EPT Cyprus: Juan Pardo Wins the $50 000 Super High Roller
The fourth out of total five stops for the European Poker Tour (EPT) 2023 is currently being played in Cyprus. The beautiful Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa is where player right now are battling it out in the $5 300 Main Event, which is being played October 16th-22nd.
The festival in Cyrpus commenced October 12th with the Eureka $1 100 Main Event; the Eureka Poker Tour and the EPT are sharing the venue, considering they’re both tours by PokerStars. The last hand will be dealt October 22nd in the $10 300 EPT High Roller, however, the three Eureka tournaments and one EPT tournament have already finished. The concluded EPT tournament is the $50 000 EPT Super High Roller, which saw the Spaniard Juan Pardo lifting the trophy!
Juan Pardo: Winner of the $50 000 EPT Super High Roller
A total 30 players registered for the $50 000 EPT Super High Roller and were eager for some serious high stakes-action. Pardo was one of these players, and when play was about to end for day 2, October 16th, Pardo was one of the remaining seven players, i.e. on the final table bubble. Eventually Mikalai Vaskboinikau bid farewell in seventh and players were supposed to end play for the day, however, the remaining players wished to continue with the final table play. This was allowed by the organization and the originally scheduled three day-event would become a 2-dayer.
The six final table players were the ones who would claim their share of the $2 231 460 prize pool. One could assume Pardo was relieved being in the money; moments prior to Vaskaboinikau busting out, Pardo avoided elimination after hitting a three-outer against the aforementioned Vaskeboinikau.
The Spaniard entered the final table second to last in chips. However, it didn’t take long before he hit a set of eights and doubled out against Quan Zhou’s pocket kings after getting three streets of value. Zhou eventually busted in sixth and claimed the min-cash (if you can call $156 200 “min”).
Play went on and after a while, Pardo called of fellow Spaniard Vicente Delgado’s bluff and overtook the chiplead. It was at this point Pardo went on an elimination streak. First, he cracked Leon Sturm’s aces after turning a two-pair, seeing Sturm leaving in fifth place. Then, he busted out PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton after calling off All In with A Q against the UK resident’s K 4 shove. The board 5 7 9 J 2 meant that ace high was good and Grafton bid farewell in 4th.
All Spain Heads Up
The dominance of Pardo kept going and eventually he knocked out Teun Mulder, meaning he was Heads Up against Delgado. The two compatriots decided to do a deal, guaranteeing Pardo $688 560. Heads Up-play commenced and after a shorter roller coaster-ride, Pardo’s A Q survived against Delgado’s A 10 and he claimed the Super High Roller title!
EPT Cyprus 2023 $50 000 Super High Roller Payouts:
| Position | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Juan Pardo | $688 560 |
| 2. | Vicente Delgado | $583 400 |
| 3. |  Teun Mulder | $345 900 |
| 4. |  Sam Grafton | $256 600 |
| 5. |  Leon Sturm | $200 800 |
| 6. |  Quan Zhou | $156 200 |
As previously mentioned, there are still a lot of action to be played in EPT Cyprus 2023. When the event is finished, players have time to reload for the last EPT/Eureka Poker Tour stop of 2023, which is Prague, December 6th-17th.
