WSOP Rookie Roundup: Tom Marchese
When he turned 20, Tom Marchese decided to make the jump to playing poker professionally. He was in college at the time and so far it looks like he made the correct decision by turning to poker. Playing online as “Kingsofcards,” Marchese has amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings. He’s recently been taking his game to the live felt and scoring some pretty awesome results.
In January of 2010, Marchese final tabled the $3,300 Championship Event at the Borgata Winter Open in Atlantic City. His third-place finish was worth $190,027. A pretty sick score for your first live cash and it didn’t take long for Marchese to get his second and top what he did in his first.
The next month rolled around and Marchese headed to Las Vegas for the NAPT Venetian Main Event. Marchese carved his way through the competition and found himself at the final table and under the bright lights and ESPN cameras, Marchese shined as he beat seven others at the final table to win first place in the 872-player field. His win far surpassed the amount he won at Borgata, earning him $827,648 this time. In under one month’s time, Marchese final tabled two top-notch live events and earned over $1 million in winnings. That’s quite the start to the poker career.
In March, for the third month in a row, Marchese had a good amount of success on the felt. At the Bay 101 Shooting Stars Championship Event, Marchese placed 24th for $20,500. Less than a week later he was back in Vegas for the Wynn Classic Main Event. There, Marchese reached the final table and placed fourth for $73,356.
Marchese will be player to keep an eye out for at the World Series this summer and could make a big splash. He’s already begun making a name for himself along the tournament circuit and if he’s able to come away with some hardware at the WSOP, the rest of the world will start recognizing his name and knowing who this kid is.
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