Ensan Poker
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Prior to winning the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event for $10 million, Germany’s Hossein Ensan may not have been known to American fans, but he was a familiar name in Europe due to his success on the European Poker Tour.
Total life earnings: $13,060,465. Latest cash: $43,353 on 18-Feb-2020. Click here to see the details of Hossein Ensan's 43 cashes. Hossein Ensan beat out 8,568 other competitors to win the $10 million first-place prize in the 2019 World Series of Poker's main event on Wednesday morning.
With the EPT Online happening now, we thought it was a good time to catch up with Ensan, who in 2015 topped a 1,044-entry field to win the EPT Prague Main Event for $825,151. A year earlier, he had placed third in the EPT Barcelona Main Event for $860,091, and in 2017 finished third in the EPT Prague High Roller for $285,021. Toss in a sixth-place finish in the 2015 EPT Malta Main Event for $166,262, and it proved a nice three-year heater for the man originally from Iran.
“It’s been a crazy year. All in all, it was really nice for me after a year of being world champion. I’m doing very well,” Ensan told PokerNews. “From the beginning of 2020, I was at King’s Casino and partypoker Nottingham. In Europe, the pandemic began at the end of February. Since that time, I didn’t play live, and online, I tried to play online a bit, but only a couple of sessions, not too much.”
Ensan, 55, takes home a $10 million grand prize to go along with the most prestigious bracelet in poker after he outlasted Dario Sammartino with a winning hand that finished at around 1:30 a.m. Jan 22, 2020 Hossein Ensan has built an impressive poker resume in a relatively short poker career. The 55-year-old poker pro won the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event, adding a $10 million payday to his career tournament earnings total. The 2019 Main Event wasn’t the first major championship win for Ensan, however.
Playing Against the Best on the EPT
While Ensan isn’t much of an online player, and as such doesn’t plan to play too much of the EPT Online series, he’s still excited to see the EPT return as it’s a tour near and dear to his heart.
“I was often at EPTs throughout Europe. I started with EPT in 2010 I think, and my first success was in Barcelona,” he said. “I had a very good run in 2014 and 2015. All my experience was through EPT for sure.”
As a European citizen, one of the biggest appeals of the EPT was so many quality stops in close proximity.
“From my home to the next stop by airplane is only two hours, and by car just 700 kilometers. I learned my poker through the EPT, on TV I learned a lot. I go to the EPT because I met a lot of poker friends, from Germany. I’m originally from Iran and there’s a lot of Iranian players too. The EPT has a lot of good players. That’s why I play, I like to play against good players.”
As for his favorite EPT stop, fans might not be surprised to learn it’s the one where he captured his coveted trophy.
“All EPTs are very nice. EPT Barcelona is a beautiful city. My favorite stop though is for sure Prague. I won that won already, and Prague is a beautiful city. I’ve met a lot of good poker friends there. For me, my favorite stop is Prague and then Barcelona also.”
What’s Next?
As for what’s next for the 2019 WSOP Main Event champ, Ensan is looking forward to the return of live poker.
“I miss live poker. I want to go to Vegas to defend my title for sure, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic this was not possible,” he said. “Online poker isn’t my game, which is why I didn’t play the GGPoker WSOP. I like live poker, face to face, and in 2021 I’ll try to go to Vegas and defend my title for sure.”
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Hossein Ensan
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 34th place and LukeGraham in 29th 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.
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
Ensan Poker Hendon
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.
Ensan Poker Player
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
Hossein Ensan Poker After Dark
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