The World Poker Tour Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event took place from February 13 to February 16. The event attracted a total of 419 players, but it was Anthony Zinno who emerged victorious to win the first-place prize as well as a seat into the World Championship, which will be held at The Borgata at the end of the season.
Due to his victory, Zinno managed to get ahead of Darren Elias in the the Season XIII WPT Player of the Year race. Zinno now has a total of 1,587.62 points, while Elias is close behind him with 1,473.44 points.
Six players sat at at the final table and it was the soon-to-be champion who held the majority of chips (4,730,000).
As it was reported, the first player got eliminated on the first hand of the play. Erik Cajelais was the unfortunate one to go, after he was defeated by Corey Hochman.
On the very next hand, Jeremy Halaska also busted out after he could not hold up against Zinno. The Ohio-based player received the amount of CAD95,100 for his fifth place.
It was just a little bit later when David Cloutier faced Hochman but could not manage to defeat him, so he needed to content himself with the fourth place and the amount of CAD126,674. It is interesting to note that Cloutier finished third at the 2007 North American Poker Championship, which was held at the Fallsview Casino Resort, too.
On Hand #46, Hochman managed to pass Zinno as a chip leader. On Hand #69, however, the soon-to-be-champion eliminated his opponent, sending him to third place. Hochman was awarded the amount of CAD171,294 for entering the final three.
Thus, it became clear that Zinno will have to face Mark Bailey so as for the big champion to be determined. The heads-up play began with Zinno holding a total of 9,120,000 in chips and his opponent had only 3,485,000. Thirty hands later, the chip lead was increased to 6.5-1 to Zinno’s advantage.
The heads-up play took 75 hands before the name of the winner was announced. Zinno had [Kh][Kc] and Bailey held [Ac][Jc] on what turned out to be the last hand. With the board showing [8h][4c][2c][4d][7s], it became clear that it was Zinno who was to be crowned the champion of the tournament.
Bailey received CAD266,394 for his second place. As for the winner, he was awarded the first-place prize of CAD399,579, a seat into the WPT World Championship, which is scheduled to take place in April, a special trophy, a Hublot King Power Unico watch, and gold Monster 24K Headphones .
Zinno is now one of the few poker pros who have managed to win a WPT event not just once but twice. Back in 2013, he finished first at the WPT Borgata Poker Open.
