Being honorable and sporting while playing for hundreds of thousand of dollars at the final table of a major poker tournament sometimes does pay off.
During the EPT Prague final table in December 2015 German amateur Hossein Ensan demonstrated perfect sportsmanship and was rewarded almost instantly.
Half a year later we're tipping our cap by featuring him in our video of the week.
Last December Ensan won the EPT Prague main event and it was a rare moment to see players and media agree he was one of the most deserving winners the EPT has seen in the past few years.
The 52-year-old Ensan not only displayed a great poker game but also some superb sportsmanship.
Three EPT Final Tables in < Two Years
Born in Iran, Ensan moved to Germany a long time ago and didn't start to play poker seriously until a few years ago.
In 2014 he made the final table at EPT Barcelona (where he came 2nd). In 2015 he final tabled EPT Malta (and finished 6th).
In Prague he made the final table once more – his 3rd EPT Main Event Final Table in less than 1.5 years. Winning the event and taking home more than €750,000 was almost just the icing of the cake.
During the final table Ensan was always a good sport, very sociable and if there was a fair play award in poker he would have earned it for this hand. The hand starts at 40:20:
Bluff Gone Wrong
The tournament was in the heads up stage with only Ensan and Czech player Gleb Trenzin left. Trenzin had a slight chip advantage when they both arrived at the river in a medium-sized pot, which was destined to grow much bigger.
The board showed: 1.5 million chips were in the middle and Ensan could only muster a small pair with Q♥ 5♠.
He decided to bluff and moved 400k chips over the betting line. Trenzin himself didn't have anything at all, holding 8♠ 4♦. But nevertheless he decided to bluff and raised to 2.3 million.
After a brief deliberation Ensan decided to counter bluff. He pulled back his chips and slid some bigger stacks over the betting line, announcing a raise.
But Tremzin didn't realize Ensan was raising. He just saw him put in more chips, assumed he called his bluff and meekly said "good call." The dealer and Ensan both understood "I call" and all hole cards were turned over.
Confusion at Showdown
The showdown left Ensan dumbfounded. Did Tremzin really just call his re-raise with 8-high? Slowly it dawned on them that the Czech misunderstood the action.
Of course it was obvious as no sane player would ever intentionally call a re-raise here with 8 high. Technically, though, Tremzin had called the raise, with or without intent, and the chips were owed to Hossein Ensan.
Instead Ensan decided it was unsportsmanlike to claim chips his opponent didn't mean to put into the pot. He convinced the dealer and the floor that Tremzin didn't have to pay the additional raise and both approved.
With a smile on his face he just asked his opponent to refrain from bluffing in return. Tremzin on the other hand was more than happy that he didn't have to lose the better part of his stack for a simple misunderstanding.
It took less than five minutes and Ensan's sportsmanship was rewarded with an EPT Main Event title. That's probably what they call karma.
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