US poker pro Tom Marchese emerged victorious in the final $25,000 Aria High Roller event for the year. The winner collected $288,000 last night for beating a field of some of the world’s most seasoned high roller players.
The 49th Aria High Roller started at 2 pm Las Vegas time with fourteen entries spread across two tables at Aria Resort & Casino. Several more joined over the course of action until the overall field was brought to 24 entrants. Thus, the generated prize pool of $576,000 was distributed to the top four finishers.
Aside from Marchese, who became the last man standing, poker pros like Isaac Haxton, Doug Polk, and Justin Bonomo, all of whom known for their high preference for high roller action, were among the tournament’s entries.
It could be said that play unfolded relatively quickly on Thursday as shortly before 11 pm, there were only two players left – Marchese and his heads-up opponent Cary Katz. And Marchese did not take long before finishing off Katz. In fact, heads-up match lasted around ten minutes and precisely two hands.
On the very last hand in play, Katz went all in and Marchese called instantly, showing [Qh][Qs]. Katz tabled [Ah][Kh] in anticipation for the board. It ran out [Kd][Ah][Qc][Jc][5d], securing Marchese with the pot and the title.
Katz took home $155,520 for his runner-up finish. That was a second in-the-money finish for the player over a two-day span. He cashed in the $25,000 Aria High Roller 48 on Wednesday. Katz collected $93,600 for finishing 3rd in that event.
With his live winnings of more than $15.6 million, Tom Marchese is definitely a big name in the world of live tournament poker. The player has cashed in 82 different events over a six-year period. And looking at his cash history, it could be seen that Marchese has been a regular participant in Aria’s High Roller tournaments, winning an admirable number of those. Only in 2016, the player has won four $25,000 events at the popular Las Vegas-located casino, including the one last night.
Another notable accomplishment from recent times was his second-place finish in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the Bellagio. Marchese collected a payout of $1,018,566 for finishing runner-up to Austrian Jan Eric Schwippert.
