Tom Marchese takes down partypoker MILLIONS Vegas

The 31-year-old US pro beat Jeremy Ausmus heads-up to take home $1,000,000.

Tom Marchese has become the champion of the first-ever partypoker LIVE MILLIONS event held in the United States after he took down the MILLIONS Vegas $10,300 Main Event at the Aria Resort and Casino.

The four-day tournament attracted the top of the tournament poker world, and many of the toughest players managed to hang in for quite a bit, as Marchese said: "When it was down to like the final three or four tables, it's crazy how many good players were left. It had the feeling [it was] more like a High Roller field."

The event generated 536 entries, who created a prize pool of $5,360,000 with a cool million for the winner. The top 79 places were paid and the field reached the money on the third day. Household names with the likes of official nit, Maria Ho, 'homeless millionaire' Faraz Jaka, the most winningest online tournament player Peter 'Belabacsi' Traply, or former WSOP Main Event champ, Joe Cada made the min-cash of $20,000, while German high-roller regulars Koray Aldemir ran even deeper cashing for $25,000.

Fellow high-roller specialists, Manig Löser, Mustapha Kanit, and Tony Miles all left on the $35,000 payout level. The final table of nine was also made of long-time pros.

Chris Moneymaker was the first one to bust from the FT, he picked up $80,000 for his performance. He was followed by two Germans, Tobias Duthweiler and Rainer Kempe, who earned $100,000 and $130,000 respectively. UK's Conor Beresford busted in 6th place good for $170,000, while Spaniard Sergio Aido earned $230,000 for finishing 5th.

The seasoned pro, Freddy Deeb managed to cash for the first time since 2013, in a $10K+ buy-in event. The Lebanese player made a nice score of $319,200 for finishing 4th.

Heads-up at the Aria

Spain's Ana Marquez booked her biggest-ever win in form of a $445,000 payday for her 3rd place. Ana shoved her remaining stack with K2 and got called by Jeremy Ausmus who had A9. The best hand managed to hold and so the heads-up play began.

Marchese started the duel with a 3-1 lead and managed to further the distance pot after pot. Despite a successful double up with queens against ace-five, Jeremy finally busted holding king-ten against the ace-jack of Marchese's. The ace-high board did not help Ausmus, meaning Tom Marchese has been crowned as the first ever champion of the event.

Final results