordan Octavian_C Rich (pictured at right) with 43,700. Rich recorded a productive day on December 17th, winning the PokerStars Nightly Seventy Grand and finishing as the runner up in the site's Wednesday Quarter Million for a combined total of nearly $50,000. Thang Luu, last year’s winner in this event, holds a stack of 73,600 to pace the field. A total of 197 players remain in Event #3 and the average stack size heading into today's action is 21,000.

Here is a look at the PocketFivers remaining in the $40,000 event. The average stack is a little over one million:

1. Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo – 2,678,000
3. David Bakes Baker – 2,367,000
5. Lex RasZi Veldhuis – 2,103,000
6. Alec traheho Torelli – 1,725,000
10. Brian tsarrast Rast – 912,000
12. Dani ansky451 Stern – 762,000
16. Noah fouruhaters Schwartz – 541,000
23. Andrew good2cu Robl – 112,000

The top 10 stacks overall are:

1. Justin Bonomo - 2,678,000
2. Ted Forrest - 2,586,000
3. David Baker - 2,367,000
4. Greg Raymer - 2,287,000
5. Alexander Veldhuis - 2,103,000
6. Alec Torelli - 1,725,000
7. Keith Lehr, Jr. - 1,257,000
8. Vitaly Lunkin - 1,166,000
9. Matt Marafioti - 1,003,000
10. Brian Rast - 912,000

Best of luck to all PocketFivers competing on the felts of the WSOP today. Visit PocketFivesLive.com for the industry’s top WSOP coverage of online poker players.