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Poker Strategy: Chance Kornuth Discusses Playing The Money Bubble In Tournaments

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Going out early in a poker tournament is frustrating, but for many players, there is nothing worse than being eliminated on the money bubble. Playing for hours or even days only to fall just short of a payday is enough to send any tournament player on tilt. Card Player TV recently caught up two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Chip Leader Coaching founder Chance Kornuth to discuss some things players can do to help avoid going out on the bubble. With 1430 career live tournament cashes and more than $7 million in lifetime earnings, Kornuth definitely has experience dealing with this stress-filled aspect of tournament play.

“It’s really important to be aware of the other stacks,” said Kornuth. “If it was 100 people and 15 pay, with 17 left you gotta know who’s short.”

At the time of the interview, Kornuth was competing in a $50,000 buy-in super high roller at the 2019 World Series of Poker. Kornuth related how seriously the elite players in that event took their responsibility to keep track of the stack sizes when the bubble loomed.

“In this $50k, for example, people are counting orbits. ‘Okay, this guy is all-in in two orbits, and I have three, so I’m just going to have to wait’,” shared Kornuth. “In larger field tournaments, people are going to bust really fast and won’t be as aware of it as they are in a $50k, so in those, you can probably sneak in with very few big blinds.”

Kornuth also discussed the importance of studying short-stack open shoving ranges, three-bet shoving ranges, and also talked about how you have to sometimes just accept that you can get run over during the bubble period.

Check out the full video below:

Card Player TV has hundreds of poker strategy videos featuring insight from the top players in the game. Check out the strategy section by clicking here.

Juan Pardo Wins Back-To-Back High Rollers At EPT Barcelona

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Spanish poker pro Juan Pardo secured the two largest poker tournament scores of his career in the span of just over 24 hours. The 25-year-old from the city of Malaga managed to win back-to-back single-day no-limit hold’em high roller events at the 2019 European Poker Tour Barcelona, earning more than $1.6 million USD for emerging victorious in both tournaments.

“I’m beyond happy,” Pardo told PokerStars reporters. “I know this is something that might happen once in a lifetime.”

In the €25,000 buy-in single-day high roller Pardo overcame a field of 70 total entries to secure the trophy and the top prize of €491,600 ($545,676 USD). He also earned 588 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win.

Pardo outlasted a stacked final table that included the likes of World Poker Tour and EPT main event winner Mike Watson (9th – $54,101 USD), World Series of Poker bracelet winner Joao Vieira (8th – $70,896 USD), EPT high roller regular Ramin Hajiyev (7th – $91,409 USD) and two-time bracelet winner Michael Addamo (3rd – $254,656 USD).

Joining the poker professionals at the final table were two sports stars in Gerard Piqué and Arturo Vida. The two were less than a day removed from winning a match, with their team FC Barcelona beating Real Betis Sevilla 5-2, thanks in part to a goal scored by Vidal.

Vidal ultimately finished fifth in the tournament for $149,251 USD, while Piqué made it down to heads-up with Pardo. He ultimately was eliminated in second place, earning $391,775 USD for his impressive showing. This was his fourth career final-table finish, bringing his career live tournament earnings to $667,103.

inal Table Payouts

Place Name Country Payout (EUR) Payout (USD)
1 Juan Pardo Spain € 1,013,860 $1,124,584
2 Seth Davies United States € 720,760 $799,474
3 Chin Wei Lim Malaysia € 471,910 $523,447
4 Luc Greenwood Canada € 363,150 $402,810
5 Ali Imsirovic United States € 287,570 $318,976
6 Timothy Adams Canada € 224,890 $249,450
7 Steve O’Dwyer Ireland € 176,960 $196,286
8 Laurynas Levinskas Lithuania € 138,250 $153,348

Mere hours after securing his first title, Pardo woke up and got right back to the tables for more high-stakes poker action. The EPT Barcelona €50,000 single-day no-limit hold’em high roller drew 76 total entries, creating a final prize pool worth more than $4 million USD. Pardo managed to navigate to the winner’s circle yet again, taking home €1,013,860 ($1,125,385 USD) for his second win in as many days. The score increased his career earnings to $3.5 million.

