Six friends sitting around a poker table, eating pizza, drinking beer. It could be absolutely anywhere in the poker-playing world, but somebody here says, “You’re going to break Twitch poker” and everybody else chuckles in agreement.

On the face of it, it’s just a home game in an anonymous house on a regular residential street, but the truth of it is something very different. The presence at the table of Jason Somerville should give the biggest hint that something special is afoot. This is actually the “Run It Up Live Home Game”, the latest concept from Somerville’s Run It Up studios. As ever with this outfit, it has the potential to turn the world of poker streaming on its head.

“We’ve been working on this concept for a little while,” Somerville says, as he offers the first behind-the-scenes tour of the new property to PokerStars Blog. “The sky is the limit for creativity and ideas. That’s something that always appeals to me.”

So it’s a house, with an RFID-enabled poker table in the main room, surrounded by a couple of arcade machines, a fussball table and two couches to sit and relax. There’s a kitchenette, a bookcase, and posters depicting poker players in various cartoon battle poses. But look closely and you’ll see at least seven small cameras focused on and around the table. In adjoining rooms there’s a production crew behind banks of broadcast equipment.

Having basically invented the concept of poker streaming on Twitch, and then mentored a cadre of some of the game’s hottest streaming stars (including Lex Veldhuis, Fintan and Spraggy, Arlie Shaban, et al.) Run It Up is now ready to stream live poker. In fact, they’re now two shows in. But this is not just the kind of “live” poker you might see elsewhere, which actually has a 30-minute broadcast delay. In the Run It Up Live house, the action will be viewed precisely as it happens, offering the very maximum in interactivity for people watching at home.

“If you watch a lot of other live stream poker games, it’s usually stiff, often with no player audio, often with no one that understands Twitch,” Somerville says. “We are Twitch, we live and breathe Twitch, particularly Twitch poker. So we know what the fans want.”

The lack of a broadcast delay is especially important. For the first time, it allows viewers to interact with players in real time. People sitting at home can join a conversation as it’s going on, overcoming the communication issues ever-present when a player is only reading a viewer input several minutes after it was sent. There’s even a feature titled “Twitch Chat Confessional” which will allow a player to leave the table and talk directly with the audience in a kind of confessions booth. It echoes concepts honed in reality shows such as Big Brother, and the overlap is deliberate. But uniquely this is not about isolating players and cutting them off from an audience, it’s instead a deliberate exercise in inclusivity, the likes of which has never been tried before.

“Our players can literally stand up, go to the side, Twitch chat is there with the camera, so you can talk and answer questions and hang out,” Somerville says. “There’s been nothing like that in terms of engaging with the audience. A lot of the cool things we’re working on are about, ‘How can we make live poker more interactive, more engaging, more entertaining?”

MORE ABOUT RUN IT UP
WEBSITE | TWITCH CHANNEL | BLOG COVERAGE

And how about allowing a Twitch player to actually join the game? Pull up a virtual seat and take on the folk at the table? Yes, that too. In discussions prior to the game starting, players and crew referenced the popular Choose Your Own Adventure series of books, which formed a hugely influential part of the childhoods of creative minds of a certain generation. More recently, the Netflix series Black Mirror had an episode, Bandersnatch, in which viewers could decide the action a character takes, dictating the path of a dramatic narrative.

But that was fiction, and what the Run It Up Live Home Game offers is real poker, with the commentators in Twitch chat potentially given the chance to play a hand in the game.

“We’re working on a show concept called ‘Twitch plays poker’ which will, through the magic of technology, allow Twitch to vote on what to do on a hand,” Somerville says. “There will be one player with a camera behind them or on their shoulder and basically that will be the avatar of the Twitch chat. They will pull back their cards, and you’ll have a certain amount of time with which to vote on the action, and then the action will be taken in the game. Never before has this ever been a thing that happens. We’re able to do that only because it’s a home game.”

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

This is in addition to what Somerville promises will be a regular menu of games played between a huge variety of players. The RFID table is equipped to host the entire rotations of dealer’s choice games, while Somerville has more contacts in the poker world than perhaps anybody, all of whom are eager to visit. And it’s not just for the big guns.

“We’ll have plenty of opportunities for fans to win their way to come and play certain games,” Somerville says. “We will be offering a lot of opportunities for people from PokerStars to win their way to come and play, fans from our community can win and come play with us. We’ll be inviting people we’ve met at Run It Up Reno and other events. We can resurrect shows like The Big Game, not necessarily for those stakes, but you could do that for 1/100th of the stakes, give people a $1K freeroll for people to come play this game, and it would still be amazing for Twitch and Twitch chat.

“I have so many ideas for game formats and we can service any community, any language across the world. Let’s say we want to do a show for the Brazilian fans, we can do a show in Brazilian primetime, with Brazilian players, with Portuguese commentary. The flexibility is where the power lies.”

The Run It Up Live Home Game, streaming twice a week on Twitch

Work has been under way on the house for around two months, and the crew broadcast the first game around two weeks ago. That was a three-game rotation cash game, but this week’s second show featured a series of sit n goes, with popular streamers Kevin Martin and Chris “Xecese” Liu, facing Run It Up Reno trophy winner Max Brown, pro player Ashley Sleeth and Platinum Pass winner Aleeyah Jadavji, alongside Somerville.

The buy-in was $200 and the atmosphere exactly like any other home game: plenty of chat, plenty of crazy moves, plenty of 10x opening-raises with K♣6♦. And that was just on the first hand of the day. The players are asked to put their phones away from the table, just in case they’re tempted to sneak a peak at the broadcast and discover what an opponent is sitting with. But it’s self-policing, at least at these lower stakes, with the emphasis on making an engaging show. Eliminated players can head up to the commentary booth to talk about the rest of the action, while the Twitch audience can make suggestions for new games or side bets or whatever.

“It was just a blast, so much fun,” Jadavji says. “You can have fun, but still take the game seriously…JCarver has so many connections, it’ll be huge.”

Somerville says: “We’ve had a lot of interest, from Phil Hellmuth on down from people who’d like to come and play in this environment. How many people play poker home games and say to themselves, ‘Wow, if this was broadcast, a million people would watch.’ Well, I got a home game with a set for you. We could literally run home games for you.”

Jason Somerville in WSOP action

In the meantime, as you get your friends together and get writing the letters to Somerville begging to play, head over to RunItUp.tv to see archive shows and the latest broadcasts, two of which should be going out every week.

“If this goes as well as I expect it to go, I think we’ll be able to put out content very often, to do shows that fans will enjoy on a regular basis,” he says. “I don’t know whether that will mean four days a week, five days a week, eventually getting to a point where it’s six or seven days a week.

“I’m definitely excited to see how it goes. It’s going to get a life of its own, I’m sure. This is show No 2, and it’s kind of hard to imagine what show No 200 looks like. But I’m already pretty happy with what we’ve created.”

It’s a scorcher today in Las Vegas, where the mercury has pushed up beyond 110° Fahrenheit (44° Celcius). It’s always hot out here in the desert, of course, but it had been a comparatively clement 100° over the past week or so.

In a metaphorical sense, the temperature is also rising inside the Rio Hotel & Casino, home of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The 8,569-strong Main Event field was trimmed to only 106 at the start of the day, and they were quickly down into double figures after the noon resumption. Decisions are now potentially worth millions of dollars in equity, and weary nerves are fraying after five long and draining days.

Mercifully, tournament officials are able now to allow the field to breathe a little, and have rearranged the tables in the Amazon Room to put a good few yards between them. All three feature tables are again in use, but players on the six other tables are now yelling distance apart. It is, however, almost silent. There’s no one even close to a Will Kassouf this time around.

Room to breathe in the Day 6 tournament area

The relative absence of bodies in the room means the air conditioning is now blowing a chilly wind through the arena. It’s both a pressure cooker and an ice box in here — conditions pretty much unique to this pre-eminent tournament.

SPREADING THEM THIN

While the Main Event spreads out, the overall tournament schedule has actually never been busier. There are no fewer than nine bracelet events in play today, including the final table of the $3,000 Limit Hold ’em and the opening day of the $100,000 Super High Roller (of which more below).

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

There’s plenty of bling on display in the Tan section of the Amazon Room where it’s Day 2 of the $1,500 “Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold’em” event, an invitation-only event with fairly self-explanatory qualification requirements. Over its 50 years, the WSOP has given out around 1,600 bracelets, though the cap on the field was necessarily far smaller than that. There are many multiple winners and obviously some players buying in these days only to the great poker game in the sky. Nevertheless, 185 highly recognisable players drew up seats in the event, making a $277,500 prize pool.

Bracelet winner Ylon Schwartz

At time of writing Liv Boeree, who won her bracelet in the tag team event in 2017, is in the middle of the pack with 45 players left. Twenty-eight spots are paid.

