Ensan Becomes Second German Player To Ever Win WSOP Main Event
Published on July 17th, 2019 7:20 pm EST
55 year-old Hossein Ensan became the second German player to ever win the World Series of Poker main event after besting Dario Sammartino in an extended heads-up battle. In winning the title, Ensan took home $10 million cash and the prestigious WSOP main event bracelet, joining the likes of Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan as holders of that prestigious bracelet.
Ensan also proved that poker isn't just a younger person's game anymore, as he became the oldest person to win the main event in 20 years.
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Ensan nearly ran the table at the final table, as he was chip leader for all but a brief period of time during heads-up play.
The heads-up battle between Ensan and second-place finish Sammartino took over 4 hours and 101 hands to complete, with Ensan finally winning after his pair of Kings outlasted Sammartino's flopped flush and inside straight draws. The tournament ended at 1:23 am, bringing relief to many of the people in attendance.
Here is how the final table ended up finishing out:
1st - Hossein Ensan, $10,000,000
2nd - Dario Sammartino, $6,000,000
3rd - Alex Livingston, $4,000,000
4th - Garry Gates, $3,000,000
5th - Kevin Maahs, $2,200,000
6th - Zhen Cai, $1,850,000
7th - Nick Marchington, $1,525,000
8th - Timothy Su, $1,250,000
9th - Milos Skrbic, $1,000,000
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This was the second largest main event field of all time, as 8,569 different players turned out to play this year.
Only the 2006 main event, which was won by Jamie Gold, had a larger turnout.
These numbers are especially impressive as the 2006 main event occurred before "Black Friday", when companies like Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and partypoker were freely operating in the United States.
Poker is alive and well, and I fully expect next year's main event to break the all-time attendance record, especially given the fact that new states are set to begin offering online poker shortly.
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Congratulations to Hossein Ensan on his impressive win, and congratulations to everyone that cashed in the main event.
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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker
