Dario Sammartino Glasses
Dario Sammartino came into the Final Table 7th in chips but put up an incredible battle to finish the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2nd Place. After a lengthy heads up battle, Hossein Ensan raised to 11,000,000 on the button and Dario Sammartino came along out of the big blind. The flop came 10s 6s 2d and Sammartino check-called a bet of 15,000,000. Both rails fell silent on the 9c turn. Dario Sammartino had pulled essentially even with Hossein Ensan during heads-up play after rivering aces up to beat out jacks up. The two each sat with more than 100 big blinds in their stacks.
Dario Sammartino goes into the final day’s play in the WSOP Main Event as the most experienced player but with the fewest chips. Holding just 33 big blinds, the Italian knows he’ll need some help to fight back into contention, but as he explained to us in an exclusive chat after Day 9, he can rely on his fantastic rail to get him through.
THE ITALIAN SUPERHERO
“It’s been an amazing two days,” says Sammartino, clearly overjoyed at the outpouring of love he’s felt from the poker community. “When you live in this moment, you don’t have words to explain what you feel. It’s too good, too beautiful, it’s something crazy.”
After so long at the felt in this event, Sammartino feels like he’s hitting his stride in a timely fashion.
“I think I played my best finally. I’ve never played a final table like this. I think I can do it.”
IN SICKNESS AND IN WEALTH
If Sammartino looks happy, then he should do. Not only has he fought back from adversity in the Main Event, but he’s conquered sickness during the tournament, too.
“ When you feel bad and afterwards feel good, it’s much better. It’s like having eight bigs then 24 bigs. When you have 24 bigs then, it’s a big amount. You feel like you can stay on that chair a long, long time.”
That’s what Sammartino has done. The lowest he got was on Day 6 of the event, just as the money jumps became steeper, and the action ramped up.
“When I had 8-10 bigs on Day 6 and I doubled up, I thought ‘Look how many chips I have, I could stay here for three more days’, and here I am.”
THE RAIL OF DREAMS
Sammartino wanted to spend time with friends after Day 9, just kick back and relax. There’ll be plenty of time for focus at the final table felt once the last day commences.
“Tomorrow when I’m there, I want to be focused on that. We’ve lived this adventure together [my rail and I], it’s been a really nice relationship.”
Not only has he lived every moment with his supporters, he’s actively joined in on some of the chants of ‘Super Dario!’ heard echoing around the almost deserted chambers of the Rio at the end of the World Series. They come to life in the Thunderdome, where their man does the same. At the table, it’s only about poker and he feels like that separation between excitement is a distinction he can make easily; further, it benefits him to be able to do so.
Dario Sammartino Father
THE FOCUS OF A CHAMPION
“When you are there, you have to think only of your game and that of your opponent. Don’t think about how much money, don’t think ‘It’s the World Series, it’s the Main Event, the final table!’ No, think only of the game. I love watching a video where they ask a question to a cricketer about winning the cup, he said ‘Don’t think about how you win the cup, or how many people are watching, you hit the damn ball. If you think about other things, you cannot hit the ball.’”
Sammartino will be swinging for the fences as he takes on both Alex Livingston and Hossein Ensan. But you won’t be able to tell if he’s in a hand. Only afterwards will the Italian light up and come to life, as he does to every room he enters. Time will tell if the next time he cracks a smile and joins in with those cheering his name, he does so as World Champion.
Will Dario Sammartino become World Champion tonight? You can watch the WSOP Main Event until it’s conclusion on ESPN and be sure check out additional coverage on PokerGO throughout the biggest final table in the poker world and bracelet event coverage throughout the 2019 World Series of Poker on CBS All Access.
Table Of Contents
Brought to you by the WSOP-C Playground, hosted by Playground Poker Club and partypoker LIVE. Last year's long-awaited return to Canada of the WSOP Circuit smashed attendance records. The $1,100 Main Event with a huge $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and the $330 Colossus with a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool of its own are two of the seven events on tap for this year's edition, which is expected to attract even larger fields than last year's record-breaking series.
Final Table Profile Dario Sammartino
| Seat: | 3 |
| Chip Count: | 33,400,000 (6/9) |
| Big Blinds: | 33 |
| Age: | 32 |
| Hometown: | Naples, Italy |
Dario Sammartino's Main Event Story
Dario Sammartino is the most decorated, and arguably the most experienced, remaining player in the WSOP Main Event. The native of Naples, Italy has an impressive resume that includes over eight million in live tournament earnings and dozens of cashes on the high-roller circuit. Now, as he prepares to compete at this year's WSOP Main Event final table, his sights are set on the ten-million-dollar first prize and a gold bracelet.
Competing at the highest level can be exhausting. In 2018, as he began to play less poker, there was speculation on whether Sammartino, like Fedor Holz and Doug Polk, was 'retiring' from the game.
'I'm not retired. I just don't play poker full-time.
'I'm not retired,' he told PokerNews. 'I just don't play poker full-time. Before it was my first priority, but now it's not really important.'
During the last year, Sammartino made an effort to spend more time with friends and family. He went skydiving in Australia. He started a new business called “Rent, Sell, Cars” in which he and a friend rent out their flashy Ferraris. Even as he's done an admirable job of branching out and achieving more balance, Sammartino hasn't entirely abandoned his poker goals.
'I still want to win a bracelet,' he said.
