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Home / Events / EPT London: Hecklen turns short stack into latest Super High Roller triumph

With six players left in the £50,000 Super High Roller tournament here at EPT London, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was already over. Juan Pardo had 5.5 million chips, while his five opponents had 4.4 million between them. They were all in the money, guaranteed at least £132,430, but the engraver might well have started writing Pardo’s name on the trophy.

Flash forward only about four hours, and that engraver was busy scratching out Pardo’s name. We had forgot to factor in a man named Henrik Hecklen, whose abilities at the business end of major tournaments are among the most abundant of anyone in the game.

A new Super High Roller champion

Hecklen, not Pardo, is the new EPT London Super High Roller champion, banking £652,700 for his troubles. What’s most remarkable is that Hecklen started the day with only 525,000 in chips, one tenth of Pardo’s stack, and the shortest of them all.

But Hecklen, with $8.85 million in tournament cashes, somehow found a way to upend expectations. He scored an early double up with pocket kings through Philip Sternheimer’s A♥ Q♦ , then knocked out Ben Heath with pocket aces against Heath’s A♦ Q♥ .

With Pardo knocking out Daniel Dvoress and Bruno Volkmann, Hecklen found himself heads-up with Pardo after eliminating Sternheimer with A♣ 4â™  against Sternheimer’s 6♦ 5♦ . Pardo had a 3-2 chip lead with only two players left, but Hecklen overcame that too, and ended up flopping two pair with 10♣ 9♥ on a board that ran out 9♣ Q♦ 10♥ 2â™  3♦ .

Juan Pardo converted a chip lead into second place

The money went in incrementally, but Pardo failed to hit a straight draw with his J♦ 2♦ and he bluff-shoved the river. Pardo finished with a second place, worth £425,680.

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All the numbers

The event attracted 39 entries, including 11 re-entries, which built a prize pool of £1.89 million. Suffice to say, the line-up was a who’s who of top-level talents, with six surviving the opening two days to guarantee a cash and play into the final day.

£50,000 Super High Roller
Dates: October 21-23, 2022
Entries: 39 (inc. 11 re-entries)
Prize pool: £1,891,890

1 – Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – £652,700
2 – Juan Pardo, Spain – £425,680
3 – Philip Sternheimer, United Kingdom – £293,240
4 – Bruno Volkmann, Brazil – £217,570
5 – Ben Heath, United Kingdom – £170,270
6 – Daniel Dvoress, Canada – £132,430

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