New Jersey professional poker player Tom Marchese lived up to his online nickname ‘kingofcards’ over the weekend when he defeated a formidable final table in the 2012 WPT $100,000 buy-in High Roller competition to win his biggest payday yet – a whopping $1.3 million.
The win takes Marchese’s career earnings in online and live tournaments to well over $4 million.
Facing a final table that comprised Andrew Robl, John Juanda, Daniel Perper, Bill Klein and Justin Bonomo, Marchese started final table action with a small chip lead, managing to maintain his lead for much of the time. The exception was his eventual heads-up opponent Andrew Robl, who at one stage edged out ahead by 2 to 1 in chips.
However, Marchese managed to claw back the lead, and thirty hands later he eliminated Robl, who had to be content with the runner-up pay check of $822,375.
Justin Bonomo’s earlier promising showing in the competition failed to develop into anything worthwhile and he finished sixth without reward; the other three final tablers all took home six-figure pay packets.