In 2010, Tom Marchese claimed the CardPlayer Player of the Year honors, edging out Dwyte Pilgrim. At the time of writing, Marchese had garnered 6,738 Player of the Year Points and amassed more than $2 million in live tournament earnings during the 2010 calendar year. In 2009, UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin was CardPlayer’s Player of the Year.
Marchese also signed with Poker Icons, a popular management firm. Marchese commented in a press release that he was delighted to be receiving such a distinguished honor: “I’m ecstatic over being CardPlayer’s Player of the Year! It’s something that I have been working so hard for all year. Signing with Poker Icons will really help my poker career and I look forward to working with Poker Icons in the future.”
Lars Kollind, President of Poker Icons, welcomed Marchese to the family: “He is an awesome player and one of the biggest names Poker Icons has signed this year. I believe that Thomas will be one of the truly big superstars of poker for a long while.”
In the November release of the ESPN poker rankings dubbed “The Nuts,” Marchese claimed the sixth spot on the leaderboard, with ESPN’s Andrew Feldman commenting, “A year ago, you couldn’t pay anyone on this panel to pick Tom Marchese out of a crowd. Now, none of us would be able to miss him. He’s had 15 cashes this year for over $2 million in earnings and most likely will become CardPlayer’s Player of the Year.”
Marchese started off 2010 in style, taking third in the Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event for $190,000 in February. Three weeks later, he was crowned the champion of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event for $827,000. The latter aired on ESPN, giving Marchese exposure to a wealth of poker fans around the United States.
In May, Marchese took fourth in the High Roller Event held as part of the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop at Monte Carlo for $350,000. In the famed Monaco casino, Marchese battled against a final table that included Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Allen Bari, former World Poker Tour (WPT) champ Olivier Busquet, and eventual winner Tobias Reinkemeier.
We’re not done there. During the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Marchese final tabled the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em Championship to stash away another $123,000. Four months later, he hopped “The Pond” and finished seventh in the EPT London Main Event for $157,000.
Marchese’s final six-figure score of the year came in another televised tournament, the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals. Marchese finished third, banking $211,000 in an event that saw Mizzi, Jason Mercier, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and eventual champ Jeff Forrest all make the top 15.
Taylor “ambiguosity” Paur leads the way in the 2010 CardPlayer Online Player of the Year race with a week to go in December. Paur is the only player on the leaderboard with over 10,000 Online Player of the Year Points and has earned over $1 million on the virtual felts in 2010. Paur’s largest online cash in 2010 came by virtue of winning a $163 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys event during the 16th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) in June for $192,000.
Here’s how the top 10 players in the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings look at the time of writing:
1. Tom Marchese: 6,738 points, $2,068,658 in earnings
2. Dwyte Pilgrim: 5,576 points, $1,074,997 in earnings
3. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi: 4,851 points, $1,524,371 in earnings
4. Vanessa Selbst: 4,608 points, $2,803,013 in earnings
5. John Racener: 4,493 points, $5,863,856 in earnings
6. Harrison Gimbel: 4,080 points, $2,530,000 in earnings
7. Andy Frankenberger: 4,010 points, $1,173,853 in earnings
8. Jeffrey “jpapola” Papola: 3,870 points, $1,176,919 in earnings
9. John Juanda: 3,717 points, $1,598,858 in earnings
10. Jonathan Duhamel: 3,600 points, $8,944,138 in earnings
Congratulations to Marchese on his 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year honors.
