Juan Pardo Kicks Off EPT London with £10,200 Mystery Bounty Victory (£80,280)

Juan Pardo has kicked off his PokerStars European Poker Tour London in style, after claiming victory in the £10,200 Mystery Bounty for £80,280. Pardo topped the 56-entry field after he defeated Henrik Hecklen in heads-up play on the very first hand.

Pardo would end up accumulating a total payday of roughly £240,000 after picking up eight bounty prizes on the event's final day.

Pardo entered the day with a top-ten chip count but never really cemented his place in the tournament until the bounty portion of the day began. It was announced that there would be two £50,000 bounties up for grabs as the top prize and Pardo laid his hands on the first one after an early knockout.

"I've only played three or four mystery bounty tournaments before and I've never hit the top prize," Pardo said after his victory. Not only did Pardo pull one of the top prizes, he in fact drew both of them. Along with six other bounties, Pardo's treasure chest accumulated to roughly £160,000 when all was said and done. "It's crazy that I hit both of them and won around £240,000 when first place was around £80,000."

It was a mind-blowing performance from Pardo that he even admitted was one of the craziest final tables that he's ever been a part of. "We played seven-handed for so long, the short stacks kept doubling and doubling. And then in 30 minutes, we were heads-up. I ran very good at the end."

Pardo accounted for the final six eliminations of the day including Hecklen who managed to take home £17,500 in bounties along with the second-place prize of £52,640.

£10,200 Final Table Results

£10,200 Mystery Bounty Final Day Recap

Just 28 players returned to their seats for the opening of Day 2 and they were joined by 13 more entries before the registration period closed after Level 10. That still left two more levels for players to manoeuvre their stacks before the mystery bounty prize phase began.

After the first break, there were just 20 players remaining, and £280,000 would be distributed amongst them in bounties. In what turned out to be a dominant performance by Pardo, especially in the latter stages of the tournament, the Spaniard was able to walk away with eight bounties totalling around £160,000.

There was no excitement on the money bubble as there was a double elimination that took place that brought the field down to just eight players. Paul Newey and Daewoong Song were eliminated simultaneously on separate tables which meant the final eight players would each be guaranteed a portion of the prize pool.

On the very first hand of the final table, Pablo Brito Silva was eliminated in a three-way all in, earning him a min-cash for his efforts. That was the only thing that happened in rapid order as seven-handed play continued for over two hours. Double-up after double-up occurred, nearly 15 of them in total before Hecklen finally broke the silence when he ousted Rodrigo Sirichuk.

That spurred on the eliminations as Pedro Garagnani and Jamil Wakil were both eliminated by Pardo in the same hand shortly after. Pardo continued to roll over the table by taking out Bruno Volkmann in fourth place and Erik Seidel in third place. Taking a slight chip lead into heads-up play with Hecklen, both players opted for a quick break.

Upon their return to the table, it only took one hand for the two players to get all of their chips in the middle. Pardo held a slight lead with the better kicker but the most probable option was going to be a chopped pot. However, Pardo managed to flop a flush, and Hecklen was left drawing dead, bringing an abrupt end to the tournament.

Once the dust settled, Pardo headed over to the treasure chest of envelopes to claim the final six bounties. There was no surprise as Pardo knew he was getting all of the prizes left on the board, in addition to the £100,000 in bounties he already won earlier. All in all, Pardo took home nearly half of the total prize pool, a pretty impressive way to kick off the first EPT London in over seven years.