Today at the WSOP
Event #73: $10,000 Main Event – Day 6
Event #75: $1,000+111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em – Day 4
Event #77: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed – Final table
Event #78: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty – Final table
Event #79: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Day 3
Event #80: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha – Day 2
Event #81: $1,500 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold’em – Day 2
Event #82: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack – Day 1
Event #83: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller – Day 1

HIGH ROLLERS ROLL BACK

The biggest buy-in event on this year’s WSOP schedule also got under way today as the $100,000 High Roller kicked off. Though there have been three tournaments already this summer with a buy-in of $50,000, this is the only time that players need to find six figures.

There has been at least one tournament of this buy-in level every year at the WSOP since the first ever $1 million Big One for One Drop in 2012, and trends in world poker have been moving towards higher buy-ins at the Super High Roller level for quite a while. (There’s a £1 million tournament scheduled for London next month, which will be the biggest ever.) However, the World Series continues to offer a balanced spread of buy-ins, a fact reflected by examining the average WSOP buy-in over the past decade.

If one wanted to play each of 90 events this year† (one buy-in only), it would cost $543,119, at an average buy-in of $6,034. Though the three iterations of the Big One for One Drop skewed average buy-ins for the years they ran, this figure has remained remarkably consistent if we omit the $1m buy-in event.

The average buy-ins for the WSOP for the past five years has never been lower than $5,883 nor higher than $6,193. The lowest average buy-in year was actually 2012, when the $1m event first appeared on the schedule. Aside from the inaugural One Drop, an average buy-in in 2012 was $3,958.

*Omitting the $1m Big One for One Drop
†One would also need to be a woman over the age of 60 who works in a casino to be able to play all of them, but you get the idea.

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

As Bruce Buffer would say, it’s TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME…for you to become the boss of the UFC.

Sound good? It better, because the UFC® and PokerStars is literally giving you the opportunity to ‘be the boss’ of the Octagon®.

One lucky PokerStars player will win first-class travel to Las Vegas, where they will not only get to visit the UFC Performance Institute and take over an office at UFC headquarters, they will also win five-star accommodation and Octagon-side seats for UFC 241 in Anaheim, California.

PLUS: you’ll get inside the Octagon and strap the UFC Heavyweight Championship belt on the winner of UFC 241: Daniel Cormier vs Stipe Miocic 2.

You could win all that, and much more.

But how?

You need to win the UFC Gold Octagon chip.

HOW TO WIN

Between July 12 and July 15, all PokerStars.com* players who take part in a real money UFC Sit & KO game and KO an opponent will win a chest.

Find a Silver Octagon Chip inside the chest and you’ll win an official UFC merchandise bundle including a replica belt, fighter gloves, and a UFC Reebok hoodie. Plus a shot at the full prize.

There are 22 Silver Octagon chips up for grabs, and if you win one, here’s the next step.

You will be invited to send in a video explaining why you should be chosen as the winner of the UFC Gold Octagon Chip and this incredible prize. A jury will then select the winner from all of the valid entries.

So get thinking. What makes you ‘boss material’? What makes you stand out from the crowd? Why should Dana White invite you?

Get creative. Be original. Saying you love the UFC isn’t enough. So do millions of us!

And remember, you’ll be representing both PokerStars and UFC not only during the experience, but also in the Octagon. We want a great Ambassador to send on this crazy, once-in-a-lifetime ride.

Click here for all the information on this incredible ‘Be the boss of the UFC’ promotion.

Terms and conditions apply. Available countries only. 18+. See here for details.

*For .net players, you’ll win tickets to a freeroll, the winner of which will win a Silver Octagon chip.

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

Here’s a round-up from the week on PokerStars Blog…

• Big names go deep as WSOP ME heads to Day 7
• Amazing UFC prize up for grabs
• Save the date! EPT Prague confirmed for December
• Inside the Run It Up Live Home Game
• Lex Live 2: London travel guide
• How the Sunday Million was won (July 7)

WSOP MAIN EVENT HEADS INTO DAY 7

This year’s World Series of Poker Main Event is providing amazing story after amazing story (none more amazing for us here at PokerStars than Garry Gates’ epic run – go GG!)

Room to breathe in the Day 6 tournament area

Luckily for us, our man Howard Swains has been at the Rio in Las Vegas for the Main’s entirety, bringing us great interviews and features from the floor.

At the time of writing Day 6 has come to an end with just 35 players remaining, each guaranteed $261,430.

Head to the WSOP coverage hub for everything from Vegas.

AMAZING UFC PRIZE UP FOR GRABS

If you haven’t heard yet, PokerStars and UFC have teamed up to create a once-in-a-lifetime, VIP experience for one lucky PokerStars Player.

You could win:

• Octagon-side seats for #UFC241
• Your own office at UFC HQ
• Strap the belt on the winner of Cormier vs Miocic 2
• 1st-class travel and 5-star accommodation

And a whole lot more.

Click here for all the details on how you could win.

EPT PRAGUE CONFIRMED FOR DECEMBER

Get these dates marked on the calendar: December 6-17, 2019.

Prague Hilton

The European Poker Tour is returning to Hilton Hotel Prague in the Czech Republic for a full slate of tournaments, cash games, and general festive fun.

Head here for all the details.

INSIDE THE RUN IT UP LIVE HOME GAME

“Six friends sitting around a poker table, eating pizza, drinking beer. It could be absolutely anywhere in the poker-playing world, but somebody here says, “You’re going to break Twitch poker” and everybody else chuckles in agreement.

Inside the Run It Up Live home game

On the face of it, it’s just a home game in an anonymous house on a regular residential street, but the truth of it is something very different. The presence at the table of Jason Somerville should give the biggest hint that something special is afoot. This is actually the “Run It Up Live Home Game”, the latest concept from Somerville’s Run It Up studios. As ever with this outfit, it has the potential to turn the world of poker streaming on its head.”

Check out Howard Swains’ full article from Run It Up Live HQ in Las Vegas.

LEX LIVE 2: LONDON TRAVEL GUIDE

At the end of September, PokerStars Ambassador Lex Veldhuis will be hosting the second edition of Lex Live at the Aspers Casino in Westfield Stratford City.

That’s in London, baby.

Whether it’s recalling all of the hotels that you wanted to buy on Mayfair and Park Lane in your earlier years playing Monopoly, watching scenes of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, cheering one of the city’s football teams or laughing to episodes of Fleabag, we’ve all had a piece of London in our lives at some point.

If you haven’t had the chance to visit this metropolis yet, then there’s no better time than for Lex Live 2.

The 10-day festival runs from September 27 through October 6, 2019.

Here’s a guide to England’s capital if you’re planning to visit for the first time.

HOW THE SUNDAY MILLION WAS WON

This week we brought you the definitive account of the July 7th Sunday Million, featuring hand breakdowns, payout information, and even interviews with the final table players.

Find out how last week’s Sunday Million was won here.

Opening a PokerStars account is easy. Click here to get an account in minutes.

Some people like the bubble. For others it’s all about the very end. (Some masochists even enjoy day one.) But for my money, today is the best day on the poker calendar: when the World Series Main Event plays down to its final nine.

This is the day of Matt Affleck vs. Jonathan Duhamel. It’s the day of Will Kassouf vs. Griffin Benger. And it’s the day of Daniel Negreanu vs. the weight of the poker world on his shoulders, and an award-winning image from photographer Joe Giron.

The Negreanu elimination: On this day three years ago

This is the day when the Amazon Room really crackles, as players find either elation or complete deflation. It’s impossible to know exactly what will happen, but something will. And during a WSOP where we’ve already had an earthquake, the sky is the limit.

Though there’s uncertainty about the direction the fireworks will erupt, there is one thing we know for sure: at the end of it, there will be nine players guaranteed a $1 million payout and a shot at ten times that amount, plus eternal glory.

We make no apology in these parts for focusing our attention entirely on the man currently sitting in sixth place on the overnight counts: PokerStars’ own Garry Gates. Gates says he has been blown away by the support from across the poker world, testament to his standing as one of the ultimate good guys.

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

He was in exceptionally good spirits when we caught up just before the resumption in play, going through a few stretching exercises just to get the blood pumping. Actually, according to Gates, it’s less blood and more pure adrenalin coursing through his body at this stage.

“I’m feeling good, feeling good,” he said. “I didn’t get that much sleep last night, the adrenalin was pumping. I have this odd sense of calm around me, I’m feeling the love from everybody near and far. I’m excited and ready to go.”

Gates is sitting on the same table as the chip leader Nicholas Marchington, a man who is as surprised as anybody to find himself in this position. Marchington came over to talk to Gates (the two have played together a lot already in this tournament) and admitted that this was his first Main Event, and first very deep run in any tournament of this magnitude.

“He just wins all his money on his computer,” Gates said, spotting an online wizard when he sees one. “This could be a heads up match actually,” Gates added.

Marchington said: “It’s crazy. It’s a surreal experience. I don’t know what to say really. I also didn’t get that much sleep but I’ve got all the energy in the world. We were playing for 14 hours yesterday and the last hand I still had lots of energy. Then as soon as I got back to my hotel room, I’m asleep in five minutes.”

