Ensan takes home the $10 million first-place prize and the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet. Sammartino takes home $6 million. Hossein Ensan, of Germany, poses with the bracelet after. 55-year-old Hossein Ensan of Germany was crowned the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and for that win, he received a paycheck of $10 MILLION as well as a gold WSOP winner’s bracelet covered in diamonds. Hossein is already an accomplished professional poker player, going into the 2019 WSOP Main Event he had already won.

1. Ensan Poker Champ
2. Hossein Ensan Pokerstars
3. Ensan Pockets $10M With Pocket Kings At WSOP
4. Ensan Poker - Video Results

Hossein Ensan is an Iranian-German poker pro who has enjoyed increasing success on the global poker scene in recent years. Ensan emigrated from his native Iran to Germany in 1990 and began traveling and competing in poker tournaments around 2004, though it wasn't until 2013 that he began booking significant cashes. Hossein Ensan defeated Dario Sammartino heads up to clinch the 2019 World Series of Poker main event title and the $10 million first-place prize. After 10 days and more than 80 total hours of play, Hossein Ensan was left standing as the champion of the 50th World Series of Poker main event in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

After a day of play when it seemed as ifthe players, dealers and floor staff of the WSOP were late for a train, thefinal table of the 2019 World Series of Poker Championship Event has beendetermined. In the driver’s seat for the start of play on Sunday will be HosseinEnsan, who dominated the play throughout Day 7 and will have a significant chipadvantage over the remainder of the field.

Marchington Misstep Gives Ensan Huge Stack

The leader at the start of Day 7 wasNicholas Marchington and it seemed that he was playing his best poker at theright time. Starting the day with a 39.8 million stack, Marchington added tothat wealth in knocking out Steven Parrott in 34^th place and LukeGraham in 29^th place to power his stack over the 64 million mark.But it was an attempted play against the only stack at the table that couldsignificantly hurt him – Ensan – that will be what he’s remembered for in 2019.

Ensan Poker Champ

With only two tables left, Ensan startedthe betting with a one million chip bet from the cutoff and Marchingtonprotected his big blind. An A-8-5 rainbow flop greeted the duo and, after aMarchington check, Ensan tossed out another million in chips. Marchingtondecided to go with a raise now, moving the betting up to four million and,after a call from Ensan, the twosome saw a deuce hit the turn.

Marchington decided now wasn’t the time tohold back as he fired in a healthy 9.5 million chip bet and Ensan made thecall. The pot was now about 30 million and, for those watching 30 minutes lateron the ESPN broadcast, they saw the reality; Ensan had made his original raisewith an A-5 (flopped two pair) while Marchington was making a move withcomplete air (10-2, turned bottom pair). Unbeknownst to him, Marchington wasdrawing thin as the last card came.

A six on the river didn’t improve eitherplayer or slow Marchington down. He put out a 25 million chip bet, nearly a potbet, and Ensan immediately made the call. Ensan snapped his hole cards on thefelt, showing his flopped two pair, while Marchington sheepishly pushed hiscards to the muck as he remembered one of the cardinal rules of poker – don’tmess with a stack that can damage you greatly. The resulting pot pushed Ensanover the 100 million mark and all but guaranteed his seat at the final table.

Gates Looks to Challenge Ensan

There is only one player within shoutingdistance of Ensan and that is Garry Gates. Gates, a veteran of the poker worldfrom his journalistic work and his ongoing job with PokerStars, slowly andsteadily built his stack through the day’s play. By the end of the night, followingAlex Livingston’s elimination of Robert Heidorn in tenth place, Gates had justshort of 100 million chips, vastly more than the rest of the table but apittance compared to the mountain that Ensan had amassed.

1. Hossein Ensan, 177 million
2. Garry Gates, 99.3 million
3. Zhen Cai, 60.6 million
4. Kevin Maahs, 43 million
5. Alex Livingston, 37.8 million
6. Dario Sammartino, 33.4 million
7. Milos Skrbic, 23.4 million
8. Timothy Su, 20.2 million
9. Nick Marchington, 20.1 million

The players are taking the day off on Saturday to allow for guests to make their way to Las Vegas and rest up for the next three days of action. Sunday will be the first day of the final table, with the final nine playing down to six beginning at 10PM (Eastern Time). On Monday at 10PM (Eastern Time), those six survivors will return and play down to the final three. Finally, on Tuesday night beginning at 9PM (Eastern Time), the final three will be playing down to the champion. ESPN (and, on Sunday night, ESPN2) will have the broadcasts each night until completion. 7

Hossein Ensan (born May 22, 1964) is an Iranian-German professional poker player from Münster, Germany. In 2019, he won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker for $10,000,000.

Ensan was born in Iran and moved to Germany at the age of 25, in 1989. There, he studied civil engineering at the University of Munster. But being unable to pay his bills, especially at the time he was founding a family, he could not go all the way to obtain his diploma. He started working small jobs, such as a taxi driver, waiter, and painter.^[1] He then managed to start a taxi business in 2002, buying three cars, and had enough time to start his poker career. This was quite a late start, Ensan being 39 at that time. However he declared that he knew the rules of poker since he played five-card draw when he was a kid.^[2]

In August 2014, Ensan won the seniors event at the European Poker Tour's Barcelona festival, then a week later he finished third out of 1,496 players in the Main Event for €652,000.^[3] He also made the final table at EPT Malta in March 2015, finishing in sixth. Finally, he made his third EPT final table in Prague that December and won the tournament for €754,000.^[4]

Ensan won a WSOP circuit ring in Rozvadov, Czech Republic in 2017. He had just one WSOP cash prior to the 2019 Main Event, in the Colossus event at the WSOP Europe in 2017.^[5]

At the 2019 Main Event, Ensan entered the final table with the chip lead at 177,000,000, more than a third of the chips in play. On the 301st hand of the final table, he defeated Dario Sammartino heads-up with K♥K♣ against the 8♠4♠ of Sammartino. His opponent check-raised all in on a 10♠2♦6♠9♣ board and Ensan quickly called. Sammartino, a high roller regular and one of the best poker players in the world, said that Ensan played better during the heads-up. At age 55, Ensan became the oldest Main Event champion since Noel Furlong in 1999 and the second German champion after Pius Heinz in 2011.^[6][7]

As of January 2020, Ensan's total live earnings exceed $13,000,000.

World Series of Poker bracelets[edit]

Biggest scores[edit]

Hossein Ensan Pokerstars

References[edit]

Ensan Pockets $10M With Pocket Kings At WSOP

1. ^Kirschen, Robert (July 13, 2019). 'MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE IS SET, HOSSEIN ENSAN LEADS'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
2. ^SomuchpokerNews (December 27, 2019). 'An exclusive conversation with 2019 WSOP Main Event Champion Hossein Ensan'. Somuchpoker. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
3. ^Swains, Howard (August 27, 2014). 'EPT11 Barcelona: Hossein Ensan set to strike another blow for poker's old guard'. PokerStars Blog. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
4. ^Willis, Brad (December 10, 2015). 'EPT12 Prague: Third time's a charm for champion Hossein Ensan'. PokerStars Blog. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
5. ^'Hossein Ensan Wins 2017 WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event (€184,812)'. www.pokernews.com. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
6. ^'Hossein Ensan wins $10 million in prize money for World Series of Poker victory'. USA TODAY. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
7. ^D'Angelo, Bob. 'Top card: Hossein Ensan of Germany wins $10M at World Series of Poker'. Dayton Daily News. Retrieved July 31, 2019.

External links[edit]

Ensan Poker - Video Results