Zinno Bags Lead with Six Players Remaining in the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event
Not even four full levels were needed to whittle a field of 14 players down to the last six players of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe €10,350 Main Event at King's Resort. Anthony Zinno from the United States leads the way with 16,845,000 in chips.
Behind Zinno is Alexandros Kolonias, who bagged 12,150,000 in chips after spinning up a short stack on the penultimate day. Dario Sammartino, chip leader at the start of the day, remains in contention as well. The Italian is just the fourth player that made two World Series of Poker Main Event final tables in the same year, after Ivan Demidov, Antoine Saout, and James Akenhead. Sammartino will enter Day 6 with 7,100,000 chips, giving him the fourth-biggest stack among the remaining hopefuls.
The other three players that round the top six are Anh Do (8,725,000), Claas Segebrecht (6,400,000), and Rifat Palevic (2,915,000). Here are how the players are seated when play resumes on Thursday, October 31 at 2 p.m. local time.
2019 WSOPE Main Event - Seat Assignments for the Final Day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rifat Palevic | Sweden | 2,915,000 | 15 |
| 2 | Anh Do | Czech Republic | 8,725,000 | 44 |
| 3 | Claas Segebrecht | Germany | 6,400,000 | 32 |
| 4 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 7,100,000 | 36 |
| 5 | Anthony Zinno | United States | 16,845,000 | 84 |
| 6 | Alexandros Kolonias | Greece | 12,150,000 | 61 |
A Real Blast for Zinno
"My final day was a blast, a real blast", Zinno said after he was done with bagging and tagging his chips. "I started the day feeling optimistic about the outcome, this is how I play every tournament, always focused on winning. I lost a preflop all-in during the final table with ace-jack versus ace-queen, but I tried to remain calm. I realized that I still have a big stack and there is no reason to be disappointed," the bracelet-winner added.
If Zinno wins the Main Event tomorrow, it will be his third WSOP gold bracelet and his third seven-digit score, all of which will correspond to first places. "No matter how big your volume is in the span of two years, the variance is a huge factor and usually you get many top 18 finishes. It is very important to run well in these spots, and this is exactly what happened to me today. I ran pure," Zinno explained.
The most important hand of the day for Zinno was the last one, where he eliminated Julien Martini in seventh place. The Frenchman opened from the hijack with queens, Anh Do called from the cutoff with ten-nine and Zinno picked up aces in the big blind.
“This was a straight cooler, as I was blessed to hold aces. I could have ace-jack and the progress of the hand would have been exactly the same except the result, so then the final table would have been a whole different story. Martini is one of the best tournament players and I can say that this was the perfect spot for me, having pocket aces in a standard squeeze spot against an aggressive player with pocket queens," Zinno said about the cooler. Martini ended up shoving all in for 5.87 million chips and Zinno called to send him to the rail after a clean board for him.
Day 5 Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €1,133,678 | $1,258,383 | ||
| 2 | €700,639 | $777,709 | ||
| 3 | €485,291 | $538,673 | ||
| 4 | €341,702 | $379,289 | ||
| 5 | €244,653 | $271,565 | ||
| 6 | €178,171 | $197,770 | ||
| 7 | Julien Martini | France | €132,017 | $146,539 |
| 8 | Jakob Madsen | Denmark | €99,555 | $110,506 |
| 9 | Marek Blasko | Slovakia | €76,432 | $84,840 |
| 10 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | €76,432 | $84,840 |
| 11 | Jan-Peter Jachtmann | Germany | €59,759 | $66,332 |
| 12 | David "ODB" Baker | United States | €59,759 | $66,332 |
| 13 | Christian Rudolph | Germany | €47,599 | $52,835 |
| 14 | Mykol Kostyrko | Ukraine | €47,599 | $52,835 |
Day 5 Action
Play started for Day 5 of the event with 14 players returning to the tables to battle it out for a seat on the unofficial final table of nine and then in the final six players of the Main Event. At the beginning of the day there were multiple double ups as it looked like the short stacks were always finding a way to stay alive and win the all in clashes.
It took almost an hour for the first elimination to come and it was Mykola Kostyrko who busted in 14th place. After the eliminations of Christian Rudolph, David "ODB" Baker, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, and Daniel Rezaei the unofficial final table of nine was set.
A record nine different nationalities composed the final table of the event, with Alexandros Kolonias holding the chip lead with over eight million chips, but there were three more players who had more than eight million. The players were mostly careful during the final table and it took almost one and a half level for the first elimination.
Marek Blasko saw his king-queen being in the losing end of the hand against Zinno's king-ten, despite hitting a queen on the flop, since two tens in the turn and the river respectively sent him to the rail. Jakob Madsen lost a flip against Kolonias when he was left short to bust in eighth place and sent the remaining players to the final day bubble.
Martini started Day 5 in the best possible way since he doubled up in the very first hand against Baker to take the lead but finished just one place away from the final day of the event. "So close but yet so far," is what he said after busting in his fourth career WSOP final table.
The final day kicks off Thursday at 2:00 pm. and will play down to a winner with 44 minutes remaining in Level 29 with blinds 50,000/100,000 and a big blind ante of 100,000. PokerNews will be here to provide you all the coverage, with the live stream and the updates on a one-hour delay at 3:00 p.m. and concluding when the WSOPE Main Event champion is crowned.