ShareDanish highroller Henrik Hecklen bagged the Triton Poker Main Event in Madrid, turning his €100k buy-in into a monster €2,170,509 cash!
🏆Congratulations, Hecklen! A well-deserved win in Event 9- 🔱Triton Series Madrid €100k NLH Main Event 💰#tritonmadrid2022@CasinoGranVia @GGPoker pic.twitter.com/reRa7Atd8a
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 22, 2022
The Main Event attracted a whopping 93 entries at Casino Gran Via in the heart of Madrid, 59 of those unique and a staggering €9,300,000 prizepool to be shared by the top 13 finishers, with three €million+ payouts up top.
Nine players had made it through the first two days of play, with Patrik Antonius, Sam Greenwood, Orpen Kisacikoglu and Sam Grafton among them, and Alfred DeCarolis – a restaurateur – the only non-pro at the final table.
It was Greenwood who left first, though, and he was not a happy bunny as his kings were cracked by Kevin Paqué’s pocket 8s. Ninth spot and €260,500 for the Canadian, his comment an understated, “Not great,” when asked how he felt.
A short-stacked DeCarolis fell next, followed by Volkmann, and the prizemoney was now up to more than €500k, significant even by highroller standards.
The legendary Patrik Antonius was next to depart, 13BBs and pocket 7s more than good enough to call Ponakov’s button shove, but the flop pretty much decided Patrik’s fate...
Antonius: 7♠7♥
Ponakovs: A♣ 10♦
Flop: 10♠4♦ 8♣
Turn: 2♥
River: 4â™
Turkey’s Orpen Kisacikoglu, wielding pocket aces, then accounted for Grafton in fifth, a €716,000 payday for the Englishman, and crippled Ponakovs with the same hand, the Latvian soon out in 4th for €888,000.
With 7-figures guaranteed, it was Paqué who had to settle for 3rd and €1,134,000 after being outkicked by Hecklen, who then did a deal with his opponent – €2,090,509 for Hecklen and €2,016,491 for Kisacikoglu, and €80,000 to play for, along with a luxurious Jacob & Co watch.
The heads-up battle then lasted precisely one hand, a pocket pair apiece enough for all the chips to go in...
Henrik Hecklen is your 🔱 Triton Series Madrid €100k NLH Main Event Winner! 🏆#poker@GGPoker @CasinoGranVia pic.twitter.com/5GFndOXKHM
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 22, 2022
Final results
| 1 | Henrik Hecklen | €2,170,509* |
| 2 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | €2,016,491* |
| 3 | Kevin Paqué | €1,134,000 |
| 4 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | €888,000 |
| 5 | Sam Grafton | €716,000 |
| 6 | Patrik Antonius | €558,000 |
| 7 | Bruno Volkmann | €440,500 |
| 8 | Alfred DeCarolis | €344,000 |
*denotes a heads-up deal
“It was a great final table, fun players to play with,” Hecklen said afterwards, adding, “It’s a great event...“I’m definitely going to get drunk, I guess.”
Meanwhile, event 10 on the 13-event Triton Madrid schedule was taking place – a €50k buy-in NLHE Turbo tournament –and it was Hungary’s Laszlo Bujtas who emerged victorious.
However, it was Ukrainian crypto-currency investor, Denys Homliavyi, who stole the headlines, coming second having only learned the rules of poker two days before! More on that remarkable story in a separate article!
