Running Jacks Help Anthony Zinno Take Down CPPT Venetian for $466,670
One of the last major poker tournaments of the summer – the $5,000 CPPT Main Event at The Venetian – wrapped up on Thursday with 36-year-old Anthony Zinno topping a field of 547 entries to win $466,670 after striking a heads-up deal with Ben Jones.
“I’ve been looking for a good excuse to take a break,” Zinno said after the win “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.”
The win marked the fifth largest of Zinno’s career, which now includes more than $8 million in tournament earnings. In 2015, Zinno had two seven-figure scores, the first being $1,015,860 for winning the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic. That summer, he also won the 2015 WSOP Event #60: $25,000 PLO High Roller for a career-high $1,122,196.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
The five-day tournament, which featured a pair of starting flights, was chock full of recognizable names at the final table. Among them was 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event champ and 888poker Ambassador Martin Jacobson, who was the first final table casualty. He fell after getting it in with ace-eight only to run into Stephen Chidwick’s Big Slick.
Not long after, Dan Shak open-jammed his shot stack with ace-five and ran into Zinno’s ace-king. The kicker made all the difference and Shak was eliminated in eighth place for $60,717. Anton Wigg would follow him out the door after running jacks into Chidwick’s queens, and then Xu Ming Qi took his leave when his ace-deuce failed to overcome Zinno’s ace-ten suited.
Zinno: "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.”
2013 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jay Farber hit the rail in fifth place after running two pair into the runner-runner diamond flush of Bryan Piccioli, and Chidwick was next to go after losing a flip with ace-king against the pocket nines of Jones. It was the 18th final table for Chidwick in 2018.
After Piccioli bowed out in third place – the result of ace-eight losing to Jones’ nines – the heads-up match was set. Jones began with 7.84 million and was slightly ahead of Zinno, who sat with 5.845 million. The two struck an ICM deal and left $100,001 and the title on the table to play for.
In the final hand of the tournament, Jones four-bet all in holding ace-king and Zinno, who at this point had taken over the chip lead, called with the inferior ace-jack. A king-high flop gave Jones a hammerlock on the hand, but amazingly running jacks hit the turn and river to give Zinno the runner-runner win.
“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 told tournament officials after the win. “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.”
He continued: “My first pretty big score came in this tournament in 2013. 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.”
Others to earn a piece of the CPPT Venetian’s $2,529,875 prize pool were Tom Marchese (10th - $37,948), Men “The Master” Nguyen (11th - $37,948), Sorel Mizzi (15th - $30,359), Dutch Boyd (30th - $12,143) and Chris Tryba (40th - $10,878).
