Anthony Zinno, who recorded his 37th World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Tour cash at Choctaw on Sunday, is unquestionably one of the top players in the game today. His poker tournament resume is comparable to some of the best, but does he get the recognition he deserves?
Who better to ask that question to than the poker player himself? And that’s exactly what we did on dinner break of Day 2 at WPT Choctaw where Zinno was sitting on 14 big blinds two spots away from the money with 79 players remaining in the $3,800 buy-in tournament.
“No, I wouldn’t, I get a lot of good recognition, people will say, ‘hey, I saw you on TV,'” the always humble Zinno told PokerNews. “My first WPT wins, I definitely felt a little underappreciated, but once I got some (World Series of Poker) bracelet wins in the mix events, I started to get some more respect in the pro community.”
Anthony Zinno’s Poker Resume
Zinno, 41, became eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame in 2022. Only one member is inducted each year and common names that have popped up as potential candidates over the past couple of years include WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, Brian Rast, Mike Matusow, and a few others — all deserving candidates.
But there’s another individual who is also building a worthy resume for induction one day, and that is Zinno. What exactly has he accomplished in this game? Three WPT titles and four WSOP bracelets. The list of players who’ve reached both milestones begins and ends with Zinno, who has over $11 million in live tournament cashes, according to Hendon Mob.
The Northeasterner who now resides in Las Vegas ranks second all-time in WPT titles (3) and WPT Main Tour cashes (37), both trailing Darren Elias, who is widely considered the greatest player in World Poker Tour history with four wins, 46 cashes, and a third record — 13 final table appearances. Zinno is hoping to reach his eighth WPT final table, which would put him in a tie for third place with Scotty Nguyen.
Like Nguyen, the 1998 world champion, he’s had great success in the two most prestigious poker series/tours — WSOP and WPT. On top of the four bracelets, he’s cashed 103 times overall in bracelet events and has 34 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) cashes to boot. PokerNews asked the poker star to compare the difficulty in similar events between the WPT and WSOP.
“That a good question,” Zinno paused for a brief thought before answering. “But overall, to compare a World Series at the same buy-in to the WPT, it’s about the same. That’s the cool thing. The structure of the WPT tends to be slightly better. Okay, now what that means is as you get deeper in the tournament, it becomes a tougher tournament because if it’s a good structure you’re going to see the cream rise, more pros with chips.”
“In a World Series event, the average stack (late in the tournament) is going to be something like 30 bigs, so you’re not going to see too much intricate play with those stack depths. Whereas in the WPT, if the average stack is 60 big blinds, there can be some fun and creativity.”
Anthony Zinno Wins 4th WSOP Bracelet
Poker Hall of Fame Induction Coming Soon?
Zinno doesn’t appear to expect Poker Hall of Fame induction in 2023. Savage, Rast, and others will be the likely names who surface at the top of most ballots this coming summer. But he did acknowledge that it would do wonders for his poker career.
“Yeah, it would be cool,” Zinno said of one day reaching the Poker Hall of Fame. “I’ve been grinding since 2007, so all those early years of grinding, to see it pay off in probably the most tremendous way, that is the ultimate accolade. You can win the (WSOP) Main Event, you can win the (WSOP Poker Players Championship), you can win eight WPT’s, but it’s not going to compare to being a Hall of Famer because it speaks volumes to a lot, it’s not just skill but it’s also your character.”
Speaking of character, with all the drama and bickering that has gone on in the poker community over the past month, one player you’ve likely never heard a bad word about is Zinno, who most poker players would argue he belongs in the Poker Hall of Good People. If he were to add another WPT title or two or win WSOP Player of the Year one of these years, there’s a high probability he’ll one day also end up in the Poker Hall of Fame.
At just after 6:30 p.m. CT at the Southern Oklahoma casino, the bubble officially burst in the WPT Choctaw, and Zinno was still seated with chips, meaning he secured his 37th WPT Main Tour cash.
*Images courtesy of WPT.