Nicholas Marchington: The ultimate trip saver

This is the ultimate trip saver for Marchington, who said that his first ever proper overseas trip just for poker had been going badly prior to now. “I’ve fired 33 bullets worth of events, and this is my second cash,” he said. This is the right way to make it up.

Marchington said a rail is ready to jet in from Britain should he make the final table, but that he wasn’t taking anything for granted. Gates too said that some more of his family is preparing to fly down from Pennsylvania should his progress to continue, joining his brother who arrived yesterday.

“I’m grateful that I’ve already made it this far,” Gates said, to agreement from Marchington. “And whatever happens here is just gravy.”

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

A few players scooting off for their one-hour break contemplated heading outside for some vitamin D. That’s the one true benefit of taking dinner breaks right around the time of afternoon tea.

But as they pressed the bar on the heavy fire-door to the yard out back, they were confronted by something very weird. Water was falling from the sky.

“It’s raining,” Hossein Ensan said. He recognised this phenomenon from back in Europe. Garry Gates, now a Las Vegas resident, pressed the bar on the door anyway. “Oh,” he said and scurried back inside.

Ensan loitered close to the door and tugged on an e-cigarette, scarcely able to disguise the smile on his face. As they went on the break, he was sitting second in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, with 43.725 million chips. That’s more than 100 big blinds in the biggest event of the year, with now only 24 people left.

“I’m having fun,” he said. “I play poker just for the fun. The money is nice, but it is fun.”

Ensan is perhaps not that well known here in Las Vegas, but we’ve encountered him many times on the European Poker Tour (EPT). None of us could miss him when he claimed the biggest win of his career at EPT Prague in 2015. He won €754,510 for that, which is around $850,000, and he can beat that if he makes the final table here. Ninth place will pay $1 million.

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

The Prague success came from his third EPT final table, a record matched by very few on Europe’s premier poker tour. There are around 28 people with three final table appearances on the EPT, but Ensan’s record is most remarkable because he didn’t make his first until Season 11, when fields were enormous and enormously tough. He He also came third in Barcelona in 2014, worth €652,667, and sixth in Malta less than a year later.

Ensan’s title in Prague

“EPT is harder,” Ensan said, when asked to compare the relative difficulties of the WSOP Main Event alongside his regular stomping ground. He was quick to add that things are getting significantly more difficult now, however, and to point to all the other things that need to combine for a deep run.

“You need luck, the cards,” he said. “And the skill.” He then paused and added: “And the balls.”

Ensan has long demonstrated possession of all of it, and there’s absolutely no doubt he is a genuine contender in this Main Event. If he makes it to the last nine, he will become the first ever EPT champion to then make a WSOP Main Event final table.

The only player ever to win an EPT and finish higher in this tournament is John Shipley, but he did it the other way round. Shipley finished seventh at the WSOP in 2002, two years before he then went on to win the inaugural EPT London. (He got $125,000 in Vegas and around $350,000 for winning in London.)

At present, Frederik Jensen’s 12th place last year represents the deepest run by an EPT champion in the Main Event. If he was interested in meaningless stats, that’s the target Ensan would have in his sights. But one strongly suspects Ensan is aiming even higher.

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

Garry Gates’s rail here at the Rio has been swelling all week, and the 15 or so folk who are now three deep around the main feature table stage just erupted in jubilation. Gates was all in with pocket kings against the A♥K♥ of Hossein Ensan and the kings held.

Huge double for PokerStars’ own

Donnie Peters, who seems to seen through his plan to abandon his media pass should Gates go very deep, put it best: “JFJFBDJSHZBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBXBBXBBXX XBSJAKWKXBBXX”

Something pretty crazy is going on here, especially for long-standing friends of Gates. In truth, whether or not you’re a friend of Gates depends only on whether you’ve met him. There’s not a bad word to be heard said about him — even from people he sends to the rail.

Ensan, whose main table chip lead was barely dented by the skirmish against Gates, grinned along. And even Mihai Manole, whose Main Event ended at Gates’s hands in fairly grim circumstances, considers Gates to be a friend.

Gates, left, ends Manole’s Main Event

That has something to do with the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC), for which Gates was the principal company point man for Platinum Pass winners. Manole won the very first Platinum Pass (in amusing circumstances) and so Gates had been looking after him for longer than anyone. The VIP treatment ended, of course, when Gates’s A♠10♦ beat Manole’s A♦J♣ and sent Manole out in 18th.

That was the second significant outdraw that has fired Gates’s run this week, with another Platinum Pass winner, Robert Heidorn, involved in the first. In a hand late yesterday, Gates’s A♥K♦ rivered an ace against Heidorn’s K♣K♥ to score a massive double up. Heidorn remains in the tournament now, so it wasn’t terminal for him, but it was considerably better for Gates.

In this instance, it was down to Mike McDonald to speak for everyone.

Chris Moneymaker also made his thoughts well known:

The kings vs. ace-king coup from today was obviously a repeat of yesterday’s match-up, but Gates quickly highlighted the principal difference. “It feels good to have the kings this time,” he said.

Gates added, “It’s just a lucky spot that he had the ace king. They’re two hands that play themselves.”

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

With that, Gates settles back down behind a 52.4 million chip stack to continue what everyone hopes will be a rush to the final table. Is this for real?

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

It was clear at the start of Friday that we were in for an extraordinary day. It always is when they play down to a final nine at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. What we could not have possibly imagined in our wildest dreams is that a man exceptionally close to all of us here at PokerStars would be featuring in the photo at the top of the page, much less right in the middle of it.

But it’s true. He is second of nine remaining. On Linked In, they call him PokerStars’ Senior Manager of Player Relations, Engagement and Communities, but to everyone else across the poker world, he is Garry Gates, the guy you go to if you need absolutely anything, and if you are absolutely anyone.

He has calmed the tantrums of the highest high rollers; he put the platinum into the Platinum Passes. He’s brought the love to player liaison; and mentored a whole generation in the media room. A photo surfaced on Twitter tonight, taken by former poker reporter Chris Hanel, that showed Gates in 2007 abusing his media credential to sneak an aspirational photo at the WSOP final table. But now Gates is sitting there for real.

“It’s special,” Gates said. “It’s really, really special. I hope to make everybody proud.”

Garry Gates: Making all of us proud

Gates, like his eight remaining opponents, guaranteed themselves a $1 million payday when they watched Robert Heidorn get knocked out at 2am tonight, bringing this 8,569-runner tournament to its final table. They now pause for a day before playing a three-day finale at the end of which the new World Champion will have a bracelet around his wrist and a $10 million check in his hand. It’s all a little bit surreal.

Robert Heidorn busts to Ensan to bring them down to nine

The final table has a cosmopolitan flavour, with players from six countries represented. At the very top is Hossein Ensan, Iranian-born but a long-naturalised German, who is very well known in European poker circles. He took up poker late in life, but has been teaching the young guns new tricks for the past six years. He won an EPT title in Prague at his third final table, and is now, at 55, playing yet another long tournament like a beast.

Ensan has 177 million chips, having won almost all the big pots he entered. Close to the end he extracted maximum value from a flopped set of tens, which turned a full house, and left Timothy Su plummeting down the counts. Su sits in eighth going into the final, while Ensan sits pretty at the summit.

Ensan said he couldn’t focus on what he might end up winning. “What can I say? Money is very important for everyone, but this much money? I don’t know.”

Hossein Ensan: Leader!

As for Gates, he got heaps of his chips when he knocked out Mihai Manole in a grim spot — Gates’s A♠10♦ spiking a ten to beat Manole’s A♦J♣ — and he latterly doubled up with pocket kings against Ensan’s A♥K♥. He then knocked out Henry Lu when both players flopped top pair of jacks, but Gates’s kicker was better. Gates then spent the rest of the night riding the wave of support that has flooded his way, and will continue to wash over him for the rest of his life, regardless of what happens next.

“Any poker player who loves the game dreams of making the final table,” Gates said. He paid testament to his supporters, both those in Vegas and those sending messages of good will from afar. “My best friends in the world,” Gates said, as well as pointing out his girlfriend, two brothers and dad who have come in from Pennsylvania. He also said all of Erik Seidel, John Juanda and Jason Koon have sent him messages, while the likes of Jason Mercier and Chris Moneymaker have been tweeting their support.

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

We had to wait until about 1am for the inevitable pre-final flashpoint, which occurred in a pot when they were 11-handed. It involved the overnight chip leader, Nick Marchington, and the Italian high roller Dario Sammartino.

Marchington shoved on a flop and Sammartino asked for a count, but was apparently told the wrong amount by the dealer. Sammartino put the chips forward — only enough to call the amount spoken by the dealer — but the error then became clear. Sammartino was ultimately made to put in the extra too (the official line is that a dealer’s count is advisory only, and Marchington had been clear that he was all in). Marchington’s queens beat Sammartino’s tens on a low board, but Sammartino was apoplectic about the way it played out.

Dario Sammartino: Flashpoint

It gave Marchington a lifeline, however, and booked his spot in the final. At the very beginning of the day, Gates had suggested that he and Marchington were going to play heads-up, and that remains a possibility. We are on tenterhooks as we wait to find out.

The full line-up for the final is as follows, and we’ll return with profiles for all of them very soon. The final table payouts are also below.

Hossein Ensan, Germany, 177 million
Garry Gates, United States, 99.3 million
Zhen Cai, United States, 60.6 million
Kevin Maahs, United States, 43 million
Alex Livingston, Canada, 37.8 million
Dario Sammartino, Italy, 33.4 million
Milos Skrbic, Serbia, 23.4 million
Timothy Su, USA, 20.2 million
Nick Marchington, UK, 20.1 million

1 – $10,000,000
2 – $6,000,000
3 – $4,000,000
4 – $3,000,000
5 – $2,200,000
6 – $1,850,000
7 – $1,525,000
8 – $1,250,000
9 – $1,000,000

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

The final table for the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event was set at around 2am Saturday morning at the Rio Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. Each of the nine players, the last from a 8,569-entry field, are now guaranteed $1 million minimum and possibly up to $10 million. The total prize pool for the tournament was $80,548,600.

The nine players represent six nationalities and will play to a winner over three days, starting Sunday night. Introducing your finalists (with thanks to Seth Palansky and the WSOP media team):

Seat 1 – Hossein Ensan, Germany – 177 million
Hossein Ensan is a 55-year-old German poker pro who has enjoyed increasing success on the global poker scene in recent years. Ensan emigrated from his native Iran to Germany in 1990 and began traveling and competing in poker tournaments around 2004, though it wasn’t until 2013 that he began booking significant cashes. He still describes himself as a poker amateur, just as he once described himself as a “simple painter,” his former occupation, following his breakthrough performances earlier this decade. Ensan has one daughter and travels frequently to his native Iran. Ensan’s career-best performance is a victory for €754,510 (around $825,000), which he earned for victory at EPT Prague in 2015. He has made two other EPT main event final tables, and is the first EPT champion to make a WSOP Main Event final. Also of note is Ensan’s win at the 2017-18 WSOP International Circuit stop at Kings Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, where he topped a 672-entry main event field to collect €184,812 ($220,000). Of his remarkable WSOP run, he said: “I’m having fun.”

Seat 2 – Nick Marchington, UK – 20.1 million
Nick Marchington is a 21-year old poker professional from Hornchurch, Essex, in the UK. He dropped out of a computer science degree to play poker full time, and is having a dream run on his first ever poker-playing trip to Las Vegas. He said he has fired 33 tournament bullets during this WSOP, but cashed on only one previous occasion ($12,415 for finishing 18th in the $800 NLHE Deepstack), so this is a spectacular way to end his trip. Chip leader coming into Day 7, he had dwindled in the counts until securing a late double-up through Dario Sammartino to make his way to the final.

Seat 3 – Dario Sammartino, Italy – 33.4 million
Dario Sammartino is a 32-year old poker professional with $3,446,357 in career WSOP tournament winnings, from more than $8 million overall. He has 38 WSOP cashes, his biggest cash coming from the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop in 2017. He won $1,608,295. Sammartino has three third-place finishes in WSOP events and his best Main Event finish was in 2017, when he finished 43rd. His online game is equally as sharp and, as “Secret_M0d3” he has won numerous major title on PokerStars. The most recent was a SCOOP title in the 6+ event in May. In January, he won two High Roller Club titles in a single day. Sammartino learned poker after his grandfather passed away. His father taught him as a way to help him cope with the loss. He is a former Starcraft player and a regular on the poker high-roller scene, and a very familiar figure in Europe.

Seat 4 – Kevin Maahs, United States – 43 million
Chicago’s Kevin Maahs is a relatively new player on the WSOP scene, but he’s making a big imprint on the Series in one of his first poker trips to Las Vegas. The 27-year-old Maahs had logged only one prior WSOP cash before his deep run here, a 169th-place finish for $1,230 in a big-field, multi-flight WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond (Indiana) event in February 2019. Maahs, though, is an increasing poker presence on the Midwest poker scene, having logged a live-career best $20,625 cash last September.

Seat 5 – Timothy Su, United States – 20.2 million
Timothy Su is a 25-year-old software engineer from Boston, MA. Before this year’s WSOP, Su had two cashes for $1,540. This is his first Main Event and he was the chip leader of his Day 2 flight as well as at the end of Day 5. Originally from Allentown, PA, Su is a fan of Philadelphia sports teams. He is currently working as part of a 15-person startup in Boston called Canopy. He plays three instruments, the piano, the violin, and the oboe. He loves Tchaikovsky and enjoys playing classical music. Su said, “There are a lot of parallels between music, poker and software in terms of taking liberties in choosing what you think is correct.” He says his proudest moment is completing a 100-mile bike ride.

Seat 6 – Zhen Cai, United States – 60.6 million
Florida’s Zhen Cai is a full-time pot-limit Omaha cash-game pro who only occasionally finds time to participate in tournaments, though his 2019 run may change that. Cai, a former casino employee, is usually found in Florida’s plentiful cardrooms, though he makes occasional poker trips elsewhere, such as the WSOP. The 35-year-old is a resident of Lake Worth, Florida, and has logged occasional WSOP cashes dating from 2010. Cai is also a WSOP Circuit ring winner, having won Event #5: $565 No-Limit Hold’em, at the 2010-11 WSOP Circuit Regional Championship at Harrah’s New Orleans (Louisiana). That effort was worth $33,753, second among all his live cashes. Cai has also received mentoring from his good friend, Tony Miles, who finished second in the WSOP Main Event in 2018.

Seat 7– Garry Gates, United States – 99.3 million
PokerStars’ great hope Garry Gates has enjoyed increasing success on the felt in addition to his regular behind-the-tables career. Gates began in poker as a live reporter, quickly advanced to becoming a live-reporting manager, and for the past several years has worked as an events manager and senior consultant for player affairs for PokerStars, where he has become friends not only with his colleagues but with players at all levels of experience. The 37-year-old Gates lives in Henderson, Nevada when not traveling the globe. Gates is also a survivor of the horrific 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas in which 58 other concert-goers lost their lives. Gates, a native of Titusville, Pennsylvania, has participated in the Main Event for the past decade, having made the money in both 2011 and 2017. The 2011 cash was for a 170th-place effort worth $47,107. Most of his career cashes have come in WSOP or WSOP Circuit events, with his prior career-best payday, $64,530, earned with a fourth-place finish in Circuit event in Atlantic City in 2012. He has support from across PokerStars as well as among all the world’s high rollers, with whom he has worked at all of the company’s major events.

Seat 8 – Milos Skrbic, Serbia – 23.4 million
Serbia’s Milos Skrbic is a relative newcomer to the WSOP but has left his mark on the global live-poker scene in recent months. The 30-year-old Skrbic, who lives in Sremska Mitrovica in northwestern Serbia, has earned over $1.6 million in live poker tournaments. The vast majority of that total has come in 2018 and 2019, and in particular at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December last year. He finished second to Dylan Linde and won $1.087 million. Skrbic broke through in a major way when he placed fifth in the Main Event at the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe, earning €241,718 (USD 275,054). He becomes the first Serbian player to make the final table of the world’s biggest tournament and will go top of the country’s money list with a fifth place finish or better.

Seat 9 – Alex Livingston, Canada – 37.8 million
Canada’s Alex Livingston is a full-time poker pro who splits his time between his native Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Las Vegas. The 32-year-old Livingston has made a deep run in the Main Event before, having finished 13th in the 2013 Main for a live-career best $451,398. This former chess champion learned poker as many do, via games with friends. He attended Tufts University in Boston, and he later acquired a pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York. Livingston, also enjoys golf and bowling and is a big fan of NBA basketball. The 32-year-old Livingston has participated at the WSOP since his early 20s and continues to proudly represent his native Canada at the tables.

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

Well, well, well. Here we are. It’s Day 8 of the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and the finishing line is in sight. That’s because the final table starts today — at 6.30pm local time — and we will now begin a three-stage process before identifying the new world champion.

They cut the last nine down to six this evening. They then go from six to three tomorrow. And then Tuesday night, two more players will be shorn from contention to leave only the new World Champion.

Banners bearing the photographs of the former winners hang from the walls around all sides of this cavernous playing quarters, and each and every one of the 8,569 people who played this event have imagined seeing themselves alongside the greats. They handed over $10,000 in the speculative hope of making it $10 million, and getting their hands on the most prestigious piece of jewellery in the game.

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY | PLAYER PROFILES

It’s in touching distance now for these nine, and all eyes of the watching poker world will be scrutinising their every move until we have our last man standing.

Gates, in orange, mingles with the rest of the final table players

Our principal focus is our dear friend and colleague Garry Gates, who is making everyone working for PokerStars or in the media room here at the Rio wonder in they’re actually in a dream. We’ve all seen many poker tournament won and lost, but we’ve never had someone we know so close to such an enormous prize.

The good news is that Gates is taking it in his stride, savouring the moment and relishing the prospect of slugging it out on the biggest stage.

“The nerves, they’re here, they’re present,” he said. “But I think I’m controlling them well enough. I’m just taking it in. This is exciting. This is once in a lifetime.”

Gates used his day off to hang out with friends and family who have jetted in from far and wide to support him, and he went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant on the eve of this most significant day. Though the pasta did its best to sabotage Gates’s tournament — he found himself at Walgreens at 4.30am — he has been squeezing in naps and is feeling psyched.

“He got more sleep than I did,” said Marissa Rodney, Gates’s girlfriend, who has been by his side for almost all of the deep run.

Gates said he took some time yesterday to look through the hundreds of messages that have been flooding in his direction, as well as across social media. Then he found himself buzzing through his media commitments at the Rio and continuing to find inspiration wherever he looked.

“It honestly felt like I was walking into a heavyweight fight,” he said.
“Coming down the hall and seeing the lines, seeing the guys with my shirts on…Let’s do it man.”

At this precise moment, 15 minutes before play is due to begin, he is mingling with supporters and opponents alike, talking with great enthusiasm and excitement and charming everyone who comes into his orbit.

He’s always been World Champion standard at that kind of thing. Turns out, there are even more strings to his bow.

Play begins at 6.30pm.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event
Dates: July 3-16, 2019
Buy-in: $10,000
Players: 8,569
Prize pool: $80,548,600

Stacks:
Hossein Ensan, Germany, 177 million
Garry Gates, United States, 99.3 million
Zhen Cai, United States, 60.6 million
Kevin Maahs, United States, 43 million
Alex Livingston, Canada, 37.8 million
Dario Sammartino, Italy, 33.4 million
Milos Skrbic, Serbia, 23.4 million
Timothy Su, USA, 20.2 million
Nick Marchington, UK, 20.1 million

Prizes:
1 – $10,000,000
2 – $6,000,000
3 – $4,000,000
4 – $3,000,000
5 – $2,200,000
6 – $1,850,000
7 – $1,525,000
8 – $1,250,000
9 – $1,000,000

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final is well and truly up and running–and we’re very quickly down to seven players after near back-to-back knockouts. Both Milos Skrbic and Timothy Su are on the rail, losing their stacks to the two dominant players.

Garry Gates took from Skrbic to end the Serbian’s day in ninth, and then Su lost a flip to Hossein Ensan. The rich get richer, and even the “poor” now walk away with $1 million and $1.25 million, respectively.

Skrbic told reporters after his elimination that he had lost seven all-in confrontations in a row, the last of which was the first time that he was the player under threat.

“I’m still in shock,” Skrbic said. “It was fun, for sure, somehow I’m happy with every decision I made in the whole tournament. I wouldn’t change anything.”

Milos Skrbic: Ninth place, for $1 million

His final hand came about when action folded to Gates in the small blind and he moved in, covering the 17.4 million Skrbic had behind. Skrbic found A♠J♥ and made a quick call, but Gates had him pipped with A♣Q♥. The board offered no salvation to Skrbic.

“I just busted in a huge cooler,” Skrbic said. “I really tried to do it for the people of Serbia. I know there’s a lot of people there watching me, hoping that I can win. It wasn’t up to me, clearly.”

For all that, he couldn’t find a bad word to say about anything regarding his World Series experience, acknowledging to get to this stage of a tournament of this magnitude represented a huge success.

“Tournaments are rough,” he said. “It’s very bad when you run bad in tournaments, but it’s definitely fun when you run like me, deep run everything. You are always disappointed unless you win.”

He added: “I have fun all the time. That’s just the way I am. The way I play, I do a bunch of stuff that other pros don’t do. I learn to extract the best from it. I just enjoy myself, I didn’t have stress at all.”

A cash game player by trade, he said he will likely return to that format, or focus on his business — an environmental charging company — more if he takes some time away from poker.

“I couldn’t do anything better,” he said. “I might drink every day for the next year.”

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

Only a few hands later, the stands around the final table erupted again when Su open pushed for 17.7 million with 3♦3♣ and was called by Ensan’s A♦J♠. This flip went in favour of the big stack too when the dealer put a jack on the flop and another on the river, sealing the deal for Ensan.

Su too was clearly disappointed, but also entirely reasonable about how things panned out.

“Once you’ve chosen to play poker, you’re playing poker and win or lose that’s just part of the game,” he said. “That’s bound to happen whether you’re the best player in the world, the worst player in the world, there’s a lot of luck involved, so you’re bound to sometimes just lose. That happens. It doesn’t really bother me knowing that’s a possible and also likely outcome. People might just underestimate it.”

Timothy Su: No regrets with $1.25 million coming

Su had captivated audiences both in Las Vegas and watching at home by his calm and grace under pressure, as well as a backstory that doesn’t necessarily fit with the archetype of the poker player. Su is a software engineer, who plays three instruments in his spare time, and continued to draw comparisons between his time with the orchestra and at the poker table.

“With all my hobbies and interests and my profession, the way you have to approach those to become proficient or good, whatever that means, is the same thing that applies to poker,” he said. “It’s a lot of talking to people, meeting, studying, trying to figure out how to better yourself each day.”

He added of his experience this week: “There’s no regrets on anything, that’s for sure. In terms of the pots I won and lost, sometimes you can make the best decision and it doesn’t work out and that’s an awesome lesson poker teaches.”

He gave a shout out to the support he’s received from friends and family and said that the final seven should serve up a treat for poker fans. “I think it will be pretty unpredictable because there are a lot of players still in capable of making some pretty crazy moves in certain spots,” he said.

It’s less of a thrill with both Skrbic and Su now departed, but the pressure is only increasing.

*****

The one player to actually win a showdown while under threat so far today was the returning short-stack, Nick Marchington. The young Brit shoved his 19.6 million stack into the middle during the first orbit after Zhen Cai had opened for 3 million. Cai thought about it and called, and this final saw its first showdown, its first race and ultimately its first double up.

Marchington had 10♣10♥ to Cai’s A♦Q♥ and a ten spiked on the flop. Cai was drawing dead after the turn and, thanks to a dream start, he soared from ninth to third in the counts. With Hossein Ensan and Gates clear at the top, it was very, very tight from third down. The subsequent quick eliminations of Skrbic and Su only served to prove it.

*****

Stacks at 8pm:

Hossein Ensan, Germany – 208,400,000
Garry Gates, USA – 140,200,000
Alex Livingston, Canada – 48,900,000
Dario Sammartino, Italy – 37,700,000
Zhen Cai, USA – 35,300,000
Kevin Maahs, USA – 27,300,000
Nick Marchington, UK – 17,000,000

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

Only six players now remain in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event after the elimination in seventh place of Nick Marchington.

The 21-year-old Brit, who led the field at the end of Day 6, was the short stack coming into the final, but laddered two places to secure a payday of $1.525 million. When you consider that the biggest cash on Marchington’s resume prior to this point was a $12,515 score from an $800 buy-in tournament, you’ll know why he is our third player to bust today without a single regret.

“It’s been an incredible run,” Marchington said. “I felt really happy the entire way. I really enjoyed the final table. I’m not sure why but I really didn’t feel too much pressure.”

Marchington moved all-in for his last 15 big blinds after the runaway chip leader Hossein Ensan opened in late position. Marchington had A♦7♥ but Ensan had found K♠K♣ this time and made a standard call. Though Marchington picked up a straight draw on the turn, he missed his eight outs and was knocked out.

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COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

He had impressed other players and spectators alike this week with his willingness to play big pots in a bid to go really deep rather than just ladder up a few spots. He surrendered the chip lead yesterday in a huge hand against his eventual assassin Ensan, but defended his overall style of play.

“There was one particular big blast off with ten deuce suited,” he said. “I think that hand in particular was too aggressive, but I don’t regret my mindset. People were playing quite money-scared and I was trying to win the tournament. I wasn’t playing for ninth. It didn’t work out this time, but maybe next time.”

Nick Marchington and Kara Scott

Marchington had been on a fairly poor run of form through his first poker trip to Vegas, having fired 33 tournament bullets with only one meagre cash, and he said he had intended perhaps to go back to the UK and “lick his wounds” had the Main Event also not panned out. But his job of convincing his family that he made the right decision to pursue a poker career has now got slightly easier. They flew out to watch Marchington at the final and he said their presence gave him a real boost.

“It was incredible having them rail and amazing actually having them being here,” Marchington said. “Honestly, I got so emotional when they pulled up at the hotel. It’s great they’re here. They say they’re really proud of me. I’m just really happy they’re here.”

