Tom ‘Big Cheese’ Marchese Wins WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship $25K High Roller

Tom Marchese’s (cover image) exceptional performance on May 25 led him to win the World Poker Tour Bellagio Elite Poker Championship $25K High Roller for $432,000 at the Esports Arena in Las Vegas. Marchese passed through a tough field of 54 entrants and along with the first-place prize money, received a luxurious Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Titanium watch, and a custom trophy.

The event was the first of its kind to be held at the venue where Marchese was joined by a star-studded ensemble of six other pros at the final table including Aaron Ogus, Sam Soverel, David Peters, Jake Schindler and Rainer Kempe. The arena was decked in WPT branding, whilst also boasting of several gaming set-ups, upper-tier seating arrangement for audience members along with food and beverage provisions.

Marchese aka ‘Big Cheese’, who is a patron at the ARIA, has successfully accumulated $17 Million in tournament winnings, along with winning two $100K events, making his win at the WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship only the eighth best score of his career.

Marchese entered the final table with a stack of 2,359,000, while Aaron Ogus started off as the chipleader with 8,570,004.

Final Table Recap

Three out of six players entered the final below 35 big blinds, with Schindler the shortest of the lot with just four big blinds. Later, Schindler jumped ahead of Kempe due to a lucky double that he got on a three-outer.

Rainer Kempe and Schindler were the first two to head out in sixth and fifth place respectively. Schindler’s final hand saw him check-jamming with a combo draw against David Peters who had an open-ended draw with Jx 8x against Schindler’s 8x 6x. Eventually Peters’ jack kicker was able to eliminate Schindler in fifth place.

The deck though wasn’t in Peters’ favor eventually as Marchese shoved with on the board and Peters called with to hit the rail in fourth place.

With a huge chip lead, 3-handed play saw Marchese facing off the eventual runner up Aaron Ogus and Sam Soverel.

Soverel, though short stacked, was able to make his stand for some time but eventually his top pair failed to beat Ogus’ rivered flush and he got eliminated in third place.

The heads-up battle between Ogus and Marchese continued for two hours until ultimately Marchese picked up aces and locked horns with Ogus’ flopped pair of kings in the final hand. Ogus couldn’t improve on the blank turn and the river leading him to concede the title to Marchese.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Tom Marchese – $432,000

2. Aaron Ogus – $283,500

3. Sam Soverel – $189,000

4. David Peters- $135,000

5. Jake Schindler – $108,000

6. Rainer Kempe – $81,000