PREVIOUS EARNINGS $233,973 Poker has a new World Champion! Hossein Ensan won the Main Event of the 2019 World Series of Poker 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. WSOP 2019: Hossein Ensan Wins Final Table, $10 Million Prize Money. Hossein Ensan outlasted 8,568 competitors to win the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event in the early hours of Wednesday.
Milen Stefanov has won the 2019 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Rock & Roll Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 25-year-old poker pro overcame a field of 988 total entries to secure the title and the first-place prize of $545,070. He also became the first-ever player from his home country of Bulgaria to win a WPT main event.
“It feels amazing,” he told WPT reporters after coming out on top. 'The emotions are running rampant, even more than when I was playing. The WPT is something that I’ve loved for a couple of years now and to be a WPT champion finally, it just feels amazing.”
Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Casino: Bellagio Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada; Buy-in: $10,400; 5-Day Event: December 16–21, 2019; Number of Entries: 1,035; Total Prize Pool: $10,039,500; Number of Payouts: 130. — WSOP (@WSOP) July 1, 2019. The World Series of Poker® is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $2.99 billion in prize.
“This was my first time coming here for poker, so this is my first WPT festival in America,' Stefanov continued. 'I loved pretty much everything including the organization throughout the tournament. I’ll definitely be back. I have to defend the title.”
In addition to the money and the title, Stefanov was also awarded 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his second POY-qualified score of the year, and it was enough to see him move to 234th place in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.
Stefanov came into the final day of this event as the chip leader with six players remaining. He went on to eliminate each and every one of his five opponents himself, starting with Francis Anderson. The two players got all of the chips in preflop with Stefanov holding 77 up against Anderson’s KQ. Anderson spiked a queen on the turn to take the lead, but Stefanov rivered a set of sevens to send Anderson to the rail in sixth place with $111,895.
Stefanov called the shove of Cesar Fuentes with AK. Fuentes had moved in with Q10. Stefanov flopped an ace and held from there to eliminate Fuentes, who earned $146,760 as the fifth-place finisher.
Roman Korenev was the next to go. He three-bet all-in over the top of Stefanov’s button raise with Q10. only to have Stefanov make the quick call with the AA. Korenev was unable to come from behind and was sent home with $194,605.
David Novosel called all-in on a J102106 board with K6, only to find that Stefanov had turned a full house with J10. Novosel earned $260,845 as the third-place finisher, while Stefanov took more than a 5:1 chip lead into heads-up play against German Fabian Gumz.
The two battled it out for 51 hands before a winner was decided. After the final deal, Stefanov raised all-in from the button with A2. Gumz called for his last 7,500,000 out of the big blind holding Q8. The board came down AJ5Q10 and Stefanov’s pair of aces was enough to secure the pot and the title. Gumz cashed for $353,380 as the runner-up finisher.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the final six:
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Milen Stefanov | $545,070 | 1,368 |
| 2 | Fabian Gumz | $353,380 | 1,140 |
| 3 | David Novosel | $260,845 | 912 |
| 4 | Roman Korenev | $194,605 | 684 |
| 5 | Cesar Fuentes | $146,760 | 570 |
| 6 | Francis Anderson | $111,895 | 456 |
Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.
The 2019 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event drew the second-largest field in its history, attracting 8,569 players. After three full days of tournament action, that field has already been narrowed down to just 1,286 players, all of whom are now in the money. The money bubble burst shortly before 1:00 a.m. local time when Ryan Pochedly called off the last of his stack with A-K on a 873K7 board, only to find out that his opponent Julian Pineda had made trips with his 76.
Pochedly was awarded entry into the 2020 main event as a consolation prize from the WSOP, along with a signature board in the shape of a bracelet that featured the signatures of many of the games biggest stars.
With Pochedly’s elimination, the remaining 1,286 all locked up a minimum payday of $15,000, and are alive in this event with a shot at the championship bracelet and the top prize of $10,000,000.
Heading into day 4, Preben Stokkan holds the chip lead with 2,184,000. Other top stacks include Andrew Brokos (1,906,000), Ryan Dodge (1,800,000), WSOP bracelet winner Galen Hall (1,658,000), Cassio Pisapia (1,646,000) and Chris Hunichen (1,618,000).
There are several more big names with healthy stacks following the end of day 3, including Jean-Robert Bellande (1,126,000), Joseph Cheong (1,068,000), Jack Salter (1,015,000), Matt Stout (1,011,000), Max Silver (978,000), November Niner Eoghan O’Dea (946,000), two-time bracelet winner Eric Baldwin (916,000), Tom Cannuli (780,000_ Adam Levy (751,000), three-time bracelet winner Antonio Esfandiari (740,000) and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (727,000).
Three former winners of the main event are still alive with a chance of becoming repeat champions. 2013 WSOP main event winner Chris Moneymaker bagged up 681,000, 2016 champion Qui Nguyen ended with 669,000, and two-time main event champion Johnny Chan will come into day 4 with 498,000. Former champs to hit the rail on day 3 included Joe Hachem, Jim Bechtel, Scotty Nguyen and defending champion John Cynn.
Two-time WSOP main event ‘last woman standing’ Kelly Minkin spent much of her day at one of the three featured tables in the Amazon room. Minkin finished the day with 456,000, securing her third cash in this event in the last five years. She finished 29th in 2015 and 50th last year.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, because I expect myself to go deep every time I play the main event, but it’s a relief that we’re finally in the money,” said Minkin after play ended.
“I want to be the last person standing and win the main event, that would be incredible,” said Minkin when asked for her thoughts on being the last highest-finishing female player in this event multiple times. “But I do think there is something to say about being the last woman, given that I guess this year there were only 350 total women in the field. So, if how I finish and my success in this event can encourage other women to get into poker, that’s amazing.”
Among the 1,594 players that were eliminated on day 3 were plenty of notables like Igor Kurganov, Asi Mishe, Phil Hui, Loni Harwood, David Bach, Calvin Anderson, TJ Cloutier, and Nick Schulman, who was set-over-setted by Joseph Cheong to lose a huge chunk of his stack late in the day.
The final 1,286 players will return for day 4 at noon on Tuesday, July 9. Play was halted following the bursting of the bubble with 6 minutes and 26 seconds remaining at 3,000 – 6,000 blinds and a big blind ante of 6,000 for level 15.
World Poker Tour 2019 Prize Money Prize
Here is a look at the top ten stacks following the conclusion of day 3:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Preben Stokkan | 2,184,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Brokos | 1,906,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Dodge | 1,800,000 |
| 4 | Galen Hall | 1,658,000 |
| 5 | Cassio Pisapia | 1,646,000 |
| 6 | Chris Hunichen | 1,618,000 |
| 7 | Pavlo Veksler | 1,594,000 |
| 8 | Duey Duong | 1,576,000 |
| 9 | Jake Daniels | 1,560,000 |
| 10 | John Patgorski | 1,524,000 |