Zinno Surges Late as 13 Bag in $10,000 Dealer's Choice
In a field of some of the toughest mixed-game players out there, a player known mostly for his no-limit prowess has emerged as chip leader with 13 players remaining.
Anthony Zinno sits atop the counts as the event calendar closes up on Day 2 and prepares to turn the page to Day 3 of the $10,000 Dealer's Choice at the World Series of Poker. Zinno has shown his ability in other disciplines before, most notably winning the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller in 2015 for over $1.1 million — his only bracelet to date.
Zinno finished with 922,000 to wrap things up with a surprisingly large lead considering how most of Friday's play shook out.
Most of the way through, it looked like Adam Friedman or Chris Klodnicki would bag in first place. The two bracelet winners exchanged leads around the 750,000 mark late in the day, with the pace of bustouts slowing to a crawl. While both players bagged solid stacks — 735,500 for Friedman and 560,000 for Klodnicki — Zinno snuck by them late. Alexey Makarov (709,500) was the other player pushing for the lead in the latter stages.
After a fairly quick run of early eliminations and the expected wall approaching the bubble, just four players hit the rail in the money in the final four hours or so — Timothy Batow, Lawrence Berg, Mikko Hirvonen and start-of-day leader Bryce Yockey. Selection of big-bet games like Pot-Limit 2-7 Triple Draw appeared to largely give way to games like Badeucey and Limit Omaha Hi-Lo.
The tournament felt like a slog late due in part to the slowed pace and in part because of another episode of broken air conditioning that made it seem as if play took place in a sauna.
Those who have fought through to Day 3 will be rewarded with a tough field featuring six bracelet winners in the final 13. They'll resume play at 2 p.m. with limits of 12,000/24,000 in limit games and blinds of 3,000/6,000 in big-bet games. Come back to PokerNews to see who will claim the first-place prize of nearly $300,000 in prize money and WSOP gold.
Day 3 Seating
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon 800 | 1 | -- empty -- | -- | -- |
| Amazon 800 | 2 | -- empty -- | -- | -- |
| Amazon 800 | 3 | Marco Johnson | United States | 450,000 |
| Amazon 800 | 4 | Ryan Miller | United States | 126,500 |
| Amazon 800 | 5 | Anthony Zinno | United States | 922,000 |
| Amazon 800 | 6 | Nikolai Yakovenko | Russia | 315,000 |
| Amazon 801 | 1 | Chris Klodnicki | United States | 560,000 |
| Amazon 801 | 2 | -- empty -- | -- | -- |
| Amazon 801 | 3 | -- empty -- | -- | -- |
| Amazon 801 | 4 | Adam Friedman | United States | 735,500 |
| Amazon 801 | 5 | Stuart Rutter | United Kingdom | 191,000 |
| Amazon 801 | 6 | Alexey Makarov | Russia | 709,500 |
| Amazon 802 | 1 | Jesse Martin | United States | 370,000 |
| Amazon 802 | 2 | Joey Couden | United States | 536,000 |
| Amazon 802 | 3 | David Baker | United States | 498,000 |
| Amazon 802 | 4 | Dylan Linde | United States | 181,000 |
| Amazon 802 | 5 | -- empty -- | -- | -- |
| Amazon 802 | 6 | Aditya Prasetyo | United States | 56,000 |