Hossein Ensan wins Main Event at World Series of Poker 2019

UPATE JULY 17: Hossein Ensan, 55, has won the Main Evento f the 2019 World Series of Poker. As the winner, he will take home $10 million.

Ensan from Germany entered with a massive lead.

It took about 9 hours and 200 hands of poker before Ensan, who is originally from Iran, secured of the historic bracelet for the tournament, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

32-year-old Dario Sammartino of Italy came in 2nd and will take home $6 million. Alex Livingston earned $4 million for 3rd place.

UPDATE JULY 16: Henderson resident and recreational player Garry Gates has finished in 4th place in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.

Gates was eliminated after going all in against Canada's Alex Livingston. Regardless, Gates is now a millionaire as he takes home about $3 million for his efforts.

Hossein Ensan, who describes himself as a poker amateur, dominated the night once again. He is the runaway leader with more than 60 percent of the chips in play. The third player to survive the night was Italy's Dario Sammartino.

The winner of the World Series of Poker will walk away with $10 million. Play will resume with the final 3 at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rio hotel-casino. It will end when there is one man left.

UPDATE JULY 15: The Final Table at the World Series of Poker got underway Sunday night at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Henderson resident and 1 October survivor Garry Gates is currently in 2nd place with 171.7 million. Hossein Ensan from Germany is in the lead with 207.7 million in chips.

RELATED: Player profiles

Two players were eliminated in the first hour of play -- Serbia's Milos Skrbic and software developer Timothy Su from Boston.

About 2 hours later, Nick Marchington from England was eliminated by chip leader Ensan.

Zhen Cai from Florida was the 4th player to be eliminated.

Play is scheduled to resume Monday night at 6:30 p.m. It will end after 2 players are knocked out.

The final 3 players will face off at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and will continue playing until there is a winner.

UPDATE JULY 13: We now know who will be on the Final Table for the 2019 World Series of Poker.

The remaining 9 players are guaranteed to receive at least $1 million. The WSOP champion will receive a cool $10 million.

There are 5 North Americans, including one player from Henderson, and 4 Europeans at the Final Table.

The final 9 are:

1. Hossein Ensan from Muenster, Germany: 177,000,000 in chips
2. Garry Gates from Henderson, Nev.: 99,300,000 in chips
3. Zhen Cai from Lake Worth, Fla.: 60,600,000 in chips
4. Kevin Maahs, from Chicago: 43,000,000 in chips
5. Alex Livingston, from Nova Scotia, Canada: 37,800,000 in chips
6. Dario Sammartino, from Nova Gorcia, Italy: 33,400,000 in chips
7. Milos Skrbic, from Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia: 23,400,000 in chips
8. Timothy Su, from Boston: 20,200,000 in chips
9. Nick Marchington, from London: 20,100,000 in chips

37-year-old Garry Gates was clearly a crowd favorite on Friday night at the Rio hotel-casino and on social media. Gates has worked in the industry for years. Formerly with PokerNews, he has helped run PokerStars’ live events and provided VIP services for the past 10 years.

Gates, who calls himself "GG The Rec," is a recreational player and plans to keep his day job, which sounds pretty cool, even if he does win the big prize, according to PokerStarsblog.com.

Prior to this year, the most he’s won at WSOP is $47,000 in 2011, according to WSOP.com.

EPT champion Hossein Ensan has a huge lead and is the favorite heading into the final days of the tournament.

Ensan and Gates have separated themselves from the pack but things could have ended differently Friday night.

Italian Dario Sammartino fell behind during the final two tables It appears that a dealer miscounted a shove. Sammartino committed himself before the mistake was corrected and it cost him. He protested vigorously but the tournament supervisor ruled against him.

Sammartino called the hand “sick” but kept it together, according to WSOP.

The Final Table was set at approximately 2:5 a.m. Saturday. The players will take the rest of the day off Saturday, getting some much needed rest before the Final Table begins.

Play at the Final Table will begin at 6:30 p.m. July 14 with an expected 3 days of play before the champion is crowned Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

2019 World Series of Poker Main Event payouts

• 1st place $10 million
• 2nd place: $6 million
• 3rd place: $4 million
• 4th place: $3 million
• 5th place: $2.2 million
• 6th place: $1.85 million
• 7th place: $1.525 million
• 8th place: $1.25 million
• 9th place: $1 million

BONUS: Check out this hilarious Twitter thread by @GarryGates.

PREVIOUS STORY
Thirty-five players remain heading into Day 7 of the Main Event at the World Series of Poker and Day 7 will be the longest day yet.

Play is scheduled to begin at noon July 13 and will continue until there are only 9 players left for the Final Table.

Day 6 at the Rio hotel-casino saw the departure of high-stakes legend Sam Greenwood after he was bested by Timothy Su, a software developer and first-time WSOP player.

However, Stu was not the leader by the end of the night. Nicholas Marchington ended the play with 39,800,000 in chips and Hossein Ensan came in 2nd with 34,500,000.

According to World Series of Poker, 21-year-old Marchington is also a first-timer in the Main Event and an online cash player by trade. If he wins the Main Event, he will be the youngest Main Event winner in the history of WSOP.

