Thomas Marchese Named 2010 Poker Player of the Year
Every December, Card Player Magazine takes a little extra time out of their busy schedule to mull over the accomplishments of all poker players over the last 12 months. One of those players – the one who stands out the most – is awarded the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year Award.
This year’s worthy recipient of that coveted award is none other than Thomas “kingsofcards” Marchese.
Back in the beginning of 2010, virtually no one had even heard of Thomas Marchese, nor took any notice of the online moniker “kingsofcards”. But as the year went on, his presence grew stronger and stronger, as you will see as you read on.
It all started at the 2010 Borgata Winter Open as more than 750 poker players forked over $3,300 to enter the No Limit Holdem Championship event. Among them was Thomas Marchese; just another face in a large crowd of hopefuls. After six days of mentally exhausting poker play, Marchese took a 3rd place exit from the final table, followed by Sirous Jamshidi in 2nd and the tournament’s victor, Jeff Madsen. Marchese earned $190,027, but the spotlight eluded him.
The following month, Thomas Marchese showed up at the Venetian to participate in the inaugural NAPT Deep Stack Extravaganza, posting $5k to buy-in. Marchese survived a field of 871 to take the 1st place prize of $827,648. This time, people were starting to notice the young pro.
As the months went on, Marchese saw continued success at events like the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, as well as WPT, EPT and WSOP events. Thomas cashed fourteen more times in 2010, nine of those being final table finishes. For the duration of 2010, Thomas “kingsofcards” Marchese pocketed an amazing $2,114,491.
With so many triumphs on the felt this year, Thomas quickly accumulated 6,738 points on the CardPlayer ‘Player of the Year’ leaderboard; enough to finish more than 1,100 points head of his nearest opponent, Dwyte Pilgrim.
Coming in second, Pilgrim is likely the best poker player you’ve never heard of, reining in twenty cashes, fifteen final tables and seven 1st place finishes totaling $1,181,419 throughout 2010. Rounding out the top 5 contenders for Player of the Year were Sorel Mizzi, Vanessa Selbst and John Rancer, whose name you may remember from the November Nine at the 2010 WSOP final table.
Congratulations to Thomas Marchese, as well as all the runners up in the CardPlayer Player of the Year award. It takes a special kind of poker player, and a special kind of determination, to even be considered for such an award. Well played!