Juan Pardo Goes Back-to-Back; Wins Second Single Day High Roller in Two Days for €1,013,860
When it rains, it pours. Barely twelve hours after Juan Pardo took down the European Poker Tour Barcelona €25,000 Single Day High Roller, the Spaniard followed it up by winning the €50,000 Single Day High Roller for €1,013,860, the largest cash of his career to date.
"I was trying not to think about all the hype of winning yesterday," Pardo told PokerNews. "I just wanted to try and play my best game, just like I do in all the tournaments that I play."
On a day that started out with lightning and thundery showers around the Casino Barcelona, Pardo proved that his feat last night was no flash in the pan as he cruised to victory, defeating Seth Davies heads-up who takes home €720,760 for his efforts, also the biggest cash of his career.
Finishing in third place was Malaysia's Chin Wei Lim who added €471,910 to €146,940 he earned for finishing second in the €25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller just a day earlier.
Full Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Payout (EUR) | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juan Pardo | Spain | € 1,013,860 | $1,124,584 |
| 2 | Seth Davies | United States | € 720,760 | $799,474 |
| 3 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | € 471,910 | $523,447 |
| 4 | Luc Greenwood | Canada | € 363,150 | $402,810 |
| 5 | Ali Imsirovic | United States | € 287,570 | $318,976 |
| 6 | Timothy Adams | Canada | € 224,890 | $249,450 |
| 7 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | € 176,960 | $196,286 |
| 8 | Laurynas Levinskas | Lithuania | € 138,250 | $153,348 |
| 9 | Rui Ferreira | Portugal | € 105,070 | $116,545 |
| 10 | Matthew Moss | United Kingdom | € 92,070 | $102,125 |
| 11 | Kahle Burns | Australia | € 92,070 | $102,125 |
Recap of the Day's Action
With the event offering unlimited re-entries for the first eight levels, the action was furious with several players firing multiple bullets.
The pace was set by Pardo who said he never went down below starting stack during the early stages. In fact, his elimination of both Linus Loeliger and Charlie Carrel in a single hand saw him move up to half a million in chips shortly before registration closed.
The payouts were confirmed, with eleven players in the money, and with just half of the field returning after the break, notables failing to make it this far included Adrian Mateos, Kristen Bicknell, Jean-Noel Thorel, Bryn Kenney, Isaac Haxton, Danny Tang and Charlie Carrel.
Two Table Redraw; Bubble Bursts
It was Ali Imsirovic who led at the two table redraw after taking chips from Pardo after both players flopped two pair. However, when Seth Davies doubled through Imsirovic, and Laurynas Levinskas sent €100,000 Super High Roller champion Sergi Reixach to the rail, it was the Lithuanian standing atop the pile.
Fratricide isn't commonplace in the High Roller scene, but Luc Greenwood would bust brother Sam, before rampant stalling caused tournament officials to go hand-for-hand two off the money.
Michael Soyza was the first to go, running into the flopped set of Imsirovic, before Pardo secured a huge double with pocket tens through Imsirovic to move into the lead.
However, when Levinskas sent Louis Nyberg to the rail in 12th to burst the bubble, he regained the chip lead, and after Kahle Burns and Matthew Moss bowed out in 11th and 10th place respectively, it was Levinskas who led the final nine, with Pardo close behind him.
Final Table
Rui Ferreira couldn't improve on his eighth-place finish in the €100,000 Super High Roller as he was eliminated in ninth before Pardo took down a hand that would propel him towards victory.
Having flopped a middle set against Levinskas, he called a bet on the flop and then raised all-in on the turn only for his opponent to call with two pair. The river bricked to send Pardo soaring to the top, and Levinskas crashing out on the very next hand in seventh place.
"It's the perfect scenario in this kind of tournament," said Pardo. "Where the pay jumps are getting bigger so I was in the perfect situation to push and put pressure on the other players. It's the best scenario possible."
Pardo's chip lead by this stage was enormous; almost half the chips in play seven-handed, and he soon put it to good use, shoving with king-eight and nine-five to best the ace-queen and king-queen of Steve O'Dwyer and Timothy Adams respectively.
There was a brief interlude to the Pardo procession as Seth Davies more than doubled in a hand that sent Imsirovic to the rail in fifth, but Pardo had built up enough of a lead to hold well over half the chips in play.
Luc Greenwood would double twice four-handed, once with a royal flush through Chin Wei Lim, but laddering through the pay-jumps had hurt his chip stack and he never really found a way back into contention.
It was Lim that sent the final Canadian packing, but Lim would, in turn, be eliminated by Pardo to bring the tournament to heads-up.
An Entertaining Heads-Up Match
Pardo came into heads-up with a 3:1 chip lead, only to see that disappear in one of the very first hands as Davies found a way to double up, but as Pardo would tell us later, he wasn't that bothered by the early double.
"I was already happy with the payout at this point as it was already my biggest ever, but I just tried to stay focused and make the best decisions in every spot."
Over the course of the heads-up match, Davies would double twice more, but these were for ten and seven big blinds as Pardo's victory looked more and more assured.
In the end, the chips would have gotten themselves in regardless of the stacks, with Pardo's queens holding against Davies' ace-king to secure his second Single Day High Roller victory in the space of 24 hours.
And with many more High Rollers still to come on the EPT Barcelona schedule, Pardo isn't saying no to a trio of victories.
"You cannot say no. Never. I'm gonna try!"
