After winning two Aria High Roller events and a WSOP gold bracelet earlier this year, it was time for poker pro Byron Kaverman to top the field of an EPT event. And he did it last night in a spectacular manner. The player emerged victorious in the EPT Season 12 Malta €10,300 High Roller to collect a first-place prize of €430,800 and the tournament trophy.
The event attracted a total of 210 entries who created a prize pool of €2,037,000. The top 31 places were paid. It took three days of play before the name of the champion was announced. The final day started with 19 hopefuls and Mukul Pahuja holding the majority of chips. In fact, the player held the lead for the greater part of the day.
And it was Pahuja whom Kaverman had to face heads-up. The match began with Pahuja holding almost four times more chips than the eventual champion. However, Kaverman took the lead at a very early stage and did not give his opponent the chance to recover until the very end.
The final hand for the day and the event as a whole occurred in Level 28. Kaverman moved all in with pocket fives and Pahuja called with [Ax][4x]. Nothing that would help Pahuja beat his opponent’s pair appeared on the table and he had to content with the runner-up finish and the amount of €290,100.
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau from Belarus finished 3rd in the event to collect €204,500. Ihar Soika, who, too, is from Belarus, received €204,500 for his 4th place. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy from Russia took 5th place to scoop €131,180.
Roberto Romanello from the United Kingdom took home the amount of €96,620 for finishing 6th. Bryn Kenney from the United States took 7th place for €72,730. Kevin MacPhee, who topped the field of the WSOP Europe Main Event last week, rounded out the eight-handed final table to collect €53,150 of the prize pool.
Following last night’s triumph, Kaverman’s live tournament winnings now amount to more than $6.5 million. Earlier this year, the player won the WSOP $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed for his first gold bracelet and a payout of $657,351. He also topped the fields of two Aria High Roller events in two consecutive days back in March. What is more, Kaverman has been ranking 1st in the GPI leaderboard for five weeks now.
