Byron Kaverman Banks $500K in Taking Pair of Weekend High Rollers

Mo Nuwwarah

Aug 08, 2016 2 min read Last updated Apr 21, 2020

With Fedor Holz out of the way for the time being, Byron Kaverman has taken the crown as king of ARIA High Rollers.

A couple of months after Holz's unprecedented run of success at ARIA in buy-ins $25,000-plus, Kaverman went on a smaller but still impressive heater over the past weekend. Friday, he chopped the 27-entry ARIA $25,000 High Roller 38 for $226,227, along with Andrew Lichtenberger ($187,557) and Jake Schindler ($182,376). Saturday, he took all the cash for himself, besting a field of 23 in ARIA $25,000 High Roller 39 for $276,000.

According to the live updates at Poker Telegraph, Kaverman was nearly eliminated early on Friday as he squeezed all in with A♦10♠ in the big blind after an early open from Jason Koon and calls by Ali Fazeli and Erik Seidel. Fazeli and Seidel both called, holding A♣K♠ and 9♠9♥ respectively, but Kaverman tripled up with two pair on a 10♦2♠A♠8♣4♣.

Kaverman then found two more doubles, first making a flush with K♦Q♦ against the aces of Koon and getting his river shove called, then shoving 10♥9♣ against Fazeli on a 7♥K♣8♥ flop and getting there against Fazeli's aces. Fazeli must have had plenty of chips because he withstood that hit and handed out two more doubles, one to Kaverman and one to Lichtenberger, before falling in fourth for $51,840.

That led to the aforementioned chop between Lichtenberger, Kaverman, and Schindler.

The next day, Kaverman went back to work with Poker Telegraph again on the coverage. Kaverman wasn't nursing a short stack this time, finding early success when he made a straight with 9♠8♠ on a board of 5♣K♥7♠6♦Q♣ and had Erik Seidel shove into him on the river.

Schindler again made a deep run but had to settle for third place again without the benefit of a chop when he got Q♥J♣ in preflop from the small blind and Kaverman woke up with A♦Q♣ in the big blind. That left Kaverman heads up against Matt Perry. Perry managed a double with A♠J♥ against Kaverman's Q♥4♥ but was still looking way up at his opponent chip-wise.

Shortly thereafter, Kaverman got the Q♦10♥ in preflop with Perry at risk holding J♠9♠. A board of 6♥5♣J♦8♣9♣ left Perry with two pair but it wasn't enough against Kaverman's straight, giving the latter the finishing touches on a $500K weekend.