Delayed Gratification: Marchese Ships WPT $25K at Esports Arena
The "Big Cheese" was extra sharp Friday evening as he took down a stacked final table to finish off the World Poker Tour Bellagio Elite Poker Championship $25K High Roller for $432,000.
For Tom Marchese, it's merely the eighth-best score in an illustrious career that's seen him collect more than $17 million in tournament winnings, including wins in a pair of $100K events. It seems he's just as dangerous outside of his usual haunt at ARIA as he is in it, where he routinely adds six-figure scores to his ever-growing tally.
WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship $25K Final Table
| Place | Player | Home Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Marchese | United States | $432,000 |
| 2 | Aaron Ogus | United States | $283,500 |
| 3 | Sam Soverel | United States | $189,000 |
| 4 | David Peters | United States | $135,000 |
| 5 | Jake Schindler | United States | $108,000 |
| 6 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | $81,000 |
Furthermore, Marchese put his name as a footnote in poker trivia as the first player to win a tournament in Esports Arena Las Vegas at Luxor, with whom the WPT partnered to host the final table.
"It's an amazing set-up here at the arena," he said. "It's great for poker seeing it expand like this and having a new place to play. Can't complain at all, great time and a fun setting."
The players had to wait a few weeks to experience the venue, which was festooned with WPT branding and set up so that the players sat at a lone table on a raised stage beneath a massive screen. The first-of-its-kind arena features plentiful gaming set-ups even with a WPT takeover, upper-level seating for spectators and bars serving drinks and food.
"This arena is just beautiful," WPT TV hostess Lynn Gilmartin said. "It has everything you need."
Coming in with a massive stack of nearly 200 big blinds — only David Peters was within shouting distance with 131 bigs — Marchese was undoubtedly the favorite. He said he toned back his poker playing in the interim, as he wanted to stay in a good mental state.
"A lot of times when you're on this high of coming in with a good chip stack, you don't want to go on a downswing or have huge losing days," he said. "It kind of messes with you a little bit. For the most part, I relaxed and waited it out."
Final Table Action
Action was bound to be heavy early with half of the players below 35 big blinds, including Jake Schindler, who limped in with a mere four. However, he managed to ladder past Rainer Kempe after binking a lucky double on a three-outer right away.
Kempe didn't come in with many more chips, and as the one who sent over the unlucky double, he found himself desperate for a double. He got it in slightly ahead with bottom pair against Marchese's Broadway gutter plus overs but Marchese made the nuts on the river to bust the German.
Schindler would find one more double but Peters finished him off after on a tough call. Schindler check-jammed with a combo draw but Peters looked him up with jack-eight for his own open-ended draw that had Schindler's eight-six high-carded. An eight on the river left Peters' kicker playing and Schindler out in fifth.
Peters was still in the best position to challenge Marchese, and Big Cheese admitted he had his eye on Peters from the start as the biggest threat.
"David is a super tough player and he was far and away second in chips when I was far and away chip leader," Marchese said. "He was the person I was most worried about."
Luckily for Marchese, the deck conspired against Peters as Marchese picked up the rockets in the small blind and three-bet to 150,000 when Peters made it 35,000 at 7,000/14,000/14,000. Peters peeled with king-queen and flopped top pair of kings. Marchese opted to check and Peters checked back. Marchese fired a big turn bet and then shoved river as the board ran out dead and Peters called it off on the end.
"I was just pretty fortunate that we got into a set-up hand," Marchese said. "I decided to check the flop and I was fortunate that I got a really clean runout where he would never be able to find a fold."
Marchese's lead seemed insurmountable at that point with nearly 300 big blinds in his stack, but he wouldn't simply waltz to the title. Aaron Ogus built considerable momentum, first getting lucky to turn a gutshot that gave Marchese two pair and holding on the river for a double. Then, he hit another straight on the river and doubled through Marchese into the lead when Big Cheese tried an all-in bluff shove after missing two overs, a flush draw and a straight draw.
Short stack Sam Soverel hung around through this and then got it in good against Ogus. Ogus check-jammed the turn with an overcard and flush draw but Soverel found the call button with ten-nine for top pair on the flop but second pair on the turn after a queen fell. The river filled Ogus' flush to bust Soverel.
Ogus held the lead after his hot run but he immediately bluffed off a big chunk to start a battle that would last two hours.
I was the least familiar with Aaron," Marchese said. "I just tried to take it slow because the more you play with someone you don't know, the better read you're going to have because you're going to be able to adjust against them."
Marchese's experience and skill already represented a tough mountain for Ogus to climb, so Marchese getting the right side of variance was going to make victory nearly impossible. That's exactly what happened when Marchese picked up aces again and Ogus flopped top pair of kings in the three-bet pot they played. Stacks got in with two cards to come and Ogus bricked both to send Marchese the trophy.
"It doesn't matter what $25K it is, it's always amazing to win one," Marchese said. "Especially a WPT like this where there's so much media coverage and a good amount of prestige surrounding it. I'm super excited to come out the champion."
Photos courtesy of WPT
