Ensan beat Italy’s Dario Sammartino after a long heads-up to walk away with $10,000,000.
"It is the best feeling I have in all my life"
The 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event is in the books, with Germany’s Hossein Ensan becoming the crowned champion. The 55-year-old player has now $12,673,206 with this life-changing score. Italian pro, Dario Sammartino added $6,000,000 to his live tournament earnings, and is now the leader of Italy’s All-time Money List, with $14,044,479.
Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) | ||||
1 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | $10,000,000 | ||||
2 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | $6,000,000 | ||||
3 | Alex Livingston | Canada | $4,000,000 | ||||
4 | Garry Gates | United States | $3,000,000 | ||||
5 | Kevin Maahs | Dario Sammartino | $2,200,000 | ||||
6 | Zhen Cai | United States | $1,850,000 | ||||
7 | Nick Marchington | United Kingdom | $1,525,000 | ||||
8 | Timothy Su | United States | $1,250,000 | ||||
9 | Milos Skrbic | Serbia | $1,000,000 |
The last day of the event started with three players returning to the table. At this point, Dario had the smallest stack of about 33 big blinds. He managed to increase his stack with several double-ups and climbed to second place but Alex Livingston fought back and he even got the chip lead at one point.
After some back and forth, the stack became relatively even, each of the players having at least 50 big-blinds, which provided them with plenty of room to play. It was Livingston, who eventually got his remaining stack in holding ace-jack against the ace-queen of Ensan’s and he couldn’t avoid elimination with the worse hand. Alex received $4,000,000 for his third-place finish.
Runner-up Dario Sammartino
Sammartino took the lead early in the heads-up, but Ensan managed to turn things around and reclaimed the chip lead in the upcoming 100 hands and built a 2-1 lead over "super Dario".
"He’s a big name and he’s a very good player," Ensan said afterward. "But, short-handed you need cards. You need hands and for sure luck. Luck and hands [were] on my side."
The match was finally ended in a hand, which started with Ensan opening from the button. Dario called from the big blind. On the flop of T
6
2 Dario check-called a continuation bet of 15,000,000. The
9 hit the turn and Dario checked once again. Ensan fired another barrel of 33,000,000. Dario moved in with his remaining 140,000 and Ensan snapped him off.
Hossein with his rail
Dario: 8
4
Ensan: K
K
Sammartino was semi-bluffing with a combo-draw and had 15 outs to double up, but the Q river ended things and became the champion of the Main Event.