It’s not often players square up against Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond in No Limit Hold’em and come out on top. But Tom ‘Kingofcards’ Marchese took on the humbe pro, who was excluded from the durrrr challenge because of his multi-tabling prowess, at the 6-max and heads up tables on Full Tilt Poker.
Marchese has quite a Dwan-esque background, having ground his way up from $0.50/$1 Limit games on PokerStars to $30/$60. He then went on a mega heater in 2007 as he took a shot at NLH, spinning his bankroll from $7k to $200k.
The duel produced one pot of particular interest, in which Galfond produced a Dwan-style all-in bluff on the turn which backfired horribly. Holding 10
6, Galfond called a Marchese (K
K
) $6k 3-bet pre-flop. On a 9 A 4 flop, Galfond re-raised Marchese’s $8k continuation bet, making it $24k. Kingofcards called, and the turn brought the 8. Now holding a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw, Galfond pushed Marchese all in for $63k. Sensing desperation and that his opponent was on a monster draw, he called, despite the ace high board. The river was the J and the $188k pot was handed to Marchese.
Despite his dominance over Galfond, Marchese dropped the biggest pot of the night, worth $275k, to cool Finn Patrik Antonius. All the money went in pre-flop, with Antonius holding Q Q and Marchese K
A. The 2 4 7 3 board gave Kingofcards several outs – he could win with a 5, ace or king, but the 7 bricked on river to give Antonius the pot.