Final Table Takedown -- Tom Marchese

New Jersey native Tom Marchese has been playing poker professionally for three years, specializing in six-max high-stakes cash games. He recently began to dabble in live tournaments, with huge success. He won the inaugural PokerStars North American Poker Tour Venetian main event, for $827,648. Two of his other major final tables in 2010 include a third-place finish at the 2010 Borgata Open, for $190,027, and a fourth-place finish at the $5,000 Wynn Classic, for $73,356.

Event: PokerStars North American Poker Tour Venetian main event
Players in the Event: 872
Buy-in: $4,750
First Prize: $827,648
Finish: First

Hand No. 1
Stacks: Tom Marchese – 2,400,000 Sam Stein – 4,500,000 David Paredes – 3,800,000
Blinds: 30,000-60,000
Antes: 5,000
Players at the Table: 8

Hand No. 1
Key Concepts: Slow-playing a monster; letting opponents catch up to make a second-best hand

Craig Tapscott: You were running hot coming into this event. What was the plan when you sat down at this final table?

Tom Marchese: You’re right. I had just come off a final table at the Borgata. At this table, I had a general idea of how it would play early on, and decided to try to open a lot of pots to up my stack from 40 big blinds to the 60-80 range. Fortunately, instead of having to grind my way to that stack, I won a key hand at the outset.

David Paredes opens for 150,000 from the hijack position.

CT: Give us the lowdown so far at this final table.

TM: Well, within the first few hands, I was dealt the 10 10 in the cutoff position (one off the button). David Paredes, who is a high-stakes cash-game player I have played with previously, opened directly to my right. With a stack of 40 big blinds, I felt that I could comfortably reraise and get it in or just call his raise and see a flop with position. Since I came in with the thought process that I would try to play small-pot poker, I opted to just call the open-raise.

Marchese calls. Sam Stein calls from the big blind.
Flop: 10 3 3 (pot: 520,000)
Stein checks. Paredes checks.

TM: I felt there was some merit in betting, as I would likely get called by any pocket pairs and some ace-high hands, and could potentially get all in against a flush draw or a 3. In a cash game, I would likely always bet here, but inasmuch as it was the early stages of such a big final table and my stack would probably still be able to go in over the two later streets, I decided to check behind. I was hoping that someone might turn a pair, or I’d allow Sam to bluff off some chips from the big blind.

Marchese checks.
Turn: 4 (pot: 520,000)
Stein bets 200,000. Paredes calls.

CT: Is it time to pounce?

TM: Once again, I was left with a decision. I felt that a raise by me could look
relatively bluffy, but I …

Marchese calls.

CT: Why the change of heart?

TM: I decided to just call behind, as it would be conceivable for my hand to be read as a flush draw, straight draw, or middle pair. I could give my opponents, at least one of whom was likely to have a flush draw, a chance to make a strong but still weaker hand.

River: 2 (pot: 1,120,000)
Stein bets 400,000. Paredes raises to 1,150,000.

CT: Wow. Looks like a dream scenario for you.

TM: Yes. Just like that, there I was, 30 minutes into the biggest final table of my life, sitting there with the second nuts and with a lot of action in front of me. I sat there for a couple of minutes, pondering my obvious decision (hey, it’s live, so you need to do it), and I …

Marchese shoves all in for 2,045,000.
Stein folds. Paredes tanks, and eventually folds. Marchese wins the pot of 2,670,000.

CT: What do you think they were holding?

TM: David made a good fold with the 6 5. Sam later told me that he had gone for a value-bet on the river with a 10. Based on my opponents’ hands, I was pretty much assured to double up no matter how I played the hand. Looking back, I still like how I played it, as I feel that my opponents were unlikely to get out of line so early at the final table, and I gave them the opportunity to improve their hands.

Hand No. 2
Stacks: Tom Marchese – 7,200,000 Sam Stein – 18,000,000
Blinds: 100,000-200,000
Antes: 20,000
Players at the Table: 2

Hand No. 2
Key Concepts: Thin value-betting; hand reading

TM: The most important hand I played in the entire tournament took place hours later, when it was down to just Sam Stein and me. Sam had controlled the pace of the match thus far, and had chipped me down from 9 million to about 7 million.

CT: Did you have a solid read on his play by this point?

TM: I felt like I had a general idea of where I was in hands, but he was a difficult opponent to play, as he played a wide range of hands out of position and didn’t give up on pots easily.

Marchese opens for 500,000 from the button with the K 9. Stein calls.
Flop: K 6 5 (pot: 1,040,000)

CT: So far, so good.

TM: Well, after not having flopped a pair thus far in the heads-up match, I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to potentially change momentum and cut into his chip lead.

Stein checks. Marchese bets 625,000. Stein calls.

CT: Can you pinpoint his hand range at this time?

TM: At that time, I put Sam on a 5, 6, king, open-end or gutshot-straight draw, or ace high.

Turn: 4 (pot: 2,290,000)

TM: The turn was a good card for my opponent’s hand range, but I felt that I would still be ahead the vast majority of the time. My plan was to bet the turn and check behind on most rivers, other than a select few on which I felt like I could go for more.

Stein checks. Marchese bets 1,450,000.

TM: This bet would leave me with approximately a pot-sized bet behind.

Stein calls.

CT: Did this call narrow his range at all?

TM: I put him on mostly one-pair hands with some sort of straight draw at this point. He could have hands like 4-3, 7-5, 7-6, and 8-6, and I thought that if the river was a queen, jack, 10, or 9, I would be able to make a thin value-bet. Up until this point at the final table, I hadn’t made any thin value-bets, and had checked back some hands that were nearly always good, because I didn’t want to face a check-raise and didn’t expect to get called by a worse hand that often.

River: 10 (5,190,000)
Stein checks.

TM: I thought there was some possibility that he could have K-10, K-J, or K-Q, along with the chance that he might have turned a straight. He might continue check-calling, allowing me to either continue bluffing or value-bet a worse hand. While I think it’s possible that I’m beat and he’s taking a passive value line with a better hand, I think it is more likely that he will hero-call me with a worse hand, as he had a tendency to call down light. So, I took my time, and …

Marchese shoves all in. Stein calls.

TM: He called so quickly that I thought I potentially had made too thin a value-bet and it was all over. I sheepishly flipped over my K-9, and he took a look at my hand before mucking. The dealer incorrectly flipped over his hand, and he had called with the J 5.

Marchese wins the pot of 14,400,000.