May 26 2012, Donnie Peters

The $100,000 Super High Roller at the 2012 World Poker Tour World Championship was completed on Friday night as Tom Marchese parlayed his second bullet in the event into a payday of more than $1.3 million. He defeated a stout final table and bested one of the most elite tournament fields of the year to claim the title. Finishing runner-up was Andrew Robl and he earned himself $822,375 for his finish. Here’s how it all went down.

Entering the day, Daniel Perper held the chip lead and was followed by Robl in second place. Plenty of eyes were fixed on Justin Bonomo, who entered the final table fourth in chips and was eyeing his second six-figure buy-in title of 2012. Joining those three were Tom Marchese, John Juanda and Bill Klein.

With five spots paying out a minimum of $263,160, a massive bubbled was upon everyone that returned for the third and final day. Klein was the player with the most risk having the least chips entering the final table, but he was able to double up through Perper on the very first hand of play.

According to the WPT Live Updates Team, the cards were in the air during the first level of the day – Level 18 with the blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000. Marchese had min-raised to 100,000 from under the gun and Perper reraised from middle position to 240,000. Klein shoved all in for 615,000 from the small blind and play folded back to Perper. He called with the . Klein held the next two highest ranked cards of that suit with the . After a board of , Klein earned the double.

From there, things were rather slow as the players eased into action, but it didn’t stay that way for long. On the 13th hand of the final table, Bonomo raised to 100,000 from the cutoff seat and Juanda reraised from the big blind to 300,000. Bonomo flatted and the flop came down . Juanda moved all in and Bonomo made the call to put himself at risk. Juanda tabled an overpair with the and was ahead of Bonomo’s . The turn brought the and the river the to eliminate Bonomo in sixth place and send him home on the bubble.

Twenty hands later, Klein’s luck ran out when he was eliminated in fifth place. He was all in preflop with the against Perper’s . Even though Klein spiked a set of threes on the flop, there would be no double through Perper this time as the turn was the to give Perper a higher set. The river completed the board with the and Klein was out.

Then just three hands later, Perper busted at the hands of Juanda. It wasn’t pretty, either, as Juanda cracked Perper’s with the by flopping a ten and rivering an ace to make two pair and win the pot. For his finish in fourth place, Perper took home just under $400,000.

Over the course of the next 40 hands or so, Marchese won three massive pots against Juanda, but Juanda kept fighting. Then on the 78th hand of the final table, Marchese won a two-million chip pot from Robl. Finally on the 84th hand of the day, someone was able to nip Marchese when Juanda doubled through him. After that, the official chips counts had Marchese with 5.83 million, Juanda with 5.17 million and Robl with 2.61 million as the players moved into Level 21 with the blinds at 50,000/100,000/10,000.

The three-handed battle continued all the way until the 177th hand of the final table came up. On that hand, Robl raised from the small blind to 250,000 and Juanda three-bet to 750,000 from the big blind. Robl fired back with an all-in move and Juanda made the call. Robl tabled the and was against Juanda’s . The flop, turn and river of provided no help for Juanda and he was eliminated in third place for $526,320.

The heads-up match between the final two competitors began with Marchese holding 7.025 million in chips to Robl’s 6.585 million. Things started close and it was a long heads-up duel that lasted nearly 80 hands before the final blow was delivered to send Robl home in second place.

On the final hand of the tournament, the blinds were up to 125,000/250,000/25,000 in Level 25 and Robl raised on the button to 500,000. Marchese popped it up to 1.2 million and Robl shoved. Marchese called with the and was in front of Robl’s with the title within reach. A flop gave no help to Robl and it was followed by the on the turn. Down to the last card, Robl needed an ace and an ace only on the river to double up and stay alive. After the dealer burned one last time, the smacked on the river and officially eliminated Robl in second place. He earned $822,375 for his effort, but the title went Marchese’s way.

WPT World Championship Super High Roller Final Table Payouts

This title marked the second major tournament victory for Marchese and proved to be the largest single score of his young poker career. Marchese walked away with the $1.3 million first-place prize, the $25,500 seat into next year’s WPT World Championship and the trophy. Congratulations to him on the victory and he’ll surely be riding a surge of momentum heading into the World Series of Poker that kicks off in just a few days.

Although this event has wrapped up at the 2012 WPT World Championship, things aren’t over just yet. The $25,000 World Championship event still has a final table to play and play will begin at 1600 PDT (0000 BST) on Saturday with the final six players vying for the $1.2 million first-place prize. Marvin Rettenmaier leads the way into the final table and you can see how they got there by reading the Day 6 recap. PokerNews will have a complete recap of the final table following the action on Saturday.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!

Follow Donnie Peters on

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!

May 24 2012, Donnie Peters

While the $25,000 Championship at the 2012 World Poker Tour World Championship bursted the bubble and reached the final table, the $100,000 Super High Roller was kicking off across the room. The last big event before the summer bracelet hunting began saw 25 players come out to action on Day 1 with seven re-entries. At the end of the first 10 levels of play, 19 remained with Justin Bonomo finishing on top. He bagged up 1.433 in chips.

You can only imagine the types of names that this massive, six-figure buy-in event would attract, but there were also some rather unknown players in the mix tangling with elite pros. Clemenceau Calixto, Rob Zeps, Michael Parziale, Roger Sippl, Daniel Perper and Bill Klein were amongst those lesser known players in the field and a few of them performed very well. Of that group, Calixto, Parziale and Zeps were eliminated on the day.

When it comes to the big names, it was more of a “who’s who” of the young superstars in the game. You had Isaac Haxton, Sam Trickett, Tom Marchese, David “Doc” Sands, Phil Galfond, Dan Smith and Jason Mercier all playing while Erik Seidel, John Juanda and Daniel Negreanu represented the “old guard” in the field.

Also playing in the event was former WPT champion Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, but he was eliminated by Trickett during Level 8. With the blinds at 2,500/5,000/500, the WPT Live Updates Team reported that Mercier had opened with a raise to 12,000 from under the gun before Grospellier reraised all in from the button for 120,500. In the big blind, Trickett made the call and then Mercier folded. Grospellier tabled the for two overs against the held by Trickett. A clean and simple ran out and Grospellier was eliminated.

Bonomo wasn’t doing so hot for the majority of the day, but a late surge was what earned him the chip lead. In the last level of play, Bonomo doubled through Seidel with the versus Seidel’s . All of the money went in preflop and Bonomo was fortunate to have the flop come down with three hearts to make him a flush.

We mentioned there were seven re-entries into the event and Negreanu accounted for two of those. That’s right, he fired two $100,000 bullets into this thing, but opted to not fire a third and enjoy some time off before the World Series of Poker. Cary Katz, Andrew Robl, Galen Hall, Marchese and Mercier were the other players to fire in a second bullet.

Super High Roller Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

During Day 1 of the event, the players unanimously voted to allow registration to stay open 15 minutes into Day 2. This should draw in a few more late entries into the event. It will also allow those that busted on Day 1 a night to think things over and put together another $100,000 to re-enter. Day 2 is scheduled to kick off at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) on Thursday. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!

*Photo courtesy of BJ Nemeth at WorldPokerTour.com

Follow Donnie Peters on

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!