It was a historic day for Indian poker with Abhinav Iyer winning The Closer – $1.5K NLHE of the WSOP 2019 and thus earning India’s first solo bracelet. The young gun from Mumbai outlasted a field of 2800 entries to win the coveted bracelet and the top prize of $565,346 (INR 3.87) Crores.
Meanwhile, the most prestigious $10K Main Event of the WSOP 2019 has crowned a champion in Germany’s Hossein Ensan who outlasted a massive field of 8,569 entries to win the top prize of whopping $10,000,000, the coveted gold bracelet and the prestige and the glory along with it.
Obviously, this was his biggest win and it took his total live earnings to a staggering $12,673,206. However, this was not his first major score as the player has already notched up several massive scores in Main Events, including a 3rd place finish for $ 860,091 in the EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2014, a 6th place for $ 166,262 in the EPT Malta Main Event in 2015, a EPT Prague Main Event win for for $ 825,151 in 2015 and a WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event win for $ 219,036 in 2017. Now he is back in the news, this time for emerging as the champion of world’s most prestigious Main Event.
Ensan called the winning moment “unbelievable”. “It is the best feeling I have in all my life,” he said.
Five players had returned to the final table of the 2019 WSOP $10K Main Event on Day 9. After Garry Gates (4th for $ 3,000,000) and Kavin Maahs (5th for $2,200,000) busting the event, play for the day was halted. Hossein Ensan ended the day, retaining the lead (326,800,000) for a straight third day, while Alex Livingston (120,400,000) and Dario Sammartino (67,600,000 ended as second and third in chips.
Out of the second-biggest WSOP Main Event field of 8,569 entries in the 50th WSOP edition, Day 10 – the final day began on 16 July with players from three different nationalities. Ensan from Germany was the massive chip lead to begin the day and was the clear favourite to go down in history as the Main Event champion. Ensan (326,800,000) held close to 64% chips in play on the final day, far ahead of his final two opponents Canada’s Livingston (120,400,000) and Italy’s Sammartino (67,600,000).
All the three players began their battle in the hope of the most prestigious event’s title and once again Ensan went on to dominate except on few occasions where he doubled his opponents. Ensan had to battle it hard for over 9 hours but he eventually managed to close the deal. He eliminated both his opponents – Alex Livingston and then Dario Sammartino across a little under 200 hands of play, earning the historic bracelet as well as the life-changing $10 million for his top performance.
Heads-Up
After eliminating Livingston in 3rd place ($4,000,000), Ensan entered the heads-up play as the chip leader with 279,800,000, with a slight lead over 235,000,000 chips held by Sammartino. The heads-up was a long affair with chips going up and down. Sammartino was able to make an early comeback and overtake the lead. However, Ensan came back strongly and regained his chip lead.
By hand No. 237, Ensan had taken 2:1 lead and then there was no looking back until the final hand where he got a call from Sammartino and the flop opened 10s 6s 2d. Sammartino check-called a bet of 15,000,000. The turn was 9c where Sammartino checked, Ensan fired a bet of 33,000,000. Sammartino then shoved all-in for 140,000,000 and Ensan made a snap call. Ensan showed Kh Kc and Sammartino tabled 8s 4s. Finally, it was all over with Qc hitting the river! Sammartino’s run came to an end in 2nd place and he took home $6,000,000 for his remarkable runner-up finish.
Team India
A total of 10 Indian players had cashed in the prestigious WSOP 2019 Main Event with Katik Ved finishing deepest among them, taking home $173,015 (1.18 Crores) for his 51st place finish. The other 9 Indians to cash out in the event were Yudhishter Jaswal (261st for $43,935), Akshay Nasa (307th for $38,240), Ankit Ahuja (822nd for $18,535), Aditya Agarwal (844th for $18,535), Ashish Kasaraneni (864th for $18,535), Siddharth Karia (944th for $17,135), Romit Advani (1,005th for $15,970), Jaideep Sajwan (1,055th for $15,970) and Goonjan Mall (1,115th for $15,000).
Final Table Payouts:
- Hossein Ensan – $10,000,000
- Dario Sammartino – $6,000,000
- Alex Livingston – $4,000,000
- Garry Gates – $3,000,000
- Kevin Maahs – $2,200,000
- Zhen Cai – $1,850,000
- Nick Marchington – $1,525,000
- Timothy Su – $1,250,000
- Milos Skrbic – $1,000,000