Other players eliminated on Day 6 included Antonio Esfandiari, Jake Schindler
and Alex Foxen.

Recognizable players still in the game include Dario Sammartino, Preben Stokkan and Yuri Dzivielevski.

After the Final Table has been set on Saturday morning, the poker players will have a day off until the Final Table begins play on Sunday afternoon.

In other news, Tu 'Stephanie' Dao won the Ladies Event -- $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed, walking away with $132,189. It is the Canadian's first bracelet. She bested a field of 193 entries and defeated Alian Alinat to earn the bracelet.

Other bracelet winners this year include Aria dealer Nichola Haynes, $500 Casino Employees Event; Brian Green, $10,000 Super Turboi Bounty; Benjamin Heath, $50,000 High Roller No Limit Hold'em; Scott Clements, $1,500 Dealers Choice; Daniel Strelitz, $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em; Sean Swingruber, $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em; Frankie O'Dell, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; John Gorsuch, Millionaire Maker - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em; Joseph Cheong, $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em; Michael Blake, $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em; Stephen Chidwick, $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller; and Dash Dudley, $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed.

ORIGINAL STORY
It is Day 6 of the Main Event of the 50th annual World Series of Poker at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas and there are only 106 players left. A total of 248 players were eliminated on Day 5.

The WSOP Main Event is a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament, this year with 8,569 entries creating a $80,548,600 prize pool. The top 15 percent of the field divvy up the prize money with the winner’s share $10 million.

Play is expected to go until 2 a.m. today and the field is expected to end with the final three tables of players, each vying for the $10 million first place prize.

The player with the most chips going into Day 6 was Timothy Su with 19,235,000. The 2nd biggest stack in the room belonged to WSOP bracelet winner Sam Greenwood, who ended Day 5 with 11,950,000.

Other recognizable names still in the game include Warwick Mirzikinian (11,430,000), Romain Lewis (10,600,000), Chad Power (7,480,000), three-time bracelet winner and all-time WSOP earnings leader Antonio Esfandiari (6,630,000), and Chris Hunichen (6,280,000).

FULL LIST OF CHIP COUNTS

Three-time Super Bowl champion Richard Seymour competed in the Super Bowl of Poker Tournament. He only recently started playing poker and he just became the major professional athletewith the best finish ever in this tournament's 50-year history.

Seymour finished in 131st place, earning $59,295. He surpassed NASCAR driver Jason White's 348th place finish in 2014.

This year's Ladies Championship also saw a big increase in female players. There were 968 entrants, which is an 8-year hight and up 39% over 2018. The Main Event has seen a 39% increase in female participants over the last 5 years and up 16% for this year.

Danielle Andersen, Jacqueline Burkhart and Tara Chain were the top female finishers in this year's Main Event. Andersen finished in 301st place for $38,240. Burkhart finished 336th for $38,240 and Chain finished 219th place for $50,855.

The final 9 players in the Main Event will all walk away as millionaires.

The winner gets $10 million while the runner-up gets $6 million and 3rd place gets $4 million. The rest of the table will also walk away with at least $1 million. The Main Event is not the only tournament where players could win at least $1 million.

Danny Tang claimed $1,608,406 for winning the Final Fifty High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event and 2 to 3 players will win at least a million in hte $100,000 buy-in High Roller event.

Through 81 events (of 90) at this year’s WSOP at the Rio, here is where the key metrics stand:

177,750 entries – 43.5% above last year (123,865). (All-time record)
$266,739,945 in prize money awarded – $149,248 shy of all-time record set last year
26,680 places paid – Up 47.3%; (All-time record)
56 -- $1 million+ prize pools – all-time record
28 -- $2 million+ prize pools – all-time record
11 -- $5 million+ prize pools – all-time record
3 -- $10 million+ prize pools
1 -- $80 million + prize pool – 2nd largest in history
12 – Events with 5,000 or more entrants (Event 3, 9, 19, 32, 34, 50, 59, 61, 64, 69, 73 & 75) – New record
4 – Events reaching Top 10 field sizes all-time (Event 3 (1st); Event 61 (4th), Event 64 (7th) & Event 19 (10th)
1 – Largest $500 buy-in event in history (Event #3, Big 50, 28,371 entries)
1 – Largest $400 buy-in event in history (Event 61, Colossus No-Limit Hold’em, 13,109 entries)
1 – Largest $1,500 buy-in event (Event #19, Millionaire Maker, 8,809 entries)
1 – Largest $600 buy-in event in history (Event #9, Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em, 6,150 entries)
1 – Largest $800 buy-in event in history (Event 53, 8-Handed Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em, 3,759 entries)
1 – Largest $888 buy-in event in history (Event 64, Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em, 10,185 entries)
1 – Largest $1,000 buy-in tournament in history (Event #34, Double Stack, 6,214 entries)
52 -- # of different countries that have captured a WSOP Gold Bracelet in history with El Salvador the latest. In 2019 thus far, 19 different countries have done so, with Hong Kong the latest.