Tom Marchese's High-Roller Results are Unbelievable

Here at PokerTube.com we try not to fill your time with endless tournament results, but the recent run by Tom Marchese is so incredible that we simply have to make an exception – the 28-year old New Jersey pro is simply killing the high-rollers!

The high-stakes pro has won close on $4million in the last year alone, and has jumped to number 16 in the all-time tournament winners list, with a staggering $13,153,970 to his name.

While most high-rollers travel the world to indulge their high-investment/high-risk love of the game, Marchese has based himself in Las Vegas and found a way to tear apart the bi-monthly Aria high-roller events – winning six of them and final-tabling another five – and devastating his fellow players along the way.

In the beginning…

Known for a good few years now as a high-stakes tournament player, his online moniker of ‘Kingsofcards’ wasn’t hugely successful in the pre-Black Friday days, with a loss of over $500,000 recorded, but his brick-and-mortar successes are fast becoming a matter of legend.

A breakthrough year in 2010 saw him capturing the NAPT deepstack extravaganza, taking down the $827,648 first prize and launching a remarkable high-roller career. The $100k Super High Roller at the 2012 WPT netted him another $1,308,405 and Marchese became one of the most-feared high-stakes pros out there.

Glorified SNG’s?

Much has been written about these super-high roller events, comparing them to the weak-but-incredibly-expensive MTT’s and SNG’s, but look at who Marchese had to beat for his first $100K event at the Bellagio in the summer of 2014.

Dan Smith won the event and Jason Mercier finished second. Marchese finished third, ahead of the likes of Jason Somerville, Doug Polk, and Gabe Kaplan in the 66-player field. When he took down the first Aria $100K super high-roller event a few months later, Cary Katz and Brian Rastwere second and third – great players. These big wins were by no means a fluke against weak opposition.Antonio ‘the Magician’ Esfandiari is also a semi-regular at the games - enough said.

Big buy-in, bigger prizes

Paying $100,000 to enter an event may seem crazy, but the pay-offs are immense. With 55 entries to the 2014 WPT, just making the money was worth $323K and Marchese's 2nd spot finish behind Andrew Lichtenberger saw him take home $1,574,518 – good for another 15 buy-ins at the biggest stakes – or 60 buy-ins at the lower $25K Aria high-rollers which Marchese started to make his own in January of last year.

Marchese at the Aria

1 1 5 1 3 4 1 7 1 1 3 might look like someone’s phone number, but these are finishing positions of Marchese in 11 Aria events since January of 2015! And he even managed three cashes at the WSOP in between Aria events, coming very close to a bracelet in the $1500 NLHE event 8 when he lost out to Paul Michaelis of Germany in a heads-up match. As he tweeted afterwards though:

His Aria battles have seen him take on Byron Kaverman on numerous occasions, and usually coming out on top against the man widely-regarded as the world’s best tournament player of recent years. Unlike Marchese though, Kaverman travels widely to ply his trade.

Marchese seems quite at home in Vegas, and it’s hard to argue with success – if the Aria continues to offer Marchese the chance to build his bank balance huge chunks at a time, it’s unlikely the quiet professional will take even a vacation anytime soon!