Pardo also earned 714 POY points as the champion. He has now won five titles and made seven final tables in 2019. All three of Pardo’s previous wins this year came in high roller events held at Aria in June and July. As a result of his consistent success, Pardo now sits in 46th place in the overall 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

Pardo once again had a final table full of accomplished players to contend with, including the 11th player on poker’s all-time money list in Steve O’Dwyer (7th – $196,426 USD), WSOP bracelet winner Tim Adams (6th – $249,628 USD), 2018 Poker Master purple jacket winner Ali Imsirovic (5th – $319,203 USD) and Luc Greenwood (4th – $403,097 USD).

Pardo knocked out recent Triton Million tenth-place finisher Chin Wei Lim in third place to set up a heads-up showdown with Seth Davies. It came down to a classic preflop race situation for the title, with Davies holding AHeart SuitKSpade Suit to Pardo’s QSpade SuitQClub Suit. Pardo flopped top set and turned a full house to lock up the win, while Davie settled for $800,044 USD as the runner-up.

How To Play Against Someone On Tilt By Jonathan Little

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When you see someone lose a big pot, especially if they lose in a way that makes them look or feel dumb, don’t be surprised if they compound their losses by going on tilt. The following two hands took place in a $1,500 buy-in World Series of Poker event.

Early in the tournament, I raised preflop with 7-6 suited from middle position and an amateur player in the big blind called. I bet on all three streets on a J-9-8-10-10 board and got called by a worse hand. He was clearly annoyed that he lost to a hand that he felt I should not have played preflop in the first place, and was especially annoyed that I got lucky to turn the straight. Of course, he may have also been annoyed that he paid off my large river bet with what was clearly a bluff catcher.

It should be made perfectly clear that you should never get upset at your opponents for playing hands that are not premium. When you hear someone complaining about someone’s starting hand requirements, you should instantly recognize that they are likely a weak player.

Later in level 1, I raised 8Heart Suit 6Heart Suit to 300 on the button out of my 25,000 stack at 100-100 blinds and the big blind, the potential tilter, called. He had around 18,000 chips.

The flop came 7Heart Suit 5Heart Suit 3Club Suit, giving me a straight flush draw. He checked and I made a standard continuation bet of 400 into the 700 pot. He instantly made it 1,200. This is now a great situation for me because if I hit my draw, I will almost certainly win a lot of chips due to my opponent potentially being on tilt, resulting in him blasting off, and if I miss, I will only lose my flop and turn call. So, I made the call.

The turn was the JClub Suit. He bet 1,200 again, which I happily called. His 1,200 bet is especially bad because it gives me excellent odds to call. Especially on a draw-heavy board, you should tend to use large bet sizes with both your value hands and bluffs, which my opponent failed to do. If he bet more, perhaps 2,000, I would have still called, but notice that my opponent would have got more money in the pot with what is almost certainly the best hand.

The river was the 6Spade Suit, giving me a weak pair. He instantly bet 2,200 right as the 6Spade Suit came off the deck as if he was planning to bet no matter what card came on the river. This is usually a sign of extreme strength or weakness, and seeing how he was probably on tilt, I thought it was a bit more likely to indicate weakness. Also, most players would be quite scared of the six on the river because any four now makes a straight. With most strong hands, many players will simply check-call the river because if they bet and get raised, they are usually beat.

The 6Spade Suit also failed to improve almost every flopped flush draw while at the same time giving me a marginal bluff catcher. In this spot, I don’t think there is much of a difference between 8-6 and 10-10, as both are mediocre marginal made hands. Unless my opponent caught the jack on the turn and blindly value bet it on the river, I am probably ahead due to my opponent’s range being weighted towards bluffs. Realize that there are many more combinations of bluffs than nut hands, especially since I have a six blocked and another just came on the board.

