You know you’ve probably had a pretty successful day at the poker table when you lose track of which players you busted.
“Who busted [Upeshka De Silva]? I can’t remember,” Anthony Zinno admits. Then there is a moment of realization. “Oh yeah… I did.”
In a day of poker action where Zinno was the only player to bag more than 200,000 in chips, you can’t fault the guy for forgetting some of the details of journey to the top of the Day 1a counts in the Season XV partypoker.net WPT Playground Main Event.
Despite being at a difficult table with the likes of De Silva, Mike Leah, Max Silver, and Sam Chartier, Zinno didn’t just survive, he thrived.
Here are the top five finishers from the end of Day 1a:
1. Anthony Zinno – 209,200 (174 bb)
2. Jake Schwartz – 163,100 (136 bb)
3. Rayan Chamas – 162,100 (135 bb)
4. Ted Doukas – 157,700 (131 bb)
5. Nicolas Le Floch – 156,500 (130 bb)
And Zinno did so after coming back from dinner break with four levels left to play and 40,000 in chips, not much more than he started with.
Busting De Silva after they got at all in preflop for De Silva’s last 20 big blinds with De Silva holding king-queen to Zinno’s ace-king helped, but the real kick start to Zinno’s climb was a pot with Silver where Zinno picked up pocket aces.
Another hand did not get caught by the Live Updates team, but Zinno filled us in on the pivotal pot after play wrapped.
“There was a hand where this guy who was limping frequently, but could be tricky with his limps, limped in and I limped along with 
. It was, like a five-way pot. I flopped a gutter on 10-7-2 with one spade and two hearts.On the flop, the under the gun guy who limped bet 1,000 into 7,000. So I call 1,000 and we all called. Now the pot is decent-sized.”
Action started to get a little more interesting on the turn. It brought the 
“I turn the nuts with the spade redraw. It checks to me now. I bet 3,200 and the guy to my left shoves for 22,000. He actually has a set of deuces. The guy was being tricky with his deuces…which, I don’t hate it with his stack size. It was just the worst card in the deck for him on the turn. I stacked him. I held. I had to hold there,” he recalls with a chuckle.
Even though the table was filled with accomplished and recognizable players, for Zinno the lineup was more a blessing than a curse.
“It was tough, but sometimes a tough table is good because you get more action. If you run well and you have a tough table, sometimes it turns out to be better. It’s the worst if you have a table of scared money and you run well,” Zinno says. Well, he did just that.
Zinno will likely end up with more tough competitors on Day 2 on Sunday, as a number of other notable pros finished the day with big stacks.
Jake Schwartz finished second in the counts behind Zinno’s 209,200 with 163,100 chips. The first bullet did not go so well for Schwartz, but a quick double up after taking his seat for bullet number two helped propel him to finish the day with 163,100. The top five counts is rounded out with Rayan Chamas (162,100), Ted Doukas (157,700), and partypoker qualifier from the Czech Republic, Nicolas Le Floch (156,500).
There were a grand total of 134 entries for Day 1A of this CAD$3,500 buy-in event. Of those, 54 survived the day. Champions Club member Zinno is through to Day 2, as are his fellow Club members David Paredes (80,000), Tony Dunst (53,300), and Mike Sexton (15,900).
Other Champions Club members were in the field, but will have to try again on Day 1B if they want a shot at another title. Sam Panzica, Will Failla, and Nenad Medic were among the eliminated players of Day 1A along with Xuan Liu, Max Silver, Mike Dentale, and Justin Liberto.
There were six partypoker qualifiers who survived Day 1A as well, including Kristen Bicknell of the Vancouver area, who bagged up 72,400.
The 54 survivors have a day to see the sights of Montreal and relax while a whole new crop of players arrives at Playground Poker Club at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Day 1b action. Follow along right here on WPT.com.