Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't: ARIA HRS Recap

Facts and figures. They make the world go around and, more often than not, tell a story without letting opinions or biases get in the way. Which numbers from this weekend’s ARIA High Roller Series events tell those stories and what quick opinions do we have?

$1,265,000 – The ARIA High Roller Series debuted on PokerGO this past weekend, with two final table streams bringing Las Vegas’ biggest tournaments to the masses. Across the three-event weekend series, nearly $1.3 million was up for grabs, and both final table broadcasts featured some of the world’s most successful High Rollers. Tom Marchese claimed the $10K title on Friday and Scott Seiver went wire-to-wire to win the first $25K event.

9 – Marchese’s ARIA High Roller Series $10K victory moved him to the top of the ARIA Poker mountain. Going into the weekend, Marchese was tied with Cary Katz for the most all-time ARIA High Roller titles, with each boasting eight victories on their lengthy tournament resumes, but Marchese broke that tie with a 9^th trip to the ARIA winner’s circle on Friday.

32 – While Marchese jumped Katz on the all-time wins list, no one is going to be jumping Katz on the all-time cashes list anytime soon. With a cash in the opening $25K event of the weekend, Katz notched a 32^nd career ARIA High Roller cash. His nearest competitor, Tom Marchese, now has 24 career ARIA High Roller cashes, meaning “Big Cheese” has some work to do if he wants multiple ARIA all-time records.  

$256,000 – The second $25K event of the weekend was not televised on PokerGO and instead played out with the traditional one-day structure known to ARIA High Roller events. 19 players built up a $475,000 prize pool and California’s Barry Woods, who played in the opening $10K event of the weekend, took home the lion’s share of the prize pool with his first ARIA poker victory.

1 – Lena Evans was another Californian that competed in the opening ARIA High Roller Series $10K. While she couldn’t manage a cash, the San Diego philanthropist was the only female player to compete in any of the weekend’s events. Not to miss out on a tournament on her home turf, Evans flew back home and recorded a cash in the WPTDeepStacks San Diego Main Event, the same tournament she finished 2^nd in last year.