16 July 2019 (Las Vegas) – From 8,569 entries, now only three are still standing. Only one day remains in the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event, and Tuesday night a new player will etch his name in poker's history books by becoming World Champion and earning the first-place prize of $10,000,000.
Hossein Ensan has the potential to go wire-to-wire at the final table. He started the final table with the chip lead. And not only has he never relinquished it, he's extended it significantly. He finished Monday night with 326,800,000, and his closest competitor is Alex Livingston with 120,400,000. The other player still in contention is Italian pro Dario Sammartino, who has 67,600,000.
When the final table resumed Monday evening, the leaderboard showed two distinct tiers: the leaders were Hossein Ensan (207,700,000 in chips) and Garry Gates (171,700,000). The other three players were far behind. Kevin Maahs had 66,500,000, Alex Livingston was next with 45,800,000, and Dario Sammartino was the shortest stack with 23,100,000.
Then on just the third hand of the night, Sammartino doubled up through Ensan. The hand brought Sammartino almost even with Livingston, and pulled Ensan back towards Gates, although Ensan retained the lead.
After that hand, Ensan was down to about 187 million. But he wasted no time in getting his chips back. He won four of the next five hands and brought himself up to 235 million. Soon after, he got into a big hand against Garry Gates. Gates made second pair on the river, but Ensan had top pair. Ensan led out, Gates made a big raise, and Ensan called. When the dust settled, Ensan had 273 million - over half the chips in play. Gates, on the other hand, dropped to 107 million, although he was still in second place. Ensan would continue adding to his stack throughout the rest of the night.
The next player to make a big move was Alex Livingston. Over the course of several hands, he went from about 40 million in chips to about 80 million in chips. He never doubled up; he just slowly accumulated chips. Some of them came from Garry Gates, and after Livingston's surge, he and Gates were virtually tied for second place.
Over the next few hands, Livingston gained a little more, and Gates lost a little more, then the two of them clashed. Gates made a big river bluff. Livingston called with top pair. The hand moved him to about 110 million, his first time in nine-figure territory. Gates, meanwhile, fell below 40 million in chips.
Despite Gates's drop, he was still ahead of Kevin Maahs, who had been the shortest stack most of the time since Livingston started his surge. At about 10:00 p.m., three and half hours after play began Monday evening, he made a stand. Ensan had raised, and Maahs moved all in. Ensan called with pocket nines, and Maahs held ace-ten. It was a virtual coinflip, but Maahs missed the board completely, and Ensan won with his pocket pair. Maah's became the night's first casualty, earning $2,200,000 for his fifth-place finish.
Just nine hands later, Gates became the next player to be eliminated. He pushed all in with pocket sixes, but ran into Livingston's pocket queens. Livingston's queens held up, and Gates was eliminated in fourth place for $3,000,000.
At that point, play was halted for the night. There is 1:32:05 remaining in Level 40 (blinds at 1,000,000/2,000,000 and a 2,000,000 big blind ante).
Tuesday night, Hossein Ensan, Alex Livingston, and Dario Sammartino will return for one final night. Cards go in the air at 5:30 p.m., and it will air on ESPN starting at 6:00 p.m. until the 2019 WSOP Main Event champions is crowned.
Results so far
Live Updates from the event
Photos from the event
Here are the chip counts of the remaining players, and final table results so far:
1 – Hossein Ensan – 326,800,000
2 – Alex Livingston – 120,400,000
3 – Dario Sammartino – 67,600,000
4th place – Garry Gates – $3,000,000
5th place – Kevin Maahs – $2,200,000
6th place – Zhen Cai – $1,850,000
7th place – Nick Marchington – $1,525,000
8th place – Timothy Su – $1,250,000
9th place – Milos Skrbic – $1,000,000