Since I think my opponent’s range is weak due to most strong turn hands wanting to check the river and many of the obvious draws failing to improve, plus the fact he may be on tilt, I have an easy call, which is what I did. He turned up ASpade Suit 2Club Suit in disgust and I collected another nice pot. It is always interesting to see players turn over stone bluffs in spots like this because I usually assume they must have some sort of draw to make this play. This goes to show you that when a player is on tilt, they may be prone to randomly bluff off a large chunk of their stack. ♠

Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and best-selling poker author with more than $7 million in live tournament earnings. If you want to learn how to play fundamentally sound poker and increase your win rate, check out PokerCoaching.com. Click here to try PokerCoaching.com for free.

Phil Ivey’s WSOP PPC Winnings Garnished by the Borgata

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Phil Ivey ended up eighth in the $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship in June. Yet, according to court documents acquired by Flushdraw.net, he really did not see a dime of his $124,410 cash money. Rather, Caesars Entertainment sent the money straight to the United States Marshals Service per a court order following a $10 million legal action the poker pro lost to Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino.

Ivey and his co-defendants won just over $10 million from the casino in a heavily-publicized Baccarat game in 2012. Nonetheless, a United States District court proclaimed the poker Hall of Famer a cheater, ruling he obtained an unfair benefit over the house with an edge-sorting strategy that enabled him to see the value of face-down cards.

However the 10-time bracelet winner contends he was only playing by regulations agreed upon by the gambling establishment before the video game. He asserts the details brand of cards used during play– Gemaco– were authorized by the home. Thus, he argues, he didn’t rip off.

Phil Ivey Just Can’t Win These Days

Also when Phil Ivey wins, he loses, obviously. The casino poker tale ran deep in the 2019 WSOP PPC, among the top yearly high roller events. However the profits were, according to court papers, garnished.

During Ivey’s deep run in the PPC, Borgata’s lawyer Jeremy M. Klausner sent an email to Caesars’ legal team. The message, with the subject line reading “Caesars Entertainment/Rio/WSOP Writ of Execution,” asked Caesars to send any money won to Klausner’s client, the Borgata.

Jack Effel, WSOP event director, additionally obtained the writ of execution adhering to Day Three of the PPC. At the time, Phil Ivey was the chip leader. He would certainly go on to end up in eighth place for $124,410.

In the email, Klausner asked Caesars to “please ensure that Caesars/Rio/WSOP does not make any payments to Mr. Ivey in violation of the duly served writ.”

Klausner, who represents Marina District Development Company, LLC, also advised the email recipients that “when the current event is over, we or the U.S. Marshal will provide instructions for payment.”

Following the conclusion of the PPC in June, the money was confiscated and sent to the US Marshals Service.

WSOP Struggles Continue

Phil Ivey went back to the US texas hold’em event scene in 2018 after a multi-year hiatus. As well as his results over the previous 2 years have been mediocre, a minimum of by his soaring standards.

At the 2019 WSOP, Ivey moneyed in simply four occasions. His only remarkable performance was in the PPC. The others were min-cashes for under $5,000 in reduced buy-in tournaments.

Generally Event, Phil busted beforehand Day One after risking his entire stack on a race. That’s uncharacteristic of one of the video game’s all-time greats. Yet if he understood in advance that any kind of jackpots would certainly be garnished, possibly he simply really did not care.

Upstate New York Casino Facing Possible Bankruptcy

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New York’s biggest upstate gambling enterprise is on the verge of bankruptcy after a couple of years of procedure with the lack of ability to profit.

Resorts World Catskills reported a $36 million loss last quarter as well as is seriously considering relying on bankruptcy to rectify financial obligation on the $1 billion casino site in Monticello, according to a report from the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Its parent firm, Empire Resorts, is a publicly-traded company, but its largest shareholder is Genting Group, an independently had Malaysian video gaming business. In a filing with the SEC last Friday, Empire Resorts disclosed that it obtained a proposal from Genting to get the entire casino site for $9.74 as well as take the falling short casino into its whole portfolio, that includes a racino in Queens.

“We’re in a unique position where we can assist with the management of Resorts World Catskills through our Resorts World New York property at a low cost,” Ed Farrell, president of Genting Americas, told the USA TODAY Network New York Wednesday. Resorts World New York is a racino in Queens.

