Anthony Zinno Wins Card Player Poker Tour Venetian Main Event

Anthony Zinno, the 2015 Card Player Player of the Year, has won the $5,000 CPPT Venetian main event, earning $466,670. He defeated a field of 547 players to bank the fifth-largest score of his career and bring his total live tournament winnings to more than $8 million.

Zinno had a number of close calls this summer. The 36-year-old cashed 11 times and made three final tables at the WSOP, finishing third in both the $565 pot-limit Omaha online event and in the $10,000 limit hold’em championship.

“I’ve been looking for a good excuse to take a break,” Zinno said after the victory. “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. 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 win came five years after final tabling this exact event, which gave him the bankroll he needed to start traveling the circuit. He has since gone on to win three World Poker Tour titles and a WSOP bracelet in the 2015 $25,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller event.

“My first pretty big score came in this tournament in 2013,” he recalled. “I didn’t have a large enough bankroll to put up $5,000 myself back then, so my buddy was nice enough to go halves with me. I ended up getting fourth place ($86,964), which basically started my live career. Shortly after that, I won the WPT at Borgata.”

To secure the title, Zinno had to overcome a stacked final table that included notables such as 2014 WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobson, high-roller regular Dan Shak, EPT champion Anton Wigg, WSOP main event final tablists Jay Farber and Bryan Piccioli, and high-stakes superstar Stephen Chidwick.

Chidwick, who entered the tournament after busting from the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop, finished fourth for $177,091. The 29-year-old has now made an astounding 18 final tables in 2018, winning four titles and more than $7.3 million. As a result of this finish, Chidwick has now surpassed Justin Bonomo for the lead in the Card Player Player of the Year race, even considering Bonomo’s recent win.

Ben Jones, a poker pro from Manchester, England, finished runner-up. Jones was gunning for his second win of the Venetian summer series, having previously taken down the $1,600 six-max no-limit hold’em event for $193,468. Jones was actually in position to double up and take the chip lead during heads-up play before a fortunate run out gave Zinno the title.

Jones raised the button, and Zinno three-bet from the big blind. Jones then announced all-in, and Zinno quickly called, tabling AJ. Jones, however, had him dominated with AK.

The flop of K66 pretty much locked up the double for Jones, until the J on the turn produced a bit of drama. Zinno’s rail exploded, however, when the J hit the river to give him trips and the final pot of the tournament. Jones, who had previously made a deal with Zinno during heads-up play, pocketed $390,956 for his deep run.

“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 explained. “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.”

Other notables who finished in the money included Maria Lampropulos (61st), Matt Stout (48th), Andrew Brown (47th), Eddy Sabat (45th), Steven Van Zadelhoff (43rd), Eric Vallee (41st), Chris Tryba (40th), Cord Garcia (39th), Javier Gomez (33rd), Dutch Boyd (30th), Barry Hutter (29th), Michael Addamo (25th), Guoliang Wei (21st), Anthony Spinella (19th), Michael Tureniec (18th), James Romero (17th), Sorel Mizzi (15th), Men Nguyen (11th), and Tom Marchese (10th).

Here is a look at the final table results.