Sammartino enjoyed oodles of success at this year's WSOP, cashing seven times and reaching two final tables: a third-place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship and a ninth-place finish in the 50K Players Championship. He also faced some adversity during the early stages of the Main Event.
'I was so sick,' he told PokerNews. 'It was really bad for three or four days. I had to take a lot of medicine. It was really tough.'
Despite a nagging illness, Sammartino got off to a good start on Day 1C, bagging 121,000 chips. He gained momentum over the next few days until a rough Day 5 left him short-stacked and 105th out of 106 remaining players. But the savvy Italian rounder didn't quit. He enjoyed a flurry of double-ups: against Corey Burbick, then through Antonio Esfandiari, and then against Sam Greenwood. By the end of Day 6, he had added nineteen million chips to his stack.
How Dario Sammartino Got to the Final Table
| Day | End-of-Day Chip Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1c | 121,000 | 647/3,664 |
| 2c | 522,700 | 33/1,793 |
| 3 | 552,000 | 337/1,286 |
| 4 | 2,302,000 | 63/354 |
| 5 | 860,000 | 105/106 |
| 6 | 19,850,000 | 9/35 |
| 7 | 33,400,000 | 6/9 |
Dario Sammartino's Key Hands
Sammartino leveraged a short stack at the beginning of Day 6 into a healthy stack by the end. A pivotal hand that made his run possible was against an especially tough opponent—2012 Big One for One Drop champ Antonio Esfandiari.
The hand happened during Level 27, with the blinds at 50,000-100,000. Holding and about three million chips, Sammartino raised to 220,000 and Esfandiari three-bet in the hijack to 530,000. Sammartino called. After seeing the flop, Sammartino check-called a bet of 435,000 and binked a card that he was looking for—the —on the turn.
Holding the nut straight, Sammartino check-called all in for 1,320,000 and saw that he had Esfandiari's drawing to a chop. Suddenly Sammartino had over six million in chips and the necessary momentum to propel him to the brink of the final table. The hand also showed that Sammartino is capable of taking unpredictable lines with a wide range of hands.
'That hand was so sick. It took a lot of time. It was so sick. But I made it. I cannot give up right now.'
'I change my play a lot,' he said. 'I change based on the table, the stack, the player. A lot of things help me decide how to play. I don't have one basic strategy, and that is good. I change all the time and play my opponents differently. I hope it makes it hard for people to know how to play against me.'
In what turned into a controversial hand late on Day 7, Sammartino opened with pocket tens and Marchington moved all in. After asking for a count, Sammartino put in the call for what the dealer told him was just over twenty big blinds. As it turned out, the shove was actually for closer to thirty big blinds. The floor was called, but it was ruled that the call would stand.
Marchington doubled up in the hand when his queens held versus Sammartino's pocket tens and the amicable Italian was visibly upset. A couple of eliminations later though, he seemed to have moved on telling PokerNews, 'That hand was so sick. It took a lot of time. It was so sick. But I made it. I cannot give up right now.'
What to Watch For
Given his stellar track record and a healthy stack, Sammartino is in an excellent position to go the distance. The illness that plagued him at the beginning of the tournament is already a distant memory.
'This is completely different from other tournaments,' he said of the Main Event. 'It's the best tournament you can play.'
Coming in with 33 big blinds, the seasoned pro knows what to do, and he'll look to add the most coveted title in poker to his long list of poker accolades in the days to come.
2019 WSOP Main Event Final Table Seating
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | 177,000,000 | 177 |
| 2 | Nick Marchington | United Kingdom | 20,100,000 | 20 |
| 3 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 33,400,000 | 33 |
| 4 | Kevin Maahs | United States | 43,000,000 | 43 |
| 5 | Timothy Su | United States | 20,200,000 | 20 |
| 6 | Zhen Cai | United States | 60,600,000 | 61 |
| 7 | Garry Gates | United States | 99,300,000 | 99 |
| 8 | Milos Skrbic | Serbia | 23,400,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Alex Livingston | Canada | 37,800,000 | 38 |
There is 1:31:35 remaining in Level 37 (500,000/1,000,000, with a 1,000,000-big blind ante).
Dario Sammartino Net Worth
2019 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payout
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| 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 |
2019 WSOP Main Event Final Table Player Stats
| Player | First Cash | WSOP Cashes | Career Earnings | Biggst Cash | GPI Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhen Cai | 2008 | 21 | $213,995 | $46,900 | 12,632 |
| Hossein Ensan | 2013 | 3 | $2,673,206 | $860,091 | 7,331 |
| Garry Gates | 2010 | 15 | $243,129 | $64,530 | 25,386 |
| Alex Livingston | 2009 | 17 | $732,874 | $451,398 | 3,866 |
| Kevin Maahs | 2016 | 1 | $61,213 | $20,625 | 7,005 |
| Nick Marchington | 2019 | 1 | $12,415 | $12,415 | 30,643 |
| Dario Sammartino | 2008 | 38 | $8,044,479 | $1,608,295 | 78 |
| Milos Skrbic | 2011 | 6 | $1,670,572 | $1,087,603 | 457 |
| Timothy Su | 2018 | 1 | $2,467 | $1,080 | 59,081 |
Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.
Dario Sammartino Instagram
The 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event returns to action Sunday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. local time. A Main Event Day 7 recap can be found here. You can follow the action via the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog where we'll detail all the hands in our exclusive WSOP Main Event Live Updates.
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