Tom Markeze's Remarkable Year: From Online Slump to Offline Success

Tom Markeze, known as kingsofcards, experienced a significant downswing in late 2009, losing several hundred thousand dollars. Before the downswing, kingsofcards had won nearly a million dollars on PokerStars. This downswing led Markeze to shift his focus from online to offline poker tournaments, marking the beginning of an impressive year.

Markeze's first notable offline tournament result was a third-place finish at the Borgata Winter Open in February 2010, earning $190,027. In March 2010, Markeze won the main event of the PokerStars NAPT series, taking home $827,648. His success continued with a fourth-place finish in the EPT high roller event in Monte-Carlo in May 2010, earning $350,125. At the World Series of Poker, Markeze made it to the final table of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship, finishing in sixth place and earning $123,264. In October 2010, Markeze finished seventh at the EPT London, earning $157,159. His total earnings for 2010 amounted to $1.8 million.

Markeze's transition to offline tournaments was not without its challenges. The WPT Foxwoods tournament started with a controversy over the use of phones at the tables. Players like Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan 'FatalError' Aguiar expressed their frustration on Twitter about the new phone rule. The tournament had 353 players, a 31% decrease from the previous year. The first-place prize was $548,000, the smallest in WPT history for that year. Late registrants received 'short stacks' of 25,000 chips, equivalent to 63 big blinds by the end of the level. On the third day, 69 players remained, including Tom Markeze with 123,600 chips. A controversy arose when Howard Lederer misinterpreted a re-raise due to similar-colored chips, leading to a heated discussion with the tournament director. Lederer was forced to fold his hand and lost his chips due to the confusion. He was later reinstated to the tournament after a player dropped out. Christian Harder expressed his frustration on Twitter after being eliminated from the tournament. Chris 'Big Huni' Hunichen led the remaining 28 players with 714,000 chips, followed by Nikolai Yakovenko with 580,000 chips.