In an outstanding heads up battle, Anthony Zinno came from the middle of the pack to defeat Vanessa Selbst to take down the championship of the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open on Friday night.
Zinno came to the final table with the audacious task of toppling the two chip leaders, Selbst and overall chip leader Cong Pham, along with three other tough competitors. While Zinno, Selbst and Pham held approximately 25 million of the chips in play, Eric Fields, David Randall and Jeremy Kottler barely could muster 10 million of the remaining counters on the table. With that said, those shorter stacks still made the action in Atlantic City interesting as the final six came to the felt.
Kottler would be a big mover in the first dozen hands, taking a big four million chip pot against Selbst to move into the second place slot on the ladder. Fields tried to do the same thing in his attempt to move up the ladder, but it wouldn’t work out for him. On the 15th hand of the night, Kottler would min-raise off the button and, after a call from Pham, Fields pushed all in out of the big blind. Kottler made the call but, after Pham pushed his stack to the center, Kottler got out of the way. Fields would show pocket Jacks to go to battle against Pham’s A-K and, through a 9-7-5-6 flop and turn, looked to be primed for a double up. An Ace on the river, however, pushed Pham to the advantage and, after knocking Fields out in sixth, Pham was sitting with over 15 million in chips.
Pham would continue his dominance at the final table as the next thirty hands played out, stretching his stack out to 17 million before the next knockout. After Randall made an initial bet to 300K from the small blind, Kottler put out an arguable over-bet in moving all in from the big blind for over five million in chips. Randall made the call, tabling pocket Jacks against Kottler’s A-9, but the flop wouldn’t agree with Randall. An A-K-8 flop put Kottler in the lead and, although a ten would appear on the turn to give Randall more outs to take the hand back, another ten on the river would end Randall’s night in fifth place and push Kottler to around nine million chips.
The final four would fight for another 40 hands, with Selbst gaining some traction to move into the lead, while Kottler and Pham slowly bled chips. That situation would change when, on Hand 82, Pham would double up through Kottler to retake the lead when his Big Slick stayed alive against Kottler’s A-J. Two hands later, Kottler would be knocked out in fourth when Selbst’s A-6 caught against Kottler’s pocket fives to eliminate him.
Down to three-handed, Pham held a slim 600K chip lead over Selbst with Zinno, who had mostly stayed out of the way to this point, looking up at the duo. Zinno, however, would pass them both in a hand that arguably drove him to the championship. After a Zinno raise, Selbst reraised from the small blind only to see Zinno four bet the action. Selbst would move all in and, after some heavy deliberation, Zinno made the call and tabled his pocket Jacks against Selbst’s A-9. The board did not bring any Ace for Selbst and, after the double up, Zinno now held almost 20 million chips to Pham (9.9 million) and Selbst (5.7 million).
On Hand 107, Selbst returned the favor in doubling up through Zinno to retake the lead, but Zinno would come back. He and Pham would get their chips to the center, with Zinno’s A-K holding court over Pham’s A-Q, and a King on the flop virtually sealed the deal. When the river card finally was dealt, Zinno had eliminated Pham in third place to head to heads-up play only about 1.6 million chips behind Selbst.
Selbst was able to get Zinno down to a 10 million chip deficit within fifteen hands of heads up action, but Zinno would fight back. On Hand 134, Zinno would call a Selbst all-in with the edge, his A-10 in the lead against Selbst’s A-8, and that edge would stand up over the A-7-3-2-10 board. With that hand, Zinno moved into the lead over Selbst and, ten hands later, put away the two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner when his A-6 stayed in the lead over Selbst’s K-10 on the final hand.
1. Anthony Zinno, $825,099
2. Vanessa Selbst, $492,569
3. Cong Pham, $301,225
4. Jeremy Kottler, $251,968
5. David Randall, $208,394
6. Eric Fields, $168,610
With the action at the Borgata completed, the WPT will be taking a bit of a break. The next event on the Season XII schedule won’t be until October 25 when the WPT heads to Paris for the WPT Grand Prix de Paris. The next event in the United States on the WPT schedule won’t be until November, when the tour hits Jacksonville, FL, for the bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble.