They should also be proud of the remarkable maturity Marchington displayed when fielding questions about what he would advise other young guns thinking about taking poker more seriously. “I would tell them to believe in themselves, but also when you see someone win a lot of money it’s easy to get kind of romanticised by the idea,” he said. “My number one piece of advice would be: Just be responsible with your money, and be realistic in how you play, your skill level. If you’re young and you’re trying to improve, just try to show good results over time. Really study your game and just believe in yourself.”

Vowing now to “stand still” for a while, rather than being tempted to hit the circuit hard, Marchington said he’ll miss the comradeship that developed among the last nine. “I think there was a real sense of camaraderie and I think it was genuine,” Marchington said. “Everyone was really happy to be there and everyone is really happy for each other.”

He added: “I like Garry Gates’ chances. He really gets in the mix. He isn’t afraid to go for it.”

Marchington had the chance to become the youngest ever Main Event champion, but even missing out on that could not diminish his excitement at what he had achieved. “I’ve loved every minute of it, and maybe I’m the youngest seventh-placed finisher,” he said.

*****

Revised plan for the day

Owing to the three quick eliminations, organisers say today will be extended either to the end of Level 38 (there’s still 1hr 45mins on the clock) or until one more player is knocked out.

*****

Stacks at 9.45pm:

Hossein Ensan, Germany – 192,500,000
Garry Gates, USA – 169,700,000
Alex Livingston, Canada – 52,800,000
Kevin Maahs, USA – 34,400,000
Zhen Cai, USA – 33,500,000
Dario Sammartino – Italy – 31,900,000

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

The first of a three-part World Series of Poker (WSOP) trilogy is in the books as the 2019 Main Event final table played five hours on Sunday night. The idea was to reduce the returning field of nine to the last six, and when that was achieved within the second level of play, organisers agreed to play on for another 100 minutes or so.

That was enough time for one more elimination: Zhen Cai lost a flip with A♠K♦ to Kevin Maahs’s pocket nines, ending his chance of glory and also bringing the action to a close. Now only five players remain in this 8,569-entry tournament, all of whom are now guaranteed at least $2.2 million. Cai, for his part, took $1.85 million.

The fearless Hossein Ensan leads still

Hossein Ensan was leading at the start of the day and is leading still, bagging 207.7 million, or 173 big blinds. Meanwhile Garry Gates, who scored the first knockout of the night when he sent Milos Skrbic home in ninth, is still in second, with 171.7 million (143 BBs) and their inevitable big-stack clash is still in the offing.

Gates is unafraid.

“I’m not worried,” he said. “At some stage, we’re going to get involved in some pots but we’re going to cross that bridge when we get to it. It’s not something we need to think too much about now.”

After a day on which he nearly doubled his overnight stack, Gates said: “We’ve already won. It doesn’t matter if I go out fifth. This is a win. This is a dream. It’s a dream come true, it really is.”

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COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

Having played pretty much flawless poker for seven days, Gates said he felt some nerves coming on as Jack Effel did the ceremonial introductions for the last nine at around 6.30pm in Las Vegas. But Gates picked up ace king on the first hand, got his fingers to work properly, and said he soon calmed down.

“After half an hour I settled in and I feel comfortable out there,” Gates said. “It’s a good feeling. It also helps when you’re just making hands left and right. I was joking, this is the World Series of Having It. If you’re going to run good in a poker tournament, this is the one you want to do it in. I feel like today was a very successful day.”

Overnight stacks:

Hossein Ensan, Germany – 207.7 million (173 BBs)
Garry Gates, USA – 171.7 million (143 BBs)
Kevin Maahs, USA – 66.5 million (55 BBs)
Alex Livingston, Canada – 45.8 million (38 BBs)
Dario Sammartino – Italy – 23.1 million (19 BBs)

Gates “had it” early on when he managed to knock out Milos Skrbic in a blind-vs.-blind encounter. Gates had ace-queen to Skrbic’s ace-jack and the latter described it as a “huge cooler”. Skrbic took $1 million for ninth.

Ensan then accounted for both Timothy Su and Nick Marchington, still during the early stages of the day, who were eliminated in eighth and seventh, respectively. That consolidated his chip lead, with neither Su nor Marchington expressing anything other than delight at how their tournament had played out.

Skrbic and Su depart
Marchington marches out

Gates’s table image was good enough that he managed to get Alex Livingston to fold pocket queens in a three-bet pot (Dario Sammartino also had a pocket pair), and situations like that allowed Gates to build all-but untroubled. “The way I feel today, I just have a hand every single time,” he said.

His packed rail of supporters were given plenty to cheer about as this extraordinary run continues. Gates said dozens of friends have jetted to Vegas. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me,” he said. “That’s everything. It really is. It keeps me sane. I’ve got them for comfort.”

Garry Gates feels the love from his rail

Tomorrow’s plan is to play until only three players are left, with the champion then to be named on Tuesday. Gates echoed other players at the final when he insisted that the last nine have all become firm friends in their shared delight.

“This is such a good group,” he said. “There couldn’t be a bad winner out of this bunch. Nicest guys. There’s not a bad guy in there. You’re going to have a good 2019 World Series of Poker champ, no matter who wins.”

In two days, we’ll know who it is.

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

Here’s everything you need to know from the weekend…

• WSOP Main Event down to five
• MicroMillions kicks off
• Russia’s “kolobcheena” wins Sunday Million ($108K)
• Top 5 results from the High Roller Club
• Top 5 results from the weekend majors

WSOP MAIN EVENT DOWN TO FIVE

#LFGGG!

Last night the World Series of Poker Main Event played from nine players down to five. PokerStars’ own Garry Gates remain right in the thick of things, ending the night second in chips with 171M, trailing only Hossein Ensan’s 207M.

Garry Gates: Still second with five left

Rounding out the final five are Kevin Maahs (66M), Alex Livingstone (45M), and well-known Italian high roller Dario Sammartino (23M). They’ll return to blinds at 600K/1.2M (1.2M).

Our man Howard Swains is at the Rio covering the incredible event, which now sees all remaining players guaranteed $2.2M (there’s $10M awaiting the winner).

Check out Swains’ recap of last night’s action here (or head to the WSOP coverage hub).

MICROMILLIONS KICKS OFF

While they’re playing for millions over in Vegas, you all had a chance to play in the MicroMillions, the micro-stake tournament series which kicked off yesterday.

Here’s a look at yesterday’s results:

RUSSIA’S “kolobcheena” WINS SUNDAY MILLION ($108K)

It’s all about the millions this weekend.

Sunday’s biggest winner came in the $109 Sunday Million, which yesterday received 10,982 total entries to create a $1,098,200 prize pool.

After 13 hours and 43 minutes of play, it was Russia’s “kolobcheena” who emerged victorious. They banked $108,576 following a heads-up deal with fellow Russian “Jigan7”, who won $85,742.

As for the PokerStars Ambassadors, only two made the money.

Felix “xflixx” Schneiders enjoyed a very deep run, ultimately busting in 78th for $1,266. Both Georgina “GJReggie” James and Tom “MajinBoob” Hayward cashed for $274 (in 689th and 772nd, respectively), while Lex Veldhuis finished in 1,233rd for $203 (after firing four bullets).

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE HIGH ROLLER CLUB

TOP 5 RESULTS FROM THE WEEKEND MAJORS

Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.

Great success on a public stage, particularly the kind that brings money, almost always draws from the woodwork old friends and long-lost contacts, suddenly remembering their old buddy after all these years. Links can sometimes be tangential, motives often a little suspicious. But in the case of Garry Gates, we’re witnessing nothing but an outpouring of unadulterated, honest delight.

“Rooting for the man that treated me like family, after knowing me for like 2 minutes,” wrote a poker player named Carlo Rodriguez on Facebook. Rodriguez was posting in the Platinum Pass Winner’s forum, a group set up in the run up to the PokerStars Players Championship in the Bahamas earlier this year.

Treating people like family who he has only met for two minutes is very much in the Gates playbook. That’s just his way. That’s just his style.

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As a senior figure in the planning for that spectacular January jamboree, Gates, and his assistant Willie Elliot, had a task that sounds simple but is astonishingly difficult to carry out. They were charged with making sure the 300 or so players who won passage to the €25,000 buy-in tournament had the time of their lives. This meant catering to people of vastly differing backgrounds, from across the entire spectrum of poker players, including top ranked high rollers, down to nickel and dime players on a remarkable run. It meant hands-on support, solid and reliable information, and someone who players could trust to be on their side throughout.

Garry Gates: Selfie with the fans

There’s almost nobody in the poker world who could make a success of a task like that. It really is only Garry Gates who could have done it, and the Platinum Pass winners, for whom Gates did so much, are now fully on his rail. The support, Gates said this afternoon, is greatly appreciated.

“It’s just bizarre, it’s really bizarre,” Gates said. “I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m so used to being on the opposite side of the rail and providing support for everybody else. It’s a bit overwhelming to see as much support as I’ve had. And it’s even better coming from the Platinum Pass winners because in a weird way I feel like I’m in their position. I’m living my own dream, and it’s becoming more and more real every day.”

