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A poker player has alleged that prominent pro Anthony Zinno swiped a bag he left underneath his chair during the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship series in December ther-poker-player/'>and stole $19,000 in cash.

ther-poker-player/'>Corel Theuma, a 2023 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) champion, brought forth the allegations on X and shared some further details with PokerNews. He also filed a police report pressing charges against the poker pro he said he doesn’t personally know.

PokerNews has spoken to Zinno, who is not currently commenting on the matter at the advice of legal counsel.

For now, however, there are some important details that can be reported, starting with Theuma’s social media comments. Per his response to a deleted thread mentioning the rumors, he claims that the bag he left underneath his poker seat at Wynn Las Vegas had $20,000 in cash, but when it was returned to him, only $1,000 remained inside.

Theuma Tells His Side of the Story

In Nevada, the crime of felony grand larceny is defined as “intentionally stealing someone else’s property worth $1,200 or more.”

Theuma explained to PokerNews the details of how he lost and retrieved his bag the following day. He said that after bagging at the end of the night on Day 1b of a $3,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em WPT World Championship event, he was excited to have bagged a big stack.

“Honestly, after a lot of long days of playing, you know, yeah, I left my bag behind under the chair, just exhausting to play all those days in a row.”

“I was just kind of focused on that, and it was really late,” Theuma explained. “Honestly, after a lot of long days of playing, you know, yeah, I left my bag behind under the chair, just exhausting to play all those days in a row.”

The poker player then, as he explained, walked out into the hall at the Encore and stopped to chit chat with a few other players. Per his comments, upon getting to his taxi, he realized he didn’t have his bag and then ran back into the tournament area to get his bag. He says the same dealer was still at his card table, and he asked the dealer where his bag is after noticing it was no longer underneath his seat.

The dealer apologized and told him that he had no knowledge of any bag underneath his seat. He was then was informed by tournament staff to contact lost and found, but they also didn’t have the missing item.

The following morning, he was ecstatic to get a call from the casino letting him know that his missing possession had been located. But he’d soon discover that the bag only had $1,000 left inside out of the $20,000 he claims to have left in there.

Theuma then states that the casino conducted an investigation, which included spending many hours reviewing surveillance footage, and that they were allegedly able to identify Zinno, a four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, as the person who retrieved the bag.

Later in the day when he spoke with investigators, Theuma was taken into a private room and noticed Zinno “behind this glass door, just like this holding cell.” When an X user questioned if Theuma was actually the one who identified Zinno as the suspect, he denied doing so.

“I’ve known of Zinno, just kind of like I know of Daniel Negreanu, but I don’t have any kind of relationship with this man,” Theuma said. “I’ve never played with him on the same table. There’s no relationship whatsoever.”

Theuma told PokerNews that investigators claimed to have footage of Zinno picking up the bag, so he decided to press charges and gave his side of the story to the police.

“Upon review of the police report, I believe the report and footage will speak for themselves,” he said.

Theuma isn’t a high-profile player within the poker community, but he does already have some prominent character witnesses backing him up on X, including Jesse Lonis, one of the top and most respected high-stakes players in the game. Lonis tweeted out that he’s friends with the victim and can “guarantee he’s not lying.” He referred to Theuma as “honest and a good dude.”

Theuma also shared a screenshot of a DM from Zinno that he apparently never viewed because Zinno, who may have been trying to contact Theuma to return the bag, deleted them before Theuma saw the messages. Presumably, the timestamps of the messages are in EST as Theuma resides in Florida, meaning the first message would’ve been sent at 3:01 a.m. PST on Dec. 19. The screenshot doesn’t show a response to the deleted messages, but Theuma does claim Zinno later attempted to call him.

Zinno has long had a “nice guy” reputation within poker. His results four bracelets, three WPT titles, and over $11.6 million in live tournament cashes are arguably Poker Hall of Fame worthy, and he’s eligible for the HOF at age 42.

He booked a deep run last week in the $5,300 buy-in Borgata Poker Open Championship, finishing in fourth place out of 689 entrants for $203,473. But if the allegations against him are true, there will be some heavy backlash within the poker community, and of course some legal troubles.

As for Theuma, he ended up cashing in 103rd place out of 2,196 entries for $8,880 in the December WPT event. But he said the incident caused him to play poorly on Day 2, or perhaps he would have finished higher. The Florida resident has $628,000 in lifetime live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob.

PokerNews has been in touch with both Zinno and Theuma, with the former awaiting to a legal resolution to the charges. We will provide an update on the case when further details become available.

Corel Theuma Wins MSPT Venetian Main Event

Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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