Tom Marchese Wins PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian Main EventMarchese Takes Home $$827,648 For The Win |
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The 2010 PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Venetian Main Event is officially in the books and the champion is Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese. Marchese overcame a 2-1 chip deficit heads-up to take down runner-up Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein for the title.
The $827,648 payday was the largest score of Marchese’s short career, though he recently did make the final table of the Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event earlier this month. Stein, who final tabled the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event last year, had to settle for the $522,306 consolation prize.
Here were the chip counts and seating positions heading into final table play.
Seat 1 — Daniel Clemente — 1,345,000
Seat 2 — Sam Stein — 6,145,000
Seat 3 — Tom Fuller — 4,735,000
Seat 4 — John Cernuto — 1,300,000
Seat 5 — Yunus Jamal — 3,940,000
Seat 6 — David Paredes — 4,700,000
Seat 7 — Tom Marchese — 2,370,000
Seat 8 — Eric Blair — 1,690,000
The final table began in much the same way the tournament has gone all along, with Sam Stein winning pot after pot. It was no surprise that he took credit for the first final table casualty.
Eric Blair shoved over the top of an opening raise from Tom Marchese and Stein isolated all in with big slick. Blair held the best hand with pocket sevens, but they failed to win the race as the board brought a king. Blair picked up $60,266 for his efforts.
Short stacked “Miami” John Cernuto (pictured left) held on as long as he could, but the mounting blinds and antes finally forced him to make a move holding A
5. Stein was forced to look him up with J
10
, but came from behind, hitting runner, runner two pair on a board of A 9 4 10
J to send Cernuto to the rail where he was awarded $104,461.
Stein took a break from the carnage for the next elimination when Daniel Clemente opened with a raise and Thomas Fuller moved all in. Clemente snap called with pocket queens and saw that he was way ahead of Fuller’s pocket jacks. The board came out clean and Fuller exited $144,639 richer.
David Paredes had earlier doubled up with pocket aces, but the second time he picked them up, the outcome was far different. Paredes opened, Stein reraised, Paredes reraised and Stein put him all in holding pocket jacks. Paredes insta-called, but the flop brought a jack, ending his tournament run in fifth place, good for $184,816.
Four-handed play continued for a couple hours, but nobody really challenged Stein’s monster chip lead, even when Yunus Jamal was eliminated in fourth place, earning $241,064. Tom Marchese’s A Q then out ran Jamal’s pocket tens, but Stein still held a 3-1 advantage over his two opponents.
A few minutes later, Clemente found himself all in holding A 8 against Marchese’s pocket queens. The pocket pair held and Clemente headed to the cage to collect his $309,366.
Here’s a look at the chip counts heading into heads-up play.
Sam Stein — 16,380,000
Tom Marchese — 9,460,000
With nearly a 2-1 chip lead, Stein wasted no time picking apart his opponent. In fact, he managed to take a few million off of Marchese before the most crucial hand of the tournament came down.
Marchese raised and Stein called. The two took a flop of K 6 5 and Marchese continued. Stein called and the turn was the 4. Marchese bet big once again and Stein called. When the 10 hit the river, Marchese moved all in. Stein took a long while before making the call with J 5, but Marchese showed K 9 for top pair to take the chip lead.
A short while later, a nearly identical situation came up and once again, Stein called an all in on the river with four pair, only to be shown a superior hand. After dominating the tournament for over three days, Stein managed to give it all away in just two hands. He was given $522,306 for his runner-up performance. Marchese took home the lion’s share with a $827,648 payday.
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