Byron Kaverman Leads Day 1 of Super High Roller Bowl

Day 1 of the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl kicked off at 1 pm PT with 56 of the world’s best poker players for the $300,000 buy-in – the largest of the year. Seven levels of action trimmed the field to 44 remaining players and Byron Kaverman leads the field as the only player with seven-figure chip stack. 

The event served as the kickoff broadcast for PokerGO – Poker Central’s new subscription service that offers the best live poker action, original programming and more. The entire event is streamed on PokerGO with a 30-minute delay, which allows viewers to see the players’ hole cards.

“Today went pretty smooth, I got off to a pretty good start,” Kaverman said. “I made a full house over full house against Cary (Katz) and just kind of coasted from there.”

“I opened from under the gun and he three-bet right behind me showing a lot of strength. So I felt like it was best to just call and disguise my hand. From there I was just in check-call mode. Given his hand, I think I could’ve played a little different to make a little more, but I’m not second guessing. I would do the same thing over again.”

The collection of players at the start filled the spectrum – from Hollywood’s highest-paid comedian Kevin Hart, billionaire businessmen Bill Perkins and David Einhorn to poker legends Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. 

Filling out the field were some of the best young players today with Germany having nine players represented – including 2016 SHR bowl winner Rainer Kempe and runner-up Fedor Holz. 

Hart advanced to Day 2 with 298,500 in the bag while Leon Tsoukernik finished second in chips. Included in the top ten are Holz, Jake Schindler, Katz and Justin Bonomo. 

Haralabos Voulgaris was the first player eliminated when his two pair ran into Cary Katz’s straight. John Juanda, Ben Tollerene, Phil Hellmuth and Bill Perkins were all eliminated on the day.

Hellmuth was eliminated by Hart in a set over set situation. Hellmuth held pocket threes, Hart had pocket queens and they each flopped a set, but the money didn’t go in until the turn. Hart announced to whole room, interrupting Hellmuth’s bust-out interview, that he, in fact, busted him as was met with applause by the rest of the field.

Day 2 resumes Monday at 1 pm PT with all the action exclusively on PokerGO. They’ll play another similar day with seven levels on the schedule. Hand updates are also available on PokerNews.com and are timed with the stream to not give away any spoilers.

Complete Day 2 Chip Counts

Byron Kaverman – 1,247,000
Leon Tsoukernick – 912,000
Fedor Holz – 803,000
Cary Katz – 677,000
Jake Schindler – 648,500
Justin Bonomo – 620,500
Jason Mercier – 605,000
Nick Petrangelo – 592,500
Andrew Lichtenberger – 585,000
Rainer Kempe – 517,000
Dominik Nitsche – 513,000
Steffen Sontheimer – 499,500
Christoph Vogelsang – 491,000
David Einhorn – 483,500
Andrew Robl – 406,000
Dan Shak – 405,500
Daniel Colman – 403,000
Pratyush Buddiga – 387,500
Brian Rast 375,500
Tony G. – 372,500
Stefan Schillhabel -360,000
Jason Koon – 354,000
Dan Smith – 351,000
David Peters – 342,000
Koray Aldemir – 334,500
Daniel Negreanu – 327,500
Kevin Hart – 298,500
Zach Hyman – 287,500
Matt Berkey – 270,000
Ben Lamb – 263,500
Doug Polk – 243,500
Talal Shakerchi – 222,000
Scott Seiver – 211,000
Jason Les – 194,000
Bryn Kenney – 167,000
Connor Drinan – 161,500
Sam Soverel – 153,500
Antonio Esfandiari – 151,500
Dan Perper – 146,000
Bill Klein – 143,500
Lauren Roberts – 99,000
Isaac Haxton – 62,000
Thomas Marchese – 59,000
Sean Winter – 50,000