Seat 3: Anthony Maio
![[user253757]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Three years ago this month, Anthony Maio sat down for a $200 No-Limit Hold'em tournament here at the Borgata, playing in a side event at the Winter Poker Open. Maio cashed in that tournament, taking home $597 for a 58th place finish, and from there he never looked back.
Maio amassed nine cashes during the next nine months - each of them coming here at the Borgata - and soon enough he was playing in the $1,000+ big buy-in events against the game's best players, improving his skills the only way he knows how: grinding and then grinding some more.
Maio readily admits live poker is not his specialty, as he prefers the online arena which has been so profitable for him over the years, but after today's appearance at a televised WPT final table he might just reconsider. Maio's come full circle after his humble beginnings in 2011, earning a seat at the most prestigious event of this year's Borgata Winter Poker Open just three years after earning his first live cash under the same roof.
Along the way Maio has expanded his territory just a bit, leaving the friendly confines of the Borgata to hit the World Series of Poker Circuit, and even making a deep run in last year's inaugural "Millionaire Maker" event at the WSOP.
Maio enters today's final table essentially even with chip leader David Paredes, after busting Kunal Patel and his pocket aces to burst the TV table bubble late last night, and his aggressive style is well-suited to big stack bully poker.