The declaring likewise showed that with the end of June, the gambling enterprise acquired operating losses of $73.5 million. If it doesn’t take the handle Genting, or discover one more bargain, the various other option for Empire Resorts is to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would permit them to bargain their financial obligations with their financial institutions.

“We are currently generating operating losses as the casino revenues have not exceeded the costs related to the casino since its opening in February 2018,” Empire Resorts said in the filing.

The casino site is dropping well short of its projected revenues for 2018. After projecting $300 million in revenue this year, it gets on speed to drop concerning $100 million timid of that mark.

The Genting Group remains in the process of completing construction on Resorts World Las Vegas. It gets on pace to open in late 2020 on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.

Billy Cashwell Wins 2019 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event

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Billy Cashwell is the latest champion on the World Series of Poker Circuit. The 42-year-old construction worker from Stedman, North Carolina defeated a field of 1,057 total entries to win the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,700 no-limit hold’em main event. For the win, he earned $271,234 and his first WSOPC gold ring.

In addition to the money and the hardware, Cashwell also earned 960 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to see him move into 341st place in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

Cashwell entered the third and final day of this event in fourth chip position with 20 players remaining. A number of big names hit the rail in the early going, including Dan Lowery (20th – $12,273), Asher Conniff (19th – $12,273) and all-time ring leader Maurice Hawkins (16th – $14,841).

When the unofficial final table of ten players was set, Cashwell had climbed into second place behind Thomas Alcorn. Cashwell got off to a quick start after the field had combined onto a single table, picking up pocket kings against pocket eights to knock out Dinh Ba in 10th place ($22,347).

With seven players remaining Forrest Raleigh got involved in a preflop coin flip against Alcorn, with his AClub SuitKSpade Suit going up against the QSpade SuitQClub Suit of Alcorn. Raleigh managed to spike an ace on the river to double into the chip lead. Alcorn remained one of the larger stacks at the table.

Raleigh increased his lead by eliminating WSOP bracelet winner Martin Kozlov in sixth place. Raleigh called Kozlov’s shove with a bottom pair and the nut flush draw. He rivered the flush to best Kozlov’s flopped pair of queens, sending the Australian poker pro home with $56,832.

Alcorn scored the next two knockouts, busting Brad Albrinck (5th – $73,467) and Dann Turner (4th – $95,847) to close the gap with Raleigh and Cashwell a bit heading into three-handed action. He was unable to maintain that momentum over the next hour, and was down to just 11 big blinds when his final hand was dealt. He got all-in with 6Spade Suit6Club Suit and was called by the Raliegh, whose KSpade SuitJHeart Suit made a full house by the turn to leave Alcorn drawing dead. He earned $126,188 for his third-place finish.

Raleigh took a lead into heads-up play against Cashwell, and was able to expand that advantage to more than 6-to-1 at one point. Cashwell doubled up and then fought his way back into contention. He surged into the lead after winning a massive pot with two pair over two pair. With 9Club Suit7Heart Suit2Heart Suit5Spade Suit showing on the board the two got all-in. Cashwell held 9Heart Suit7Diamond Suit for top two pair, while Raleigh had 9Diamond Suit5[[suit:club]. The river was the 8Club Suit, securing the double up and the lead for Cashwell.

In the final hand of the event, Raliegh shoved his last 16 big blinds with JSpade Suit7Diamond Suit and Cashwell called with 5Spade Suit5Club Suit. The board came down 9Club Suit8Diamond Suit6Spade Suit7Club SuitAClub Suit and Cashwell made a straight to lock up the pot and the title. Raleigh was awarded $167,637 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

Place Player Hometown Prize (USD)
1 Billy Cashwell Stedman, North Carolina $271,234
2 Forrest Raleigh Lawrenceville, Georgia $167,637
3 Thomas Alcorn United States $126,188
4 Dann Turner Cleveland, Ohio $95,847
5 Brad Albrinck Cincinnati, Ohio $73,467
6 Martin Kozlov Lysterfield, Australia $56,832
7 Rodney Seymour Atlanta, Georgia $44,373
8 Shawn McClanahan Abingdon, Virginia $34,971
9 Robert Georato Naples, Florida $27,822

Wai Kin Yong Wins Triton London Super High Roller Poker Tournament For $3.1 Million

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The 2019 Triton Super High Roller Series London £100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a record field of 130 entries, building a total prize pool of £12,200,000 ($14,884,000 USD). After three days of nosebleed poker action, Wai Kin Yong emerged victorious with his second Triton main event title and the top prize of $3,161,868 USD, which he earned after striking a deal heads-up against Triton founder Paul Phua, who started the venture with Wai Kin’s father Richard Yong.

