Tom Marchese Wins partypoker MILLIONS Vegas at Aria for $1,000,000
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Tom Marchese has been crowned champion of the first-ever partypoker LIVE MILLIONS event held on American soil after taking down the partypoker MILLIONS Vegas at the Aria Resort and Casino.
Just over ten hours from the start of play on Day 4, Marchese emerged as champion after defeating Jeremy Ausmus in a heads-up battle.
"We'll see if this really lights the fire and motivates me to go to more stops!"
The pivotal hand came way back when play was nine-handed after Marchese turned a set to eliminate Chris Moneymaker who held kings. He never really relinquished that chip lead, and he emerged victorious for his first seven-figure score since December 2016.
"The field was a real mix of amateur and pro players," Marchese told PokerNews. "When it was down to like the final three or four tables [yesterday], it's crazy how many good players were left. It had the feeling [it was] more like a High Roller field."
2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Vegas @ Aria $10,300 Main Event Final Table Payout
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Marchese | United States | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | $650,000 |
| 3 | Ana Marquez | Spain | $445,000 |
| 4 | Freddy Deeb | United States | $319,200 |
| 5 | Sergio Aido | Spain | $230,000 |
| 6 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | $170,000 |
| 7 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | $130,000 |
| 8 | Tobias Duthweiler | Germany | $100,000 |
| 9 | Chris Moneymaker | United States | $80,000 |
Final Day Early Exchanges
The day began slowly with a Sergi Reixach double, but ultimately, it did not prevent him from becoming the first casualty of the day. He was followed out the door by Fahredin Mustafov who got it in drawing dead against start-of-day chip leader Frank Stepuchin.
However, it was Tom Marchese who lead by the first break after taking chips off Stepuchin turning a full house against a flopped flush.
"All the stacks outside of Frank were grouped together," Marchese told PokerNews shortly after his win. "I mean, I figured I would play a big pot against him at some point and that would kind of decide my fate.
"And I was lucky! I was on the right side of the cooler and that kind of propelled me all the way."
"And I was lucky! I was on the right side of the cooler and that kind of propelled me all the way."
Another player making a run up the chip counts was a certain Chris Moneymaker, who sent Martin Mathis to the rail to move up to just below nine million in chips.
Frank Stepuchin finished Day 3 by soaring up the leaderboard, but he was unable to recapture the form of yesterday, and he lost the rest of his chips to Freddy Deeb after the latter flopped top pair against Stepuchin’s pocket fives.
2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Vegas @ Aria $10,300 Main Event Final Table Recap
Marchese led before Deeb and Moneymaker when the players were drawn around a single table. There was action soon enough as Sergio Aido doubled through Moneymaker with aces against ace-queen.
That saw Chris Moneymaker plummet down the counts and he would bust spectacularly, calling off a shove from Marchese with pocket kings only for his opponent to have turned a set. This gave Marchese a considerable lead, holding forty percent of the chips in play while Moneymaker exited in ninth place for $90,000.
"That was just super lucky for me," said Marchese. "He just re-raised pre-flop, and I was getting a good price all the way. Then I was super fortunate to hit the two outer."
Tobias Duthweiler went next, losing a flip against Ana Marquez, who was slowly creeping up the chip counts. In fact, after further pots, she moved into second in the leaderboard with almost ten million but remained a distant second behind Marchese.
However, Marchese reinforced his chip stack with the elimination of Rainer Kempe winning ace-king versus king-ten.
Marchese Works the Big Stack
Marchese might have half the chips in play, but there were still other players at the table. Jeremy Ausmus put his chips to good use shortly after returning from a break with the elimination of Conor Beresford, his jacks holding against the tens of the Brit.
Now it was Ausmus hot on the heels of Marchese, breathing down the neck of a chip leader who didn’t look like slipping up in post-flop play.
And he excelled pre-flop also, opening and calling a three-bet shove from Sergio Aido to send the Spaniard to the rail in fifth. Marchese followed that up with the elimination of Freddy Deeb in a classic blind on blind confrontation winning with nines from ace-seven.
Now with seventy percent of the chips in play, Marchese was eyeing the shorter stacks. One of those was Ausmus. But Ausmus would secure a vital double with tens against the ace-king of Marchese to halt the runaway train.
"I was fortunate to be on the right side of all-ins today. I mean; when you have a big stack, you're really able to put on a lot of pressure on people, and they're kind of forced to just take shots at you."
Deep Stacks Short-Handed
That double by Ausmus would ensure that both he and Marchese sat on a hundred big blind stacks, with Marquez further behind. She stuck around gamely but eventually fell in third place exiting with king-trey against Ausmus' ace-nine.
"You're always going to be a little worried about it slipping away."
"You're always going to be a little worried about it slipping away," said Marchese. "But when that happens, you have to really think about your current position. But you're still going to have chips three-handed, and it's a great spot, so I can just keep putting pressure on and playing my game."
Ausmus doubled once through Marchese, but he seemed determined to close this one out. And after grinding his opponent down once more to around a twenty big blind stack, he called off a shove with ace-jack; turning an ace to leave his opponent drawing dead and Marchese the latest partypoker MILLIONS champion.
"We'll see if this really lights the fire and motivates me to go to more stops!"
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
