Ensan wins EPT12 Prague Main Event for €754.510

Ensan cut a deal with runner-up Gleb Tremzin from Russia when they reached heads-up but went on to win the title along with the coveted trophy and the biggest prize of his poker career.

Asked how he responds to the claims that poker is a game for young people, the 51-year-old said, “I think poker is for all people. I am young too.”

He also revealed exactly what keeps him returning to the poker tables, and offered his thanks to the many components that keep these tournaments rolling. “I am having fun,” Ensan said. “This organization, the PokerStars organization, the camera people, the fans, that makes it fun.”

Ensan first came to attention when he took down the EPT’s first €200 Seniors event at EPT11 Barcelona. He then won a seat to the Main Event in a live satellite and snagged €652,667 for his third place. He cemented his achievements by making the final of EPT in Malta in March and then just a couple of months later, won two side events at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final.

Originally from Iran, Ensan moved to Germany when he was 25 and now lives in Münster. His home casino is Dortmund-Hohensyburg where the EPT was held in Seasons 3, 4 and 5. Ensan started playing Texas Hold’em 11 years ago – and live tournaments in 2013 - but still considers himself an amateur.

There were 1,044 players in the Main Event at this year’s EPT Prague Poker Festival, creating a € 5,063,400 prize pool with 151 players paid.

Runner-up Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin, who hails from Arkhangelsk in Russia - one of the northernmost cities in the world - has a string of great results, both live and online. Before today, the 27-year-old had some $350,000 in lifetime live tournament winnings – including fourth in a 2013 PCA $10k event for $157,765 - but he has reaped far bigger rewards online including three WCOOP titles, a SCOOP runner-up finish and FTOPS third place worth more than $750,000 combined.

Ilkin Amirov, 43, was the first ever EPT finalist from Azerbaijan but his hopes of becoming his country’s first champion were thwarted when he bust in third place for €391,910. It was the 43-year-old’s sixth Main Event cash and takes his lifetime live tournament winnings to well over $1.2 million. Amirov also has a solid online CV which includes a sixth place in the PokerStars Sunday Million.

German-born Thomas Butzhammer, who first came to fame when he took part in the Full Tilt Poker Million Euro Challenge TV show alongside Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson and Gus Hansen, bettered his 16th place of last year, and finished fourth for a career-best €294,180.

2012 SCOOP champion and popular poker blogger Slaven Popov from Bulgaria was on his second EPT Main Event final table in 16 months and found himself, yet again, sharing a final table with Ensan. He finished fifth to add another €226,330 to his $430k lifetime live tournament winnings.

1. Hossein Ensan, Germany, €754,510
2. Gleb Tremzin, Russia , €724,510
3. Ilkin Amirov, Azerbaijan, €391,910
4. Thomas Butzhammer, Germany, €294,180
5. Slaven Popov, Bulgaria, €226,330
6. Olivier Ferrero, France, Live satellite winner, €166,080
7. Onur Unsal, Turkey, PokerStars player, €122,530
8. Vlado Banicevic, Montenegro, €87,700
   
   

Niall Farrell, who won EPT12 Malta in October, also had a deep run in Prague but there was no back-to-back success for the Glaswegian. He was knocked out in 40th place for €16,200. Other EPT champions who made the money included Ruben Visser (London), Adrian Mateos (Grand Final), Anton Wigg (Copenhagen) and Mike McDonald (Dortmund).

The Team PokerStars Pros who cashed in the Main Event were Ivan Demidov (66th, €13,720), Matthias De Meulder (74th, €11,540) and Johnny Lodden who broke his own record for most EPT cashes. The Norwegian has now made the money in 22 EPT Main Events – including the last four in a row. He finished 117th this time for €10,280.

Some 275 players qualified for the event online, some for as little as €2.20. Javier Gomez, who finished fifth at EPT Malta and won WPT Prague two weeks ago, fared the best, coming 11th for €56,950 after winning his trip in a €215 satellite. Britain’s Ben Dobson, who qualified for just €14.20, finished 62nd for €13,720 while Romania’s Adrian Ionesco and Danish EPT Campione winner Jannick Wrang both won €9,220 after qualifying for €16.20 and €27 respectively.

The EPT joined forces with the Eureka Poker Tour to host its biggest festival to date, with 3,428 players entering a record 97 events over 12 days at the Hilton Prague. There were a record 310 staff working at the event with 185 tables in multiple locations around the venue.

As well as the flagship main event, the festival featured numerous other high profile tournaments including a €50,000 Super High Roller event (won by Steve O’Dwyer for €746,543) and the €1,100 Eureka Poker Tour final, which attracted a record-breaking 1,893-strong field. Spain’s Javier Rojas won it, earning €311,000. The €25,000 One Day High Roller was won by Germany’s Rainer Kempe for €539,000. Kempe has had an outstanding Season 12 so far, making the Main Event final tables in both Barcelona and Malta. The €2k Eureka Prague High Roller drew a 748-strong field (another tour record) and the €10,000 High Roller also broke records with 315 entries. American Kenneth Smaron took that one down for €595,500.

Wei Zhao from China won three different side events, and finished fourth in two others for a combined haul of €54,430. The 24-year-old acquired his three trophies in the first ever €500 NL Turbo “High Hand Instant Win” event, a €100 Full Tilt Flipout and the €100 Irish Hold’em tourney and also had big cashes in the €1k NL Turbo Bounty and €5k NL Hyper Turbo events. Pavlos Benakis and Francesco Delfoco also won two events apiece.

Lithuanian player Vytenis Salickas, who is ranked 215th in his country’s chess rankings and 66th for live poker tournaments, won the inaugural EPT combined poker and chess event for €1,800.

Team PokerStars Pro Online’s Lilia Novikova won her first live poker tournament – the €1,000 Deep Stack event for €49,440.

PokerStars’ Director of Live Events Edgar Stuchly said: “This season’s EPT Prague Poker Festival has been a spectacular success with event after event breaking records. Overall, there were nearly 16,000 separate tournament entries and more than €24.5 million awarded in prizes. We now wish all our players very happy holidays and look forward to our next stop - the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas in just a few weeks. We’ll be back in Europe for EPT Dublin in February.”

The PCA runs January 6-14, 2016 at Atlantis in the Bahamas – visit the PCA website for details; the EPT12 Dublin schedule was released today and can be found on ept.com

EPT Prague Main Event history:
Season 4: 555 players, €2,530,240 prize pool, Arnaud Mattern from France for €708,400
Season 5: 570 players, €2,764,500 prize pool, Salvatore Bonavena from Italy for €774,000
Season 6: 586 players, €2,930,000 prize pool, Jan Škampa from the Czech Republic for €682,000
Season 7: 563 players, €,2 730,550 prize pool, Roberto Romanello from UK for €640,000
Season 8: 772 players, €3,501,700 prize pool, Martin Finger from Germany for €720,000
Season 9: 864 players, €4,190,400 prize pool, Ramzi Jelassi from Sweden for €835,000
Season 10: 1,007 players, €4,883,950 prize pool, Julian Track from Germany for €725,700
Season 11: 1,107 players, €5,535,000 prize pool, Stephen Graner from the USA for €969,000