Antonio Esfandiari Leads WPT Event after Day 2

Two days of play in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic are in the books. The magic is in the air at the Commerce Casino, as Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari sits with the largest chip stack entering Day 3 at 405,000, just edging out Kofi Farkye, who holds 391,000. A total of 167 players remain, with the top 63 making the money.

Esfandiari told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman after play had concluded for the day, “I had a lot more chips. I had about 600,000.” Esfandiari won his first (and so far only) World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2004 by virtue of taking down a $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event for $184,000. In that tournament, he defeated Phi Nguyen heads-up and had to navigate through Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson and Ultimate Bet front man Phil Hellmuth at the final table. Esfandiari won the L.A. Poker Classic five years ago for $1.4 million, one of his three WPT final tables. He holds nearly double the chip stack of the third place player entering Monday’s action.

Sitting with 14,000 fewer chips than Esfandiari is Kofi Farkye, who made the final table of the WPT North American Poker Championship in 2007. In that tournament, he ultimately finished fifth and took home $218,000. The event featured a gauntlet of a final table that included Barry Greenstein, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements. Farkye also gained fame worldwide by winning the Nordic Masters of Poker Main Event one year ago for $224,000. The Stockholm poker tournament attracted a field of 177 players.

In third place with 337,900 chips is Mike Sowers, a decorated online and live poker player. Sowers made the final table of the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em Championship as part of the 2008 WSOP, finishing eighth and earning nearly $100,000. He won a $5,000 buy-in preliminary event held as part of the 2008 Borgata Winter Poker Open for $399,000, besting Tom “durrrr” Dwan heads-up. WSOP bracelet winner Erick Lindgren also reached the final table. Dwan is in the midst of his Million Dollar Challenge against Patrik Antonius and is one of the world’s most well-respected poker players.

Adam “csimmsux” Geyer sits with the eighth largest chip stack, 188,000. He’s fresh off a win in the Main Event of the eleventh Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $456,000. Amazingly, the win marked the third FTOPS victory for Geyer, who also took down the prestigious Two Day Event during FTOPS VII and a $109 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy tournament during FTOPS V.

Also on top of the leader board is Team PokerStars Pro member Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. The winner of the 2008 European Poker Tour (EPT) PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and WPT Festa al Lago, Grospellier has etched his name into poker history as one of only three players ever to win featured WPT and EPT tournaments (Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin are the other two, with Griffin also holding a WSOP bracelet). Grospellier is in tenth at the Commerce Casino, the site of the L.A. Poker Classic, with 178,900 chips.

Here’s a look at the top 10 on the leader board after two days of play:
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

Other notable names remaining in the 167 player field include:
16th: Phil Ivey – 150,900
20th: Andre Akkari – 141,200
22nd: Chris Ferguson – 138,700
23rd: Hoyt Corkins – 137,600
28th: Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 127,900
31st: John “The Razor” Phan – 126,800
36th: Paul Wasicka – 119,700
40th: Liz Lieu – 118,100
45th: Toto Leonidas – 110,400
46th: Nancy Todd Tyner – 107,300
48th: Jeff Madsen – 106,400
55th: Scott Freeman – 99,700
59th: Jimmy Fricke – 96,900
69th: Steven Paul-Ambrose – 86,100
71st: Nick Schulman – 77,000
74th: Erica Schoenberg – 75,500
83rd: Todd Brunson – 67,300
84th: Hevad Khan – 67,200
88th: David “The Dragon” Pham – 64,600
92nd: Ross Boatman – 62,000
97th: Paul Darden – 58,400
102nd: Men “The Master” Nguyen – 55,500
123rd: Nenad Medic – 43,000
154th: Josh Arieh – 22,400
158th: J.J. Liu – 19,500