Live tournament reg Anthony Zinno has been accused of stealing Corel Theuma’s backpack containing $20,000 during the 2023 WPT World Championship at the Wynn.
A player called Willie Wiggins posted on Facebook how his friend named Corel left the bag by the table and was searching for it all night.
However, the following day, Corel was contacted by police who informed him that Zinno was seen on security footage taking the bag and running to the bathroom.
Matt Berkey covered the story on his recent Only Friends podcast but did a pretty poor job on reporting what is terrible behaviour, if true.
After presenting the outline of the accusation by Willie Wiggins, Berkey moved straight into victim blaming.
What is Anthony Zinno being accused off?
Now, we all know that it isn’t smart to leave a bag containing $20,000 unattended, but it also isn’t good form to rub it in. Corel screwed up and he is more than aware that this shouldn’t have happened.
According to Wiggins, Anthony Zinno is now banned from both the Encore and Wynn properties.
It has to be said this is also a truly baffling move by Anthony Zinno, a man with $11.5 million in live tournament earnings. Is he really that broke now?
Just so I have my side of the story published. Because I don’t want people to assume my silence as any form of shadiness.
After bagging of the 3k I left my backpack under my chair – which yes, was a mistake. Like most of you have made. As I got to my cab outside encore…
— Corel Theuma (@Corel_Theuma) January 29, 2024
Corel Theuma Responds
Corel Theuma replied to the Twitter thread to confirm that he left the bag behind after bagging up and sprinted back into the playing hall to retrieve it.
After getting no joy, the following day he was able to get the bag back but with only $1,000 inside it.
Many posters back up his character, clearly stating that he is not a man to make false claims in a case like this.
While he was at Las Vegas Metro Police station to file a report, Corel saw Anthony Zinno detained and being questioned.
But Anthony Zinno also has some supporters. Berkey called him a great guy, saying everyone liked him.
The poster below didn’t believe for one minute that he would be capable of such a crime, telling a story of a similar incident where he returned a lost wallet.
I can’t speak on this personally as I wasn’t there but I’ve known Ant for several years now. Never heard a bad word on anything to do with him, his reputation, or his business dealings.
I’ve personally been in a very similar situation with Ant: We went out to Tommy’s during the…
— Nathan Gamble (@GambleOnPoker) January 29, 2024
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