Back-to-Back Victories for Ben Heath in 2022 PokerStars EPT Prague €25,000 Single-Day High Rollers
The third high-stakes contest of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague festival has come to a conclusion in the early morning hours. After more than 13 hours of live poker action at the Hilton Prague, Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller has come to a conclusion.
Out of a field of 30 entries, the top five finishers shared a portion of the €720,300 prize pool, and the player to collect all the chips was the same as the previous night. The UK's Ben Heath scored back-to-back victories after a fiercely contested heads-up duel with Thailand's Kannapong Thanarattrakul, after which Heath walked away with the top prize of €273,710 and second PokerStars Spadie trophy in a row.
Thanarattrakul dominated the final table and was responsible for bursting the money bubble but he was unable to finish the job after a heads-up duel that lasted more than two hours. Aleksejs Ponakovs, Pablo Brito Silva, and Jorryt van Hoof were the only other players to earn a cash prize while Kent Staahle was the last contender to walk away empty-handed without anything to show for.
Final Result Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | €273,710 |
| 2 | Kannapong Thanarattrakul | Thailand | €176,470 |
| 3 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | €117,050 |
| 4 | Pablo Brito Silva | Brazil | €84,640 |
| 5 | Jorryt van Hoof | Netherlands | €68,430 |
It wasn't smooth sailing by any means for Heath to claim the second victory in a row and he even needed to take advantage of the reentry option after he ran with ace-king into the pocket aces of Timothy Adams in Level 3. By then, Mike Watson was already on the rail after he crashed out on the very first level.
Other notables would follow such as Orpen Kisacikoglu, Pascal Lefrancois, aforementioned Adams, Tom Orpaz, and
Rodrigo Seiji. The eventual runner-up also had to buy back in after his ace-ten suited was cracked by the ace-nine of Adams. The latter found no fortune on bullet number two and Heath was ousted a second time, too, when Staahle rivered a straight.
Last night's runner-up Alex Kulev quickly doubled after entering the fray but couldn't keep up the momentum to bow out before the dinner break. Five late entrants at the end of the registration period paved the way for the last two tables and they quickly became one as notables such as Juan Pardo, Dimitar Danchev, €10,200 Mystery Bounty Event winner Seiji, and Steve O'Dwyer were all among the casualties.
Adrian Mateos and Sam Greenwood suffered cruel beats after the field of hopefuls had combined to a single table for the last time. The Spaniard got it in with pocket tens for an overpair only for Thanarattrakul to river a nine-high straight. However, the exit of Greenwood was even worse when his kings were up against the ace-king of Heath. Despite improving to a set with the case king on the flop, Greenwood was doomed when Heath hit running cards for Broadway.
Kisacikoglu never recovered from a major setback to fall two spots away from the money and Staahle then risked it all with the nut flush draw. Thanarattrakul looked him up with top pair and prevailed to let Ponakovs as the far shortest stack celebrate. Down to the final five players, Heath and Thanarattrakul were the runaway chip leaders and took their turns to decimate the field to the heads-up stage.
Thanarattrakul entered the duel with a two-to-one lead and Heath slowly but steadily took chunks out of his stack to take over the top spot. The Brit established a five-to-one advantage for a short period only for the Thai poker pro to regain the lead. And then, after more than two hours of cagey heads-up play, it was all over in the blink of an eye when they flipped for it with king-ten versus ace-jack as Heath came out on top once more.
Many of those who entered the two editions of the €25,000 Single-Day High Rollers are expected to jump into the €50,000 Super High Roller, which is set to take place from December 11 to 13, 2022. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action from the tables in the capital of the Czech Republic.