WSOP 2019: Hossein Ensan, Alex Livingston & Dario Sammartino Are the 3 Finalists Advancing to Day 10 in the Main Event

Day 9 of the $10K Main Event opened with five players making their way to the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Following two levels of play that lasted over nearly six hours, the field was narrowed down to three finalists.

Refusing to let go of the chip lead, Germany’s Hossein Ensan emerged as the end-of-day chip leader for a third consecutive day as he bagged a humongous stack of 326,800,000 (163 big blinds). Canada’s Alex Livingston (120,400,000 – 60 big blinds) and Italy’s Dario Sammartino (67,600,000 – 33 big blinds) are placed a distant second and third on the final table leaderboard.

Following the eliminations of Garry Gates (4^th for $3,000,000) and Kevin Maahs (5^th for $2,200,000), the play was halted for the day.

The three remaining finalists are assured a minimum payout of $4 Million as they return for the final day at 5.30 PM (Pacific Time Zone) on July 16 to play down to a champion. The payjumps are significant as the runner-up gets $6 Million while a life-changing $10 Million awaits the new World Champion!

While the Main Event is without a doubt the most prestigious event of the series and has the entire poker world hooked, the attention of the Indian audience was diverted towards Event #84: The Closer – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em which saw Young Gun Abhinav Iyer running deep on Day 2. Iyer not only reached the final table but did one better than Paawan Bansal‘s runner-up finish in the event last year. With this win, Iyer has etched his name in history as the country’s first solo bracelet winner – all three previous bracelets have either come in Tag Teams Event or Online. The first solo bracelet was not the only record Iyer set as his $565,346 (~₹3.87 Crores) first-place prize makes this the most any Indian has ever won in a poker tournament to date.*

The 50^th annual WSOP is fast winding down as alongside the Main Event, only Event #86: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed, Event #87: $3,000 HORSE and Event #89: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em are left to crown winners.

Event #73: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em MAIN EVENT – World Championship – Day 9

Day 9 of the $10K Main Event commenced from the 57^th hand of the final table. With five players still in the running, the first elimination of the day took place on the 111^th hand.

Hossein Ensan raised to 4 Million holding , and Kevin Maahs moved all-in from the small blind holding . Ensan called. The board and was of no help to either player. Ensan’s pocket nines knocked Maahs out in fifth place.

Nine hands later, the most shocking elimination of the day took place as one of the favorite`s to win the Main Event – Garry Gates – was ousted in fourth place. Gates had jammed from the small blind for 29.2 Million with , but unfortunately for him, Alex Livingston woke up with in the big blind. The runout blanked, sending Gates to the rail.

With Gates’ elimination, the play was halted for the night. Three finalists remain in contention with Hossein Ensan yet again leading the charge with 326,800,000 (163 big blinds) in chips.

Talking in the post-Day 9 interview, Ensan said, “I have to prepare for tomorrow. There are three left and I think I will continue my same game. I have respect for all the players, but I have chips. When I lose one pot, I don’t like it, but it can happen.”

“I have more chips than both players and this is my advantage. Playing deep is easier than as a short stack. Dario is a big name, for sure, and Alex [Livingston] has played very good. We have three left and anything can happen. Garry [Gates] was second chip leader and now he is out. In poker, anything can happen,” the chip leader concluded.

The second-largest stack among the trio belongs to Canada’s Alex Livingston who bagged 120,400,000 (60 big blinds) by the end of Day 9. Livingston knows what it means to run deep in the Main Event, and his previous best finish in the Main Event is the 13^th place that he took in the 2013 Main Event for $451,398.

When asked about his mindset during the game, Livingston said, “When I’m playing the tournament, I’m as confident as ever. I’ve always wanted to compete on the highest stage. I don’t play a lot of no-limit hold’em these days because I don’t like the tanking, I don’t like the headphones and I don’t like all of that stuff. But, the Main Event’s an exciting event. It’s filled with amateurs and obviously a lot of tough pros. It just brings me back to the old days of playing live cash and just looking at people and making reads. That’s what I like to do.”

Discussing Gates’ elimination at his hands, the Canadian player said, “That one was interesting. He’s a fairly tight player preflop. I thought he played really solid, by the way. But I don’t think he defends many hands that have a six in them. When he bets that size on the river, I don’t think he goes thin with two pair. So, I think that’s very polarized to a six, which he doesn’t have that many combos of… I didn’t expect to see king-jack but I expect to see nine-ten, ten-jack and jack-nine.”

The shortest stack among the three finalists is Italy’s Dario Sammartino (67,600,000 – 33 big blinds). The most experienced player at the final table at present, Sammartino has managed to make it through to the top three despite starting the day with the shortest stack. He has proved time and again that he can turn the game around in his favor at any point of time, which makes him one of the most dangerous players on the final table.

The three finalists will return for the final day later tonight.

End of Day 9 Chip Counts

1. Hossein Ensan – 326,800,000

2. Alex Livingston – 120,400,000

3. Dario Sammartino – 67,600,000

*does not include winnings of Indian-origin players

Content & Images Courtesy: World Series of Poker

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