After coming from the bottom of the standings, Anthony Zinno made history on a few fronts with his victory in the World Poker Tour’s L. A. Poker Classic on Thursday night.
At the start of the final table, Zinno was looking way up to the top of the leaderboard. Igor Yaroshevskyy held the chip lead with his 5.315 million stack and he was closely followed by Mike Leah’s 4.715 million chip stack. The rest of the final table – Peter Neff (2.12 million), Peter Tran (1.585 million), Zinno (1.48 million) and Chris Klodnicki (920K) – were going to need some help to reach their goal of the championship.
Tran, who had been one of the most active players throughout the tournament in leading it for two days, was the first casualty of the night. After doubling up through Yaroshevskyy, Tran turned around and handed those newfound chips over to Klodnicki in what was a stunning hand. After a min-raise from Tran, Klodnicki three-bet the action to 400K and Tran, after a period of thought, put out 1.6 million in a four-bet. Thinking it was an all-in, Klodnicki called but, when informed it wasn’t an all-in bet, verbally announced all-in in the dark. An A♦ A♠ K♠ brought a call from Tran with a 10♠ 8♠, but it was summarily crushed by Klodnicki’s A-K off suit that flopped a boat. Needing running cards to bring him a royal flush, Tran instead saw seven on the turn to leave him drawing dead; Tran would be eliminated three hands later by Leah.
Leah continued to march onward after defeating Tran, taking over the chip lead and becoming the first person to crack the 8 million mark in chips (more than half of what the table held). As Leah was making his mark on the top of the ladder, Zinno began his slow grind back into the tournament, doubling through Neff before knocking him out a couple of hands later. By the start of Level 29, Leah sat on 8.38 million chips while his competitors couldn’t even approach that count (Yaroshevskyy 2.95 million, Zinno 2.795 million, Klodnicki 2.005 million).
Leah kept the pressure up on his opponents, taking from them fairly equally in moving over the 10 million chip mark, but the trio of opponents wouldn’t shy away from Leah as the final table moved on. Klodnicki used pocket Kings to double through Leah first, then Zinno picked up a double up through Leah to bring the Canadian back to the pack a bit. On the 100th hand of the final table, Zinno was able to wrest the chip lead away from Leah, but that would be short-lived as, only a few hands later, Leah jumped over him to take it back.
The foursome would play 85 hands of poker before the next departure would be determined. On Hand 142, Leah put out a button raise and Yaroshevskyy moved all in out of the big blind to challenge him. Leah made the call with just a K-8 and Yaroshevskyy looked to be in good shape with his K-Q for the double up. Instead, an eight on the turn gave Leah the lead in the hand and, after a Queen didn’t come on the river, Yaroshevskyy was gone in fourth place.
Zinno, at the bottom of the three remaining players, was going to need to work some magic to climb out of the basement. The first part of the magic came in a double up through Leah to give him some badly needed chips, then another double up against Leah gave him the chip lead. When Zinno was able to knock off Klodnicki in third place when his pocket sixes held against Klodnicki’s K-J, he held 11.23 million chips to go to heads up against Leah’s 4.895 million.
Zinno would never allow Leah back into the tournament. Over 12 hands, Zinno inched his chip stack further upwards and, on the final hand, Leah min-raised to 400K and Zinno three-bet him to 825K. Leah moved all in and Zinno nearly beat him into the pot, turning up pocket Aces against Leah’s A-3 off suit. A 10-5-2 flop brought a bit of a sweat for Zinno and the three on the turn didn’t help much either, but once the board brought a second five, Anthony Zinno was the historic champion of the L. A. Poker Classic.
1. Anthony Zinno, $1,015,860
2. Mike Leah, $701,350
3. Chris Klodnicki, $451,090
4. Igor Yaroshevskyy, $333,680
5. Peter Neff, $250,260
6. Peter Tran, $200,830
With the victory, Zinno etched his name into the WPT record books. He became only the third man, following Marvin Rettenmaier and Darren Elias, to win back-to-back WPT tournaments. With the win, Zinno also captured his third WPT championship (his other titles were the 2013 Borgata Poker Open and this year’s Fallsview Poker Classic), tying him with Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen for most WPT victories. The recent success for Zinno bodes well for the upcoming 2015 WPT World Championship and also for Zinno’s success in other venues over the course of the year.
