Denmark’s Henrik Hecklen won the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague €10,300 High Roller event after a long and tough battle that lasted nearly three hours in a heads-up game against German poker pro Ole Schemion.
Hecklen topped a field of 259 entrants and took home €503,700 for his first place finish which was the biggest live cashout he has won in his poker career till date. He now has just a little under $2 million in career prize money.
Hecklen and Schemion were neck and neck at the final table, until Hecklen’s queens forced Schemion out of the game shortly before midnight. Schemion netted €334,900 for his runner-up finish.
Hecklen failed to get to the final table of the EPT Prague Main Event having finished in 23rd place. He went straight to the High Roller event afterwards and made up by winning the top prize. Hecklen considers his High Roller win a consolation prize, but a good one nevertheless.
There were a lot of top poker players present at this High Roller event. Former champions including the EPT Barcelona €10,300 High Roller winner Max Silver, PSC Prague 2017 champion Danny Tang, and former EPT Prague champ Jasper Meijer van Putten took part. Hecklen admitted that it was definitely tough competing against some of the best players in the game but that did not stop him from taking calculated risks which eventually paid off and helped him win the event.
Deepstacked Cash Game Experience Helped
Among the players who bowed out early on the final day were Charlie Carrel, Serdar Dermican and Hon Cheong Lee. The final five players at the table were Hecklen, Schemion, French player Alexandre Reard, Danny Tang from Hong Kong and Canadian Daniel Dvoress. When it came down to the final two players, it was hard to call and tell whether Hecklen or Schemion were going to pull it off.
In a statement, Henrik Hecklen said
It was quite tough because there weren't that many showdowns so it was kinda hard to figure out what Schemion was doing but overall I think he played really well. It was a tough one. My background is in deepstacked cash games and heads-up, I think the structure was very favourable for me. It was certainly better than 20 big blind shoving poker. It suits me very well for sure
