Anthony Zinno takes down CPPT Venetian for $466,670

A miraculous runout helped Zinno beating Ben Jones heads-up.

“I’ve been looking for a good excuse to take a break,”

The $5,000 CPPT Main Event at The Venetian generated a total of 547 entries, creating a prize pool of $2,529,875.

The five-day long tournament with two starting flights attracted many well-known players. Naturally, the final table of 9 was also made up of the biggest names in poker, all looking to end the summer grind in Vegas with a six-figure score.

Former WSOP Main Event winner and high-roller regular from Sweden, Martin Jacobson couldn’t manage to achieve this goal, as he finished 9th for $48,068 after his Ace-Jack ran into the Ace-King of Stephen Chidwick‘s.


Billionaire commodity trader turned poker pro, Dan Shak got 8th for $60,717, while WSOP circuit ring winner, Anton Wigg received $78,426 for his 7th-place finish.

Xuming Qi of China hit his third biggest score ever in form of a $101,195 payday with his 6th place, increasing his total live earnings to $790,965.

The runner-up of the 2013 WSOP Main Event, Jay Farber might’ve seen better days at the table, but he’s certainly not unhappy with his performance, as he got 5th, worth $134,083.

2018 US Poker Open

Steph Chidwick was next to go, when he lost a flip, holding Ace-King against the pocket nines of Ben Jones. The 18th final-table appearance in 2018 added another $177,091 to the total earnings, which now stands at $17,537,168.

Stephen was followed by Bryan Piccioli on his way out, when the latter fell victim of Jones’ in an Ace-eight vs nines confrontation. Bryan received a paycheck of $237,808.

Ben started the heads-up with 7.84 million in chis, while Anthony had 5.845. At this point the two agreed on an ICM deal and left $100,001 and the title to play for.

Zinno was able to take over the lead and he got a lot of help from the deck in the final hand. The hand saw Jones opening with Ace-king and 4-bet shoving to the 3-bet of Zinno’s who held Ace-jack.

Action at the final table

A king-high flop seemed to end close the hand quickly, however, Anthony managed to spike running Jacks for trips and took down the whole thing!

“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 after the tournament was over. “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.”

“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.”

Final 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

 

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