Anthony Zinno Named The 2015 Player of the Year

Since 1997, Card Player magazine has honored the poker player who has achieved the most tournament success throughout the year. The award is based upon POY points accumulated over a 12 month period, and with 2015 now firmly in the bag, Anthony Zinno has been named as last year’s official winner. The 35 year-old pro now joins a celebrated list of past claimants whose ranks include such players as Men Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, and Daniel Negreanu.
Anthony Zinno also managed to claim the award in style, having amassed 6,488 POY points throughout 2015, easily eclipsing the 5,498 POY points accumulated by last year’s champion Dan Colman. Finishing runner-up in 2015 was Joe Kuether with 6,070 points, followed by Nick Petrangelo (6,026), with other contenders including Byron Kaverman in 4th (5,342), Jason Mercier in 6th (4,494), and Steve O’Dwyer in 7th (4,400).
In 2015, Anthony Zinno cashed an impressive 25 times for $3,778,904, including six tournament titles, in the process bringing his life-time career earnings to $5,329,161. The Rhode Island pro’s list of accolades throughout the year includes two WPT titles, namely the $10,000k WPT L.A. Poker Classic for $1,015,860, and the $25k WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star for $197,750, as well as a WSOP bracelet at the $25k High Roller Pot Limit Omaha for $1,122,196. As Zino explained at the time:
“I’m obviously doing something right. I practiced and worked really hard, but my best advice to everyone out there is just to work hard and set goals. Have a dream and chase it. Life is short, so just keep going for it.”
While Anthony Zinno accumulated more POY points than anyone else to win the award, last year’s biggest money earner was Brian Rast with $8,618,663 in winnings, although $7,525,000 of that amount came via his victory at the $500k Super High Roller Bowl.
Card Player Player of the Year Winners
1997: Men Nguyen
1998: T.J.Cloutier
1999: Tony Ma
2000: David Pham
2001: Men Nguyen
2002: T.J. Cloutier
2003: Men Nguyen
2004: Daniel Negreanu
2005: Men Nguyen
2006: Michael Mizrachi
2007: David Pham
2008: John Phan
2009: Eric Baldwin
2010: Tom Marchese
2011: Ben Lamb
2012: Greg Merson
2013: Daniel Negreanu
2014: Daniel Colman
2015: Anthony Zinno