Marchese Stamps out Stein to Win NAPT Venetian

The PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour (NAPT) was officially announced in January at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which became its first stop. And its first tournament on American soil was scheduled for February at the Venetian in Las Vegas as part of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. When it finally arrived for its first day of play on February 20, organizers couldn’t have been more pleased with the turnout for the $5,000 Main Event.

The poker room at the Venetian was packed with 872 players for the first NAPT stop in America, and that number created a prize pool of $4,017,740. The field was filled with pro players, amateurs, online qualifiers, and even a few celebrities to aim to get through the first day, but after eight levels of action, only 477 survived. Andy Seth was the chip leader with 245,600. Those players all returned on Day 2, but only 149 of them made it through that day, and though Seth was second in chips, Andrew Lichtenberger had taken over the lead with 618,700 chips.

Day 3 found those 149 players fighting to get into the money, but when it got to hand-for-hand play, it was Daniel Schreiber whose queen-high hand couldn’t beat the pocket aces of Kyle Zartman, and Shreiber left in 129th place. The final 128 players were in the money, and action continued until late into the evening, when Vanessa Rousso finally left in 25th place when her couldn’t improve against the pocket sevens of Tom Marchese when the board came . When play concluded the chip leader was Eric Blair with 3.7 million chips.

The fourth day played to the final table with players exiting along the way like Christina Lindley in 24th place, Jason Dewitt in 23rd, Blair Hinkle in 20th, Steve Billirakis in 12th, and Andrew Lichtenberger in tenth. Finally, David Paredes was crippled by Kyle Zartman and chose to put his remaining chips on the line with against the of John Cernuto. Paredes found no outs and left the tournament in ninth place with $44,195.

The final table was then ready as follows:

Seat 1:    Daniel Clemente        1,345,000
Seat 2:    Sam Stein            6,145,000
Seat 3:    Thomas Fuller        4,735,000
Seat 4:    John Cernuto        1,300,000
Seat 5:    Yunus Jamal        3,940,000
Seat 6:    David Paredes        4,700,000
Seat 7:    Tom Marchese        2,370,000
Seat 8:    Eric Blair            1,690,000

Action began rather slowly on February 24 but Eric Blair soon put himself and his last 1.4 million chips at risk with pocket sevens. Stein called with , and that hand immediately improved on the board. Blair left in eighth place with $60,266.

The most experienced player at the table, “Miami” John Cernuto, didn’t have much of a stack to work with and finally risked it with . Stein was there again, this time with . The flop of gave Cernuto the pair of aces, but the turn and river gave Stein two pair and the win. Cernuto was gone in seventh place with $104,461.

After a while of much slower action, Thomas Fuller pushed all-in with pocket jacks, but Clemente was there with pocket queens with which to make the call. The board came , and Fuller was sent away in sixth place with $144,639.

David Paredes was working a fairly short stack and was able to double through Jamal to stay alive. But he moved again soon after with pocket aces. Stein turned over pocket jacks but picked up another one on the flop. The turn and river made Stein a full house, while Paredes had to settle for a fifth place finish and the $184,816 that went with it.

Yunus Jamal was in need of chips and doubled through Stein to stay in the game, but he soon did it again with pocket tens against the of Marchese. The board came , and Marchese made his pair of aces to take the pot. Jamal was eliminated in fourth place with $241,064.

Daniel Clemente had some success with a double-up through Stein, but Marchese took some chips from him and he was looking to make a move. Clemente got it all in with against the pocket queens of Marchese, but those queens held up on the board. Clemente was relegated to third place, which came with $309,366 in prize money.

The last two players began their heads-up match with the following chip counts:

Sam Stein        16,380,000
Tom Marchese      9,460,000

The heads-up match didn’t take long. Stein took the lead initially, but he lost a key hand to Marchese that allowed the latter to double-up with on a board against the of Stein. That soon led to another hand that started with a flop. Betting led to the on the turn, at which point 1.825 million went into the pot from both players. The on the river prompted a check from Stein, all-in move from Marchese, and call from Stein with only . Marchese showed pocket tens for the set and the ousting of Sam Stein in second place with $522,306.

Tom Marchese became the 2010 NAPT Venetian champion and took home $827,648 for the win.