Just after the clock struck midnight and it was officially Saturday morning at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino, Anthony Zinno became the 53rd player in poker history to own at least four World Series of Poker bracelets and the 55th to win at least two bracelets in one series.
The poker pro from Rhode Island bested a field of 594 entries to win the $1,500 HORSE. He took home $160,636 for his efforts, which bumps his career tournament earnings to more than $10.6 million. Zinno also added 840 points to his chances at winning the Card Player Player of the Year Race, where he now sits in 65th place.
His HORSE victory comes just four days after he took down the $10,000 seven card stud championship for $182,872. With four WSOP victories and three more World Poker Tour titles, Zinno has already put together one of the most successful careers in tournament poker history.
His three WPT titles came in no-limit hold’em, his first two WSOP bracelets came in pot-limit Omaha and this year, Zinno is proving that he is becoming a force in the mixed game world.
“Until a few years ago, I hadn’t been taking my limit games too seriously,” said Zinno after the victory. “Just the other day, I nailed my first limit bracelet in stud and now to have a second limit bracelet is awesome because I pride myself on my love for all the games.”
Last year, Canadian Alex Stasiak won two bracelets during the WSOP Online series, and both Mark Herm and Martin Zamani won multiple bracelets this year but were part of separate series. Before Zinno, the last player to win at least two bracelets during a single live WSOP was Kahle Burns in the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe. That same year, fellow Australian Robert Campbell won two at the Las Vegas stop.
With more than five weeks left in the series, Zinno has as good a shot as ever join an elite group of poker players who have won three in a series. George Danzer won three bracelets in 2014, but his third came in an 8-game tournament at WSOP Asia Pacific. The last player to win three in the same series was Jeff Lisandro in 2009. Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth and Puggy Pearson are the only others to accomplish the feat.
“I’m just tremendously grateful for the good run,” said Zinno about his monster one-week span with two victories and $343,508 in earnings. “Even if you get quite good, it can be hard to use your skill sets. I’m just grateful for everything to have worked out this way.”
To secure his fourth bracelet, Zinno defeated high-stakes mixed game regular and Card Player contributor Randy Ohel. Ohel fell just shy of his second career bracelet and earned $99,276 for his runner-up finish.
“I had to beat literally one of the best mixed games players on the planet,” said Zinno about battling Ohel. “There’s no ifs ands or buts, Randy is absolutely incredible. I ran very well against him heads-up.”
Four-time WSOP bracelet winner Max Pescatori was the first player to hit the rail at the final table, falling to Kao Saechao in eighth. Pescatori flopped top pair in limit hold’em, but Saechao turned a set of sevens and got the last of Pescatori’s chips in the middle.
Saechao was then a part of a three-way pot in seven card stud that eliminated Curtis Phelps in seventh. Phelps was all in on fourth street with three diamonds and three to a straight against Saechao and Christopher Adams. Adams had a pair of jacks on fourth, while Saechao had an open-ended straight draw with 5-6-7-8.
Adams improved to aces and jacks on fifth and got the last of his chips in on sixth, creating a side pot against Saechao, who hit running kings on fifth and sixth. Phelps also hit runners to make two pair. Nobody improved on seventh to eliminate Phelps in seventh.
Zinno and Ohel came into the final table as the two chip leaders, but mostly stayed out of the way of the big showdowns. Ohel’s stack stayed pretty level while the first two players were eliminated, but Zinno won a lot of non-showdown pots to open up a sizable chip lead by the time six-handed play started.
Ohel closed the gap, however, when he eliminated Paul Holder in sixth. Holder was all in on sixth with split kings, while Ohel turned over nines and threes. Neither player improved on the river and Ohel won the pot to eliminate Holder and close the gap between his and Zinno’s chip counts.
In quick succession, Darren Kennedy was eliminated in fifth and Saechao in fourth to leave Adams, Ohel and Zinno fairly close in chips, with Zinno holding the lead.
Zinno dominated the majority of three-handed play, however, and pulled away after plenty of non-showdown victories. He eventually eliminated Adams in third when he made a pair of queens on fifth and rivered Broadway with Q
J
/K2
QA/10
.
The money got in on the river against Adam’s board of 497J and he tossed his hole cards into the muck after seeing Zinno’s straight.
Zinno started heads-up action with just shy of a 2-to-1 chip lead, but Ohel pulled nearly even after winning a big pot with rolled up queens in seven card stud.
The chips went back to Zinno after he picked off Ohel’s bluff in limit hold’em with top pair. And from there, Zinno ran away with it.
In razz, Ohel was all in on fifth with 6-2/8-2-J against Zinno’s A-4/3-6-10. Ohel had an eight-draw and a jack-low against Zinno’s 10-low and a draw to a six-draw. Neither player improved any further and the 10-low was good enough for Zinno’s fourth WSOP title.
Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Anthony Zinno | $160,636 | 840 |
| 2 | Randy Ohel | $99,276 | 700 |
| 3 | Christopher Adams | 69,585 | 560 |
| 4 | Kao Saecahao | $49,597 | 420 |
| 5 | Darren Kennedy | $35,957 | 350 |
| 6 | Paul Holder | $26,253 | 280 |
| 7 | Curtis Phelps | $19,911 | 210 |
| 8 | Max Pescatori | $15,218 | 140 |
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