Yong now has live tournament earnings in excess of $6.5 million USD, with three total titles won on the Triton tour. In addition to the title and the money, he was also awarded 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was is third final-table finish of the year, and as a result, he now sits in 81st place in the 2019 POY race standings sponsored by Global Poker.

The final table of this event began with Phua sitting atop the leaderboard with nine players remaining. Wai Leong Chan was the first to be eliminated when his A-J lost a preflop race against the pocket sixes of Yong, who flopped a set and held from there. Chan earned $372,100 USD for his ninth-place showing.

The next major showdown was a three-way all-in involving Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, Stephen Chidwick and Michael Soyza. Cates was the shortest of the three. He got all-in with ASpade Suit3Diamond Suit, only to have Chidwick shove for more behind him with AClub Suit7Heart Suit. Michael Soyza had both his opponents covered and held the best hand with ADiamond SuitQDiamond Suit. He made the call and held after a stressful KHeart Suit5Heart Suit4Heart Suit6Spade Suit6Club Suit runout. Cates took home $500,200 USD as the eighth-place finisher, while Chidwick was awarded $663,680 USD for finishing seventh.

Chidwick has already made 12 final tables in 2019, with three titles won and $5,562,947 in year-to-date earnings. The 330 POY points he earned in this event helped him further his hold on the overall lead in the POY race. He now sits 407 points ahead of his nearest competitor, recent Triton Million runner-up Bryn Kenney.

Paul Phua earned his first knockout of the day when his pocket queens bested the pocket nines of Michael Chi Zhang in a preflop all-in showdown. Phua flopped queens full and turned quads to leave Zhang drawing dead. He took home $867,420 as the sixth-place finisher.

Yong secured the next two bustouts, eliminating Sam Greenwood in fifth place ($1,100,440 USD) and Michael Soyza in fourth ($1,366,400 USD) to take the chip lead into three-handed play.

2019 World Series of Poker $50,000 high roller bracelet winner Ben Heath got his last chips into the pot with KSpade SuitKDiamond Suit up against the ASpade SuitKClub Suit of Phua. Heath was in the lead, at least until the QSpade SuitJHeart Suit10Heart Suit flop gave Phua the straight in the flop. The 6Diamond Suit turn and JDiamond Suit river locked up the pot for Phua, while Heath was sent packing with $1,647,000 USD for his efforts.

At some point the two heads-up players stuck a deal that saw Phua secure $3,121,132 USD and Yong $3,161,868 USD. Phua began with the lead following his elimination of Heath, and was able to stretch his advantage to roughly 6-to-1 before Yong mounted a furious comeback which began with him picking off a bluff from Phua.

It didn’t Yong all that long to completely turn the tables. By the timethe final hand was dealt, Yong held roughly a 6-to-1 lead of his own. Phua moved all-in for just over ten big blinds with QClub Suit6Club Suit and Yong called holding KSpade SuitJClub Suit. Phua picked up a lot of outs on a 9Club Suit7Club Suit7Heart Suit flop. The 6Diamond Suit gave him the lead on the turn, but the JSpade Suit on the end secured the pot and the title for Yong.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Place Player Payout POY Points
1 Wai Kin Yong $3,161,868 1320
2 Paul Phua $3,121,132 1100
3 Ben Heath $1,647,000 880
4 Michael Soyza $1,366,400 660
5 Sam Greenwood $1,100,440 550
6 Michael Zhang $867,420 440
7 Stephen Chidwick $663,680 330
8 Daniel Cates $500,200 220
9 Wai Leong Chan $372,100 110

Can Justin Bonomo Hold Onto All-Time Money List Lead After Triton Million?