Gates said every morning for the past few days, he’s woken up and seen hundreds of messages flooding in his direction on every social media channel, and that it’s given him particular gratification on this run.

“It fuels me,” he said. “It’s exciting to see so many people sharing their love and support. That makes it that much more special.”

Gates was actually due on a weekly conference call this morning as various heads of department at PokerStars got together to discuss their working week. But with only one topic of conversation likely to dominate the conversation, the meeting was cancelled in Gates’s honour–and the staff at the PokerStars HQ in the Isle of Man instead focused on expressing their love for their friend and colleague.

This is how we are leaving HQ today at @pokerstars 🤞🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ @GarryGates ♥️ #LFGGGG pic.twitter.com/Uf2mzd6O55

— Scott Goodall (@frostygoodall) July 15, 2019

“As for the PokerStars team as well, I saw an amazing video that they produced at headquarters today, seeing everybody with the #LFGGG shirts,” Gates said. “That means everything to have their support. They’re in my corner the whole way. I appreciate all of that.”

The good news for all the fans is that Gates says he is in the best possible state of mind as they prepare for play on the second day of the final table.

“I got some sleep, and I rested this afternoon as well,” he said. “I feel calm and I’m ready for another day.”

We’re ready too, but calm? I don’t think any of us could make that claim.

It’s @GarryGates time. Catch me on the rail for the next 72 hours, I’m setting up a tent and camping out until my guy ships this bracelet or security drags me away. So proud of this dude and honored to be his friend #LFGGG

— Ben Ludlow (@Bloodlow) July 14, 2019

*****

The plan for today is to play to the last three players, but official may make changes depending on the state of the tournament.

We have 28 minutes left on Level 38 (Blinds 600,000/1,200,000). Current stacks:

Hossein Ensan, Germany – 207.7 million (173 BBs)
Garry Gates, USA – 171.7 million (143 BBs)
Kevin Maahs, USA – 66.5 million (55 BBs)
Alex Livingston, Canada – 45.8 million (38 BBs)
Dario Sammartino – Italy – 23.1 million (19 BBs)

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

Three and a half hugely tense hours at the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event have just ended with the elimination from the tournament in fifth place of Kevin Maahs. He takes $2.2 million, and his departure ends one of the most nervy periods of this tournament so far.

The atmosphere inside the Amazon Room today has been markedly different to how it was yesterday, with four men essentially being forced to dance to the tune of runaway chip leader Hossein Ensan. Although Ensan hasn’t won every pot, his stack is such that even when others have doubled through him, it has barely made a dent — and when they lose the race, they are out.

Such was the case with Maahs, who endured a real short-stack grind for much of the day as all the action seemed to take place away from him. Afterwards he lamented that he maybe didn’t pick enough spots today, but ultimately he got his last 20 big blinds in facing a flip. His A♥10♥ whiffed against Ensan’s 9♠9♥. “Maybe I should have got more aggressive in other spots,” he said.

Kevin Maahs departs to leave us with four

Maahs is the latest player to say he had a pressure-free blast at the final table, disappointed only that the fun is now over. He also addressed head on the controversy that has blown up about the length of time it has taken him to make his decisions.

“Usually I’m in tournament where I don’t show my hole cards, and when you don’t show your hole cards you get into opponents’ heads when you tank that long,” he said. “If they’re going to get angry at that, more power to me.”

He added: “If they’re going to blow me up on Twitter, and get angry at me, I’m going to be hated by everyone, that’s fine. I’m cool with it.”

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY

He said he “thrived” in the role of the villain, and said: “Hopefully I can come back here and do it again. I’ll be the villain the whole way and just take it down.

“I have a contrarian mind-set. I’ve always tried to argue with people, be the opposite. I’ve always just like cotroversy and had an argumentative attitude. That plays really well with the villain role.”

Maahs’ elimination left four players battling for the crown, with Ensan miles ahead of everyone.

Whereas yesterday’s opening stages of this final table was characterised by a series of hands that all but played themselves (and resulted in the eliminations of some of the shorter stacks) the dynamic coming into today was something different. After Dario Sammartino doubled up very early, winning a flip with A♦J♠ against Ensan’d 10♠10♥, there were three men tightly packed behind Garry Gates and Ensan at the top.

They all had stacks affording wiggle room, which meant a battle of nerve and wits would commence, and a few shocks would invariably follow. Ensan managed to keep breathing space between him and his closest challengers, while Gates was forced to endure a downturn in fortune.

Yesterday Gates said that he had it all the time. Today, the cards tended to fall for his opponents. A pot of more than 75 million went toward Ensan when Gates’s A♦10♣ rivered a pair of tens, but Ensan’s K♠9♠ had flopped top pair. Gates raised Ensan’s river bet but was picked off.

As Gates slipped, Alex Livingston was moving in the opposite direction. Yesterday, much was made of Livingston’s decision to fold pocket queens when faced with a raise from Gates (who had tens). But Livingston was far more active today and chipped steadily upward, then edging ahead of Gates just after the first tournament break.

Gates tried to stem the bleeding when he called Livington’s under-the-gun raise in the big blind and the pair took to a 7♠4♣5♥ flop. They checked and saw the 8♣ turn, at which Gates bet 3.8 million. Livingston called and the A♥ fell on the river.

Gates tried to steal it with a sizeable bet, 16 million into a pot not much bigger. Livingston picked him off with A♣J♣, forcing Gates to show his K♠J♥. It put Livingston to more than 100 million, while Gates joined Maahs at the foot of the leader board.

Four-handed stack sizes:

Hossein Ensan, Germany – 302,300,000
Alex Livingston, Canada – 108,700,000
Dario Sammartino, Italy – 61,600,000
Garry Gates, USA – 42,200,000

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

The votes are in. Chris Moneymaker, the best-named poker champion ever and one of the best ambassadors the game has ever had, has been selected for the Poker Hall of Fame.

We all know how Moneymaker has never been one to seek the spotlight. But there was no escaping it after the Tennessee accountant’s (still) inspiring 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event victory. And there’s no escaping it now, either, after having earned one of the game’s other most prestigious honors.

In fact, Moneymaker’s ongoing efforts to shine that light elsewhere — and on the game itself — is surely one of the reasons why voters thought enough of him to select him.

“I’m very honored… very happy,” says Moneymaker upon receiving the news, who then immediately began to think of how others would enjoy learning about his induction. “It’s great for my kids — it’ll be a cool thing for them to see when they grow up.”

There are many others, too, who are going to be glad to hear about the honor being given to Chris Moneymaker, someone so many players cite when talking about their own introduction to the game.

That outpouring of support was in full evidence just last week as Moneymaker made it to Day 4 and the money in this year’s Main Event. “It was really incredible,” says Moneymaker. “I had so many fans and supporters… that was amazing.”

Such an easy guy to root for. We’ve felt that way since watching those WSOP episodes way back in 2003.

“You Did This”

Just before this year’s Main Event got started, Moneymaker received more attention — and some trophies — after being honored at a “First Fifty Honors” celebration put on by the WSOP to mark its 50th annual running and to recognize the series’ storied history.

One of the awards given to him was for “Most Impressive WSOP Main Event Win.” How long after winning back in 2003 did it take for Moneymaker himself to realize how “impressive” or “historic” or “influential” his victory really was?

“I remember going back to Binion’s the next year,” he recalls. “I remember trying to get into a sit-n-go because that’s what I liked to play back then, and the wait list was like four hours long.”

“Everybody kept saying, ‘This is your fault. You did this.'”

The Main Event field tripled that year, then doubled up again the year after that. By 2006 there were 8,773 players taking part, establishing a record that was almost eclipsed this year.

“I realized this game was on an upward trend, and me being in the right place at the right time just really kicked it up higher,” he reflects. “It went from being just a fun game to something really popular.”

The Hellmuth Effect

Not that Moneymaker necessarily looks forward to it, but like all Hall of Famers he’s now going to have to give a speech. Who will he thank? His family and the fans, he says. But there’s someone else, too, he wants to acknowledge. Someone who couldn’t be more unlike Moneymaker when it comes to all that spotlight stuff.

“I’ll probably end up mentioning Phil Hellmuth more than anybody else,” Moneymaker grins. “I know he’ll love that.”

To explain he tells a story of being at that 2003 WSOP before he’d won the Main. Hellmuth had just won one of the last preliminary events, his second win that summer and ninth of his career to that point.

“I was just some random new guy at the World Series of Poker,” Moneymaker explains. “What they did at Binion’s was when someone won a bracelet they’d bring them downstairs to the poker room and announce them… they’d say ‘hey, this is your champion’ — and on this day it was Hellmuth.”

“He’ll never remember this, but I went up to him and we had a 15-minute conversation,” says Moneymaker. “It was so cool being able to talk to him and pick his brain like that… it made a pretty lasting impression on me. Once I won, I always remembered that. I wanted to give back to the fans and be that open and accessible, too. So Phil’s going to get a little bit of credit for how I approach the game and the fans.”

