Tom Marchese conquers the 536-entrant field in the $10,300 buy-in partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Vegas, including a final table full of heroes.
Few leave Vegas never to return, and poker tournaments are no different. partypoker has been to Vegas before, but always as a fox, and never the golden lion.
The $10,300 buy-in, $5m Guaranteed MILLIONS Vegas was partypoker’s first stab at breaking into America, and they did it with style after 536 entrants created a $5,360,000 prize pool, and $1m for the man who walked away with the title—Tom Marchese.
Marchese’s best results have come in his hometown, but by his own admission, this one was a challenge.
“The field was a real mix of amateur and pro players,” Marchese told PokerNews after his win. “When it was down to like the final three or four tables, it’s crazy how many good players were left. It had the feeling more like a High Roller field.”
Marchese wasn’t kidding.
Sergio Aido won the €100,000 Super High Roller in Monte Carlo for $1.7m in April. 888Poker Ambassador, Ana Marquez, finished 10/8809 in the WSOP Millionaire Maker a few weeks ago. And Conor Beresford is one of the most consistent online MTT players in the world with more than $8.3m in earnings.
Freddy Deeb is a legend, albeit a little ring rusty having not made a final table since finishing runner-up to Mike Shariati in the 2015 WPT Legends of Poker. Rainer Kempe is the Global Poker Index (GPI) 2019 Player of the Year leader. Chris Moneymaker is Chris Moneymaker.
In the end, it was Jeremy Ausmus who would provide the final hurdle for Marchese, and Ausmus was the man in form having finished 4/518 in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) earning $325,693.
Marchese began the final day second in chips, but it was his elimination of Moneymaker that put him in pole position. With blinds at 60k/120k/120k, Marchese opened to 250k from early position and called when Moneymaker three-bet to 760k out of the small blind. The flop of 9d5h2c looked fantastic to both players with Marchese holding pocket eights, and Moneymaker holding kings. Moneymaker bet 500k, and Marchese called.
The gin card arrived on the turn when the 8s gave Marchese a set. Moneymaker check-called a 1.1m Marchese bet and then checked a second time when the 4h sewed things up on the river. Marchese moved all-in, and Moneymaker made what would be his final call of the competition.
Pocket eights were also the killer hand when Marquez found them brimming with boom underneath her fingernails at the same time Tobias Duthweiler moved all-in for his tournament life holding KcJs. The flop, turn, and river remained clear of paint, and the German was out.
The final table became Germanless, one elimination later when Marchese’s AcKs chopped Rainer Kempe’s KcTs to pieces, sending the GreySnowPoker Ambassador to the rail in seventh.
Marchese was running away from everyone at this point, and Ausmus staked his claim for a hot seat in the final duel when his pocket jacks beat the crap out of the pocket tens of Beresford to send the man from the U.K. to the rail in sixth.
Marchese eliminated the dangerous Spaniard, Sergio Aido, in the fifth position when AsQc beat Ac3d when all-in pre-flop and Freddy Deeb joined Aido in the Aria Patisserie cue when pocket nines avoided tripping up over Ah7h.
Ausmus doubled through Marchese when tens beat ace-king and used that momentum to eliminate Marquez when Ac9h beat Js2h to set up a heads-up encounter with Marchese ahead by 31.2m to 22.4m.
Ausmus began the brightest, winning a series of pots to take the chip lead. Marchese pinched it back and stretched his lead almost to bursting point until Ausmus doubled QsQh>Ad5c. It wasn’t enough. Marchese’s AsJh beat KhTs in the final hand of the night, leaving Ausmus with another close call, and one that he’s okay with.
I try to teach my kids it’s not all about 1st. As long as they give 100%. That the best could play 50 and get all 2nds. There’s a lot of variance in life, and look at all the people I did beat. And tough fields. And if they don’t fully agree well then they’re fucking grounded
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) July 3, 2019
The win was Marchese’s 18th of his tournament career, and his sixth seven-figure score sees him edge over the $19m mark in live tournament earnings.
Final table results
1. Tom Marchese – $1,000,000
2. Jeremy Ausmus – $650,000
3. Ana Marquez – $445,000
4. Freddy Deeb – $319,200
5. Sergio Aido – $230,000
6. Conor Beresford – $170,000
7. Rainer Kempe – $130,000
8. Tobias Duthweiler – $100,000
9. Chris Moneymaker – $80,000