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With $45 million in career cashes, Justin Bonomo is the all-time winningest live poker tournament player. But that distinction could be at stake at the historic Triton Million.

Bonomo, the 2018 $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop $10 million champion, busted at the hands of Igor Kurganov on Day Two at the Triton Million on Friday. He was eliminated in 17th place, short of the money bubble.

So, that means he cannot extend his career live tournament earnings lead. But there is an outside shot he could lose the top spot on Saturday.

Current All-Time Tournament Leaders

Justin Bonomo is presently the all-time live tournament earnings leader with just over $45 million in cashes. He’s followed by Daniel Negreanu ($41.85 million), and Erik Seidel ($35.72 million). Neither of those poker greats made the trip to London for the £1,050,000 buy-in tournament, which is a bit of a surprise considering they are almost always in attendance for the biggest events.

In fourth place is Bryn Kenney, one of the most consistent high rollers over the past few years. Bryn has $34.94 million in cashes and needs a third place or better finish to surpass Bonomo on the Hendon Mob money list standings.

Kenney isn’t the only one out of 16 players at the time of publishing still in the hunt to overtake Bonomo. Stephen Chidwick and Dan Smith also have a shot but both would need to win the tournament to do so.

Chidwick, who has $25.17 million in cashes, was third in chips when this article went to publish. Smith sat in sixth place and has $27.98 in career earnings.

First place in the Triton Million pays £19 million, which equates to approximately $23 million US dollars.

At the time of publishing, 16 of the 54 players remained in the Triton Millions. The top 11 will be paid and we should be down to the final table by the time Friday’s session concludes. On Saturday, one player will walk away with £19 million and it could be one of the players who can overtake Justin Bonomo as poker’s all-time winningest tournament player.

It’s just one more reason to watch this historic poker tournament. As if you even needed one.

Final Table Set at WPT Gardens Poker Festival, Lior Orel Continues Lead

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Lior Orel led complying with Day Two at the WPT Gardens Poker Festival. And also as we approach the final table in the initial World Poker Tour event of the season, he’s still in the very same setting.

Eric Hicks, nevertheless, took a commanding chip introduce Day 4 on Wednesday complying with an excellent performance on Tuesday. However the grizzly patriotic American shed a bad beat with a set of queens against Orel’s transformed nut flush to breast in seventh location ($ 56,860).

The WPT Gardens Poker Festival, a $5,000 buy-in competition at Gardens Casino in Los Angeles, is the initial World Poker Tour event of the 2019-2020 season. A total of 373 bought in and after four days of play, we’re to the final six.

Each remaining gamer is guaranteed at the very least $73,600 when the final table starts at 2 pm PT on Thursday. However the genuine money– $368,475, to be precise– is the reward the victor will certainly take house.

Big Names Gone But Talent Remains

Maria Ho remains to run deep in big poker competitions. Yet she took a tumble simply short of the final table on Wednesday. The casino poker analyst was eliminated in 8th location ($ 44,525). But the last table still has some skill in its schedule.

Cable Garcia has nearly $2.7 million in lifetime event pays. He’s most understood for winning the inaugural WSOP Colossus in 2015, defeating a then-record 22,374 players for a $638,880. Like the various other 5 players at the WPT Gardens final table, he’s seeking his first Globe Poker Scenic tour title.

WPT Gardens Poker Festival Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Lior Orel 3,245,000
  2. Roger Teska 2,970,000
  3. Laszlo Molnar 2,865,000
  4. Lars Kamphues 2,540,000
  5. Cord Garcia 1,880,000
  6. Andrew Wisdom 1,435,000

Hicks encountered some terrible luck during Wednesday’s session. Not just did he shed to the previously mentioned suck-out with a set of queens against Orel. Previously in the day, he called an all-in bet with pocket aces pre-flop in a 1.7 million-chip pot versus Wisdom, that was holding Q-10. 4 spades abandoned the board, giving Wisdom a winning flush.

Poker is a terrible game often. It just goes to show that an end-of-day chip lead suggests little unless it’s the final day of the event. Points can go south promptly anytime, a severe lesson Hicks discovered on Wednesday, if he didn’t currently recognize.

