Anthony Zinno Takes Down $5,000 CPPT Venetian Main Event For $466,670

Besting a field of 547 entries, Anthony Zinno (cover image) won the $5,000 CPPT Main Event at The Venetian and netted the first-place purse worth $466,670 apart from posting his career’s fifth biggest cash. Zinno now has more than $8 Million in tournament earnings.

“I’ve been looking for a good excuse to take a break. I’ve been grinding, almost nonstop, for the past few months. I had just one night off the entire WSOP. I was on a mission to get another win,” Zinno said after the win, adding, “So, this feels like a good opportunity to take a nice, long vacation. I pulled out a win, and now I can reward myself and focus on things I’ve been neglecting while I’ve been concentrating on poker.”

Zinno’s first seven-figure triumph came in 2015 when he won the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic. The same year he also won Event #60: $25,000 PLO High Roller at the 2015 WSOP for $1,122,196.

The five-day long tournament saw players entering through two starting flights; building up a prize pool of $2,529,875 and was chock-a-bloc with big names. Sailing through the final table, Zinno reached the heads-up where he confronted Ben Jones. The duo eventually struck a deal, with Zinno eventually claiming the title.

Other notables who managed to make it in the money included Tom Marchese (10^th for $37,948), Men “The Master” Nguyen (11^th for $37,948), Sorel Mizzi (15^th for $30,359), Dutch Boyd (30^th for $12,143) and Chris Tryba (40^th for $10,878).

Final Table Recap

2014 WSOP Main Event champion and 888poker ambassador Martin Jacobson was the first casualty at the final table after he jammed with ace-eight only to run into Stephen Chidwick’s big slick, and he bounced out in ninth place.

Soon thereafter, short-stacked Dan Shak open-jammed with ace-five but he was eliminated by Zinno’s ace-king in eighth place.

He was followed by Anton Wigg who ran his jacks into Chidwick’s queens.

Next up, Xu Ming Qi left in sixth place when his ace-deuce were busted by Zinno’s ace-ten suited.

2013 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jay Farber was the next player to leave the final table and he busted in fifth place after running two pair into Brian Piccioli’s runner-runner diamond flush.

Stephen Chidwick, who was on his 18^th final table this year, then lost a flip with ace-king against the pocket nines of Jones and left in fourth place.

Brian Piccioli bowed out in third place when his ace-eight lost to Jone’s nines. Following his elimination, the heads-up match began with Jones holding 7.84 Million in chips, ahead of Zinno`s 5.845 Million stack. The duo struck an ICM deal leaving $100,001, along with the title in play.

The final hand of the tournament came when Ben Jones 4-bet all in holding ace-king on which Zinno called with ace-jack. Till then Jones was leading and he also got a hammerlock on the hand on a king-high flop. But the tables turned and Zinno won the hand when running jacks hit the turn and the river, giving Zinno the title while Jones had to settle for the runner-up finish.

“He hit the king on the flop, and once I saw that I actually started mentally counting out his stack to see how much I was going to have to pay him,” Zinno said, on his heads-up with Jones.

“I was completely ready to pay. The jack hit the turn and I just kind of shrugged it off, but all of my friends on the rail started calling for another jack and it just hit. I haven’t felt genuine shock like that in a long time,” an ecstatic Zinno added, on his victory.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Anthony Zinno – $466,670

2. Ben Jones – $390,956

3. Bryan Piccioli – $237,808

4. Stephen Chidwick – $177,091

5. Jay Farber – $134,083

6. Xu Ming Qi – $101,195

7. Anton Wigg – $78,426

8. Dan Shak – $60,717

9. Martin Jacobson – $48,068

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