WSOP 2019 Daily Spotlight – July 16

In this daily feature, we will bring you the key highlights of the 50^th World Series of Poker (WSOP) to keep you abreast with the ongoings at the ‘World’s Biggest Poker Festival.’

This is it! The last ‘WSOP Daily Spotlight’ of 2019! It has been a fantastic series from start to finish and the best-ever performance by the Indian contingent at the WSOP till date. Though it has been an exhaustive series, as the saying goes “All’s well that ends well,” and things ended quite spectacularly for Team India. The man responsible for the fabulous ending is our very own Young Gun Abhinav Iyer. He won India’s very first solo gold bracelet in The Closer for a mind-boggling $565,346 (~₹3.87 Crores) in prize money.

There have been several notable scores posted by Indians throughout the series but the most notables ones this past week have been by PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik Ved and Kunal Punjwani. While Ved was the last Indian standing in the Main Event, finishing 51^st for $173,015 (~₹1.18 Crores), Punjwani got unlucky and missed his chance in the $1.5K NLHE Double Stack finishing seventh for $74,401 (~₹51 Lakhs).

The other significant piece of news featured Indian-origin Anuj Agarwal, who won his career-first bracelet in the $10K NLHE 6-handed Championship for $630,747.

Yasheel Doddanavar was the only one from Team India to post a score. He placed 54^th in the $5K NLHE Turbo for $10,382 (~₹7.14 Lakhs).

The event that had the global poker community on edge was the $10K Main Event. Germany’s Hossein Ensan captured his first-ever gold bracelet in what was the second-largest Main Event in history. Ensan defeated Dario Sammartino heads-up to win a jaw-dropping $10 Million in prize money.

Carl Shaw (Event #89: $5,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Turbo for $606,562) and Denis Strebkov (Event #87: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $206,173) were the last of the bracelet winners at the 50^th annual series.

Event 86: $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em 6-Handed – Day 4

Indian-origin Anuj Agarwal came out on top in the 272-entry field to win his first WSOP bracelet and $630,747 in prize money.

Agarwal defeated Kahle Burns heads-up while start-of-day chip leader Gal Yifrach finished third.

Read the complete report here

Event #89: $5,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Turbo – Day 2

Forty-four players from a starting field of 608 entries came back for Day 2. Outlasting them all was Britain’s Carl Shaw who defeated Tony Dunst heads-up to win the bracelet and $606,562 in prize money.

Team India’s Yasheel Doddanavar picked up his fourth score of the series finishing 54^th for $10,382 (~₹7.14 Lakhs).

Read the complete report here

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

The much-awaited 50^th-annual Main Event finally crowned a champion on July 16. Germany’s Hossein Ensan etched his name in the annals of poker history by winning the 2019 WSOP Main Event. Along with the most prestigious bracelet at the WSOP, he took home $10 Million in first-place prize money and the bragging rights of becoming the new ‘World Champion.’

Ensan was returning as the chip leader for the third consecutive day on Day 10 of the Main Event and was holding a comfortable lead over his other two opponents – Canada’s Alex Livingston and Italy’s Dario Sammartino. Following Livingston’s third-place elimination, the heads-up play ensued. Both Ensan and Sammartino went at each other for nearly five hours before only one of them was left standing. While Sammartino fought hard, in the end, it was Ensan who walked away with the most prestigious title in the game.

Read the complete report here

Event #87: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. – Day 3

After posting three final table finishes at the series, online phenom Russia`s Denis Strebkov finally got the monkey off his back by winning his first gold bracelet. Strebkov had entered the final day with 13 others and outlasted the field to win $206,173 in prize money.

Content & Images Courtesy: World Series of Poker