The final table of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event was set yesterday evening as just six players remain from the original 419. Anthony Zinno is the chip leader with 4.73 million chips, a solid 2 million ahead of his closest competitor, Corey Hochman. After Hochman, it is another million down to the next two players, so it should be interesting to see how this plays out with such a spread in chip counts.
Zinno is seeking his second title on the World Poker Tour, previously winning the 2013 Borgata Poker Open Main Event for over $825,000. He has seven other cashes on the Tour, all coming within the last couple years. Overall, according to TheHendonMob.com, Zinno has won over $1.5 million in live tournaments and currently sits in 77th place on the Global Poker Index.
Zinno and the other five players are all gunning for the $380,021 first prize, plus the $15,000 in the WPT Championship at the end of the season. Everybody still in the tournament today is guaranteed at least $76,194, even if they bomb out on the first hand.
It was a relatively easy day for Anthony Zinno, as far as any day in a major poker tournament could be considered easy, as he rarely stumbled on his way to the chip lead. He didn’t really make his huge leap and create that sizable chip gap, though, until the end of the night (seems like that’s always the case), when he knocked out Henry Tran in eight place. As WPT.com reports, Tran raised to 100,000 pre-flop and Zinno called from the small blind. On the flop of K-Q-2, Zinno bet 100,000, Tran raised to 285,000, Zinno three-bet to 600,000, and – you might be able to guess where this is going – Tran four-bet all-in. Zinno made the call with pocket Deuces, good for bottom set, while Tran had J-T, hoping he could catch something to turn his open-ended straight draw into an actual made hand. That didn’t happen and Zinno saw his chip stack elevate to 4.825 million chips.
The Fallsview Poker Classic has been around for several years, but it was not until last year that it became part of the World Poker Tour. It originally started in 2010 as part of the Canadian Poker Tour, which as of 2014 was still a thing, but then went independent before joining the WPT last season. It seems to be a relatively ignored Tour stop, possibly because of its newness and possibly because other venues are simply more established and recognizable. It has gotten plenty of attention in the past week, though not the kind it wants, because of the ticket scalping debacle that plagued its first event.
The final table for the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic will begin at 4:00pm ET at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
2015 World Poker Tour Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Anthony Zinno – 4,730,000
2. Corey Hochman – 2,795,000
3. David Cloutier – 1,655,000
4. Mark Bailey – 1,635,000
5. Jeremy Halaska – 1,170,000
6. Erik Cajelais – 620,000