Orel, on the other hand, trended upwards throughout much of the session. After finishing Day 2 with the chip lead, he lost his advantage to Hicks on Day 3. Yet simply two days later and also he’s back on top with a take a look at his very first World Poker Tour title.

Hossein Ensan Wins the 2019 WSOP Main Event for $10,000,000

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The 55-year old Hossein Ensan won the Main Event of the 2019 WSOP late Tuesday night, earning $10,000,000 and poker’s most prestigious prize: the WSOP Main Event bracelet.

This is the best feeling in my life,” Ensan said after the event with a huge smile. “Unbelievable! I am so happy I’m here with the bracelet in hand. What can I say?

Ensan is the second German champion in WSOP history (the first was Pius Heinz, who won the 2011 Main Event). He is also the third Iranian born Main Event winner. after Monsour Matloubi (1990) and Hamid Dastmalchi (1992).

Ensan had a substantial chip lead when the last table started Sunday evening, as well as he almost went wire-to-wire. He ultimately relinquished the lead Tuesday evening, but redeemed it as well as ultimately took the last of his opponents’ chips to protect his location in texas hold’em’s history books.

Ensan had to challenge versus Italian pro Dario Sammartino heads up. When heads-up play began, Ensan had a minor chip lead. Sammartino quickly drew ahead, however Ensan clawed his back after concerning a hr. From then on, he never relinquished the lead. Heads-up play lasted 101 hands and also took a bit greater than 4 hours, as well as at concerning 1:23 a.m., Sammartino was gotten rid of in second place. He gains $6,000,000 for his runner-up finish.

“Dario is a friend of mine,” Ensan said later. “He’s a very good player. But short-handed you need cards. You need hands, and for sure luck. And luck and hands were on my side. Otherwise, I’d be runner up.”

In the critical hand, Ensan held pocket kings, and the gamers obtained done in on the turn when Sammartino had a flush draw as well as an inside-straight draw. The river was a blank. Ensan won the hand with his pocket kings and also officially ended up being the WSOP Centerpiece champion.

Tuesday evening was the end result of a wild WSOP Main Event – tales of the video game were on the brink of duplicating history, the building actually trembled, as well as the a near-historic field competed for an 8-figure cash advance.

This was the second-largest Main Event of all time, with 8,569 gamers. (The all-time record is 8,773 in 2006.) The huge area created a reward swimming pool worth $80,548,600, and also the ultimate victor would make $10,000,000.

Gamers recognized this would not be any kind of average Centerpiece as early as Day 1C. A quake in neighboring California was so powerful it could be felt in Las vega. The Rio shivered for a couple of moments, and play was stopped while gambling establishment personnel verified the tournament areas were safe. The moment was simply a hint of points to come.

Followers of the game were glued to ESPN and online updates as a few of the video games most acquainted faces endangered to make history once more. Johnny Chan – the last gamer to win the Centerpiece in back-to-back years and, many thanks to Rounders popularity, one of the world’s most popular gamers – was still active when the bubble burst and also looked positioned to make a deep run. At the time, he was 392nd in chips, out of 1,286 continuing to be gamers. As well as an extra current poker pillar, Chris Moneymaker, was in even better setting (222nd). Nevertheless, it was not to be for either of them, and also they were both eliminated the following day. Another recent Centerpiece champ, Qui Nguyen, outlived them both, but was gotten rid of the same day as Chan as well as Moneymaker.

2005 champ Joe Hachem really did not run virtually as deep, but his child Daniel outlived all the previous Centerpiece champions by finishing 79th for ($98,120).

As well as probably the greatest possible story focused on a different type of champ. Three-time Super Dish victor Richard Seymour was gotten rid of late on Day 5, finishing in 131st area ($59,295).

The third-place finisher was Alex Livingston, of Canada ($4,000,000). This is the 2nd time in WSOP history the final three Centerpiece finishers were all from outside the U.S. The first remained in 2014, when Martin Jacobson (Sweden) outlasted Felix Stephensen (Norway) and Jorryt van Hoof (Netherlands).

2019 WSOP Main Event Final Table Results

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 United States $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

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