Question And Answer With Recent World Poker Tour Winner Anthony ZinnoZinno Discusses Poker Career and Recent Win In Atlantic City |
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Anthony Zinno has had an incredible year on the tournament circuit making five final tables and banking more than 7 figures in earnings. Recently, he won the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City for $825,099 and now sits in 19th place in the Card Player Player of the Year race.
Zinno, originally from Cranston, Rhode Island, now resides in Boston, Massachusetts. In just a few years, he has racked up more than $1.3 million in tournament earnings.
Card Player spoke to Zinno to discuss his poker career and his recent win at Borgata.
Julio Rodriguez: Your original ambition was to become a lawyer. How did you make the transition from law to poker?
Anthony Zinno: After studying chemical engineering, I decided to pursue patent law because I was intrigued by the fact that I could mix my scientific background with legal studies. However, around the time that I was finishing law school, I had played enough poker to realize that it could be very rewarding. I started with play-chips online back in 2004 and loved the fact that it’s a sociable, competitive strategy game. I later knew that the mathematics of professional poker dictated long-term profitability, but didn’t realize how much more that I had to learn in order to achieve consistency. Having tremendous poker talent is only half of the equation. Long-term success requires ambition, resilience, discipline, emotional control, financial stability and patience. Implementing various skill sets that were acquired in college into my poker game was the key factor to my overall improvement. Just like anything else in life, very hard work pays off.
JR: What was it like to make the televised final table at Borgata? Were you excited or nervous to be under the bright lights?
AZ: Making the WPT final table at Borgata, my favorite casino, was a dream. The structure of the event was amazing, and the poker tournament staff always hosts the tournaments perfectly. My goal throughout the event was to keep playing my A-game, but when we got down to the final 6 players, nervousness kicked in. It was really late at night and I had to show up the next morning for camera interviews, which is very fun and exciting but I had to keep my focus on playing well and winning. I tried my best not to allow the lack of sleep, cameras and spotlight affect my play, because I worked really hard to give myself that opportunity. Having a few beers at the final table didn’t hurt. Once Mike “Little Man” Sica came down to support me, even though he’s been battling cancer, I knew I was going to win.
JR: We first met you back in Las Vegas when you final tabled the CPPT Venetian main event. There you got to play with with top pros such as Alex Condon, Dan O’Brien, Jonathan Little and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman. Did that event give you any confidence entering a final table at Borgata that included David Randall, Jeremy Kottler and Vanessa Selbst?
AZ: The CPPT Venetian main event was another tournament that had a great structure and was really well-run. Having made the final table of a tournament that fielded many tough pros definitely boosted my overall confidence in my poker game, but the experience was even more important. Playing many hours at a difficult final table just a couple of months ago greatly increased my comfort levels this time around.
JR: You went heads-up against Selbst, one of the most feared players around. What was your mindset going into that match? What was your game plan to counteract her aggression?
AZ: Vanessa is one of the best tournament players in the world. We had played a good amount of poker together up to this point. I was moved to her table on day 3, and this was now day 5, but we managed to steer clear of each other’s aggression, for the most part. She’s extremely intelligent and it’s fun to watch her mix up her strategy.
I was thrilled at the opportunity to play against her heads-up, because if I was going to win a trophy, I’d prefer the chance at beating one of the best in the game. Also, I’ve played a lot of heads up hold’em, and the majority of my sessions were against quite skilled, aggressive, thinking opponents, so I’m actually more experienced in that setting than if it were some random player. I should note that with 40 big blinds, the game is quite card-dependent, so it could easily have gone either way.
JR: You’ve had a pretty great year on the tournament circuit. What are your plans for the immediate future?
AZ: It sure has been a fortunate year. (Especially since my godson, Pasquale, was born) I’ll be taking a few weeks off to spend time with family, and then hopefully heading to Paris for the next WPT event. I’m quite excited about the future of my poker career. I’ll always love the game and plan to keep up the hard work and long sessions to continue improving my results.
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