Hall of Fame Worthy

Now that Moneymaker is in the Poker Hall of Fame, he’s going to have to pay a little more attention to it than he has in the past. That’s because like other inductees, he now has a vote going forward. What is his idea of a “Poker Hall of Famer”?

“Obviously there are two categories, the player and the builder,” he says. “When it comes to builders, I think of someone like Matt Savage who was there when I won and who has been around ever since making innovations and helping to improve the game.”

“As far as players go, I also think back to those who were around when I first started, and who played before me. Not many of them are still around, and a lot of those that are are probably already in the Hall of Fame. Those are players who’ve really ‘stood the test of time,’ and some just don’t get the credit because they weren’t on TV.”

Kudos to Moneymaker from PokerStars Blog, who considers him more than worthy of the honor. Heck, there may never have been such a thing as a PokerStars Blog without him — something that can also be said about many other aspects of the game as it exists today.

Poker tournaments come and go, even those the size of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Bust-outs are all part of it, and we grow immune to to the emotions, standing distant on the rail. But when Garry Gates stood in the media room of the 2019 WSOP and could barely speak as the tears and emotions overwhelmed him, some of the most hardened reporters in this game found themselves similarly dewy eyed.

“I know I’ve said that it meant everything to me, but it really truly did,” Gates said. “I just felt so much love from everywhere, every corner of the world. I’ll never forget that. I know I’m crying right now, but deep down I’m f—ing happy. I really am.”

Gates is now out of this Main Event, perishing in fourth place and picking up $3 million. He is an industry veteran, who has dedicated his life to poker, but remains resolutely a recreational player just in it for the love of the game. Coming into the penultimate day second in chips, the smooth-flowing waters became distinctly more choppy on Monday night, but Gates had nothing but overwhelming joy at what he had achieved over the past nine days.

Garry Gates tells Kara Scott about his sensational run

“It was a whirlwind,” he said. “You come into a final table with as many chips as I had and you expect a higher result. At the same time, those are some world class poker players. I don’t do this for a living, but to get this far and to have as much love and support as I’ve had along the way, I knew I had already won. On one hand it’s a little disappointing, but I’m a lucky guy. This has changed my life.”

MORE FROM THE 2019 WSOP
COVERAGE HUB | PHOTO GALLERY | MONEYMAKER IN HoF

Gates has been a mentor to players and reporters alike across the poker world and they came out in force to show their love for one of the most popular men in the game. He has shown endless support for countless people through the years, and everyone rode the wave of success along with him — a fact that Gates acknowledged with customary grace.

“Being on the other side of the rail, I’ve been in people’s corners before, with the Platinum Pass winners, pros that I’ve become friends with throughout the years, my own friends making deep runs,” he said. “We’ve seen a million times how this community can come together and get behind a cause, but when that cause is you, phew, that’s something else. I just feel super grateful.”

He paid particular thanks to Jason Mercier who invested a huge portion of Gates’s $10,000 entry fee and is now set for a seven-figure payout of his own. But Gates too now pointed to the enormous amount of money he has now secured, and how it allows him to look to a very bright future.

“I’m a millionaire,” Gates said. “My debt is gone. I can buy a house. I can buy a ring for my girlfriend. I can take care of my daughter. It’s amazing. My future is a whole heck of a lot brighter now.”

He added that he was behind at work — Gates is a long-time employee of PokerStars, and the entire community had been hanging off his every move — and said after a huge party tonight, he’ll be keen to return to a more regular existence.

“I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring,” he said. “I’m excited to get back into a routine. This takes a lot out of you for nine days, it really does. But I wouldn’t change it for anything. It was once in a lifetime.”

He said he intends to “reply to ever last message” and wants to make sure “that people know how much I appreciate them.” He added: “I did the best with what I have, and what more can I do?”

Garry, I can speak for the entire poker world: Know how much you’re appreciated by all of us too.

Amazing run @GarryGates. You are the fucking man!!

— Adam Levy (@Roothlus) July 16, 2019

*****

Gates’s elimination in fourth place took the World Series into it final day. For the second day in succession, Germany’s Hossein Ensan was the dominant force and bagged an enormous chip lead over his two rivals, Alex Livingston and Dario Sammartino.

Final three: Dario Sammartino, Hossein Ensan, Alex Livingston

Gates was the final player from the United States in the field, so the World Series of Poker title will be heading overseas for the first time since Martin Jacobson in 2014. Here’s how they stack up ahead of the grand finale at the Rio Hotel tomorrow:

Hossein Ensan, Germany — 326.8 million
Alex Livingston, Canada — 120.4 million
Dario Sammartino, Italy — 67.6 million

WSOP photography by PokerPhotoArchive

What comes to mind when you think of the Bellagio fountains?

Your friend’s vacation selfie? The ending of Ocean’s Eleven? That time you left the casino at 6am after an all-night cash session?

From here on out, when PokerStars Ambassador and PSPC 2019 champion Ramón Colillas thinks of those fountains, the Spaniard will remember just one word: “sí”.

Colillas and and his fiancée Nesrin got engaged in front of the iconic fountains, and we’d like to say a big congratulations to both of them from everyone at PokerStars.

When we spoke to Colillas at EPT Monte Carlo, he told us how thankful he was to have Nesrin by his side throughout his insane year so far.

“For both of us, this is a whole new thing,” he told us. “It’s good because she’s a lot more talkative than me, so it’s comforting for me to have her with me. We’re experiencing this thing together. When we started seeing each other I was just a random player. She didn’t travel with me, but now we’re living this together. It’s nice.”

Ramon and Nesrin after his PSPC victory in January 2019

Designed to be read in less than one minute. So, let’s quit wasting time…

The winners so far:

There have been 13 MicroMillions winner over the first two days of play. Here’s the roll call.

Sunday 14 July:

MM 01: $5.50 NLHE [Half Price Sunday Storm]: tamglenn ($24,723.91)

MM 02: $3.30 PLO [6-Max, Progressive KO]: 2.2xbusiness ($3,527.87)

MM 03: $3.30 NLHE [8-Max]: wbibbo ($5,644.71)

MM 04: $1.10 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Progressive KO]: Risk Maximus ($1,362.18)

MM 05: $5.50 6+ NLHE [6-Max, Turbo]: TheKingFlush ($3,240.13)

MM 06: $1.10 NLHE [Heads Up, Turbo, Progressive Total KO, Zoom]: Castanella ($17.64)

Monday 15 July:

MM 07: $3.30 NLHE [Progressive KO]: WinAlik ($2,085.87)

MM 08: $1.10 Showtime NLHE [6-Max]: KLESZCZ1234 ($832.10)

MM 09: $5.50 NLHE: Whaterwasted ($4,286.95)

MM 10: $3.30+R NLO8 [8-Max]: 1uv! ($3,451.75)

MM 11: $3.30 NLHE [Progressive KO]: BrianMaguire8 ($4,026.29)

MM 12: $5.50 HORSE: pinguin5555 ($2,903.14)

MM 14: $1.10+R NLHE [8-Max, Turbo]: preXsolution ($3,937.23)

The “Just For Fun” KO Standings (as of 16 July)

Coming up…

Later this week we’ll have details of how you can win a seat in the MicroMillions Main Event, and tell your own MicroMillions story. For now, here’s what’s coming up today (all times are ET):

10:30 ET: MicroMillions 17: $3.30 NLHE [8-Max], $10K Gtd

12:30 ET: MicroMillions 18: $3.30 Razz, $5K Gtd

14:30 ET: MicroMillions 19: $3.30+R NLHE, $20K Gtd

16:30 ET: MicroMillions 20: $1.10 6+ NLHE [6-Max], $5K Gtd

18:00 ET: MicroMillions 21: $5.50 NLHE, $50K Gtd

19:30 ET: MicroMillions 22: $3.30 PLO8 [6-Max], $15K Gtd

21:00 ET: MicroMillions 23: $1.10 NLHE [8-Max, Win the Button], $5K Gtd

22:30 ET: MicroMillions 24: $3.30 NLHE [Progressive KO, Turbo], $20K Gtd

The MicroMillions Ambassador Challenge

They’ve each been given $100 to play a selection of MicroMillions events, and turn that into hard (braggable) cash winnings.

Here’s who’s in…

• Stars ID: OP-Poker James – Twitch Stream: OP_Poker
• Stars ID: Pye_Face21 – Twitch Stream: pyefacepoker
• Stars ID: Prince Pablo – Twitch Stream: ArlieShaban
• Stars ID: GJReggie – Twitch Stream: GJReggie
• Stars ID: xflixx – Twitch Stream: xflixx
• Stars ID: MajinBoob – Twitch Stream: Pleb Method

Find out more here.

For everything else, including the full schedule and how to win your seat for just a few cents, check out the MicroMillions homepage.