Byron Kaverman is on a several-years-long heater.
Which of course means he's not really on a heater at all. He's simply very, very good at poker.
After five relatively short days of poker in Panama Kaverman remained among the final nine players of the PokerStars Championship main event yesterday.
Live Poker Fits Better
With more than $1.3 million in cashes already this year he looked primed to add even more to his impressive tally from the past few years, which looks like this:
2016 - $1.3 million; 2015 - $3.5 million; 2014 - $1.4 million.
That begged a question, which we asked on a break in the action.
PokerListings: Do you know something other people don’t?
Byron Kaverman: I actually had a losing year last year. I reset myself at the start of this year and control myself better on and off the table.
I’m balancing poker time with time I spend with friends and other things. I try to eat healthy and work out and spend more time reading.
Living healthily is a lot more important in poker these days and I think you can see the impact.
PL: You have so many results across the year that it makes us wonder how much you travel.
BK: I don’t play as much as I used to. For several years I was travelling for the most part of the year and played maybe 90 tournaments per year.
Last year I played about 60 and this year I’ve played about 10 so far. I’m scaling back a little because I got a little burned out in the past.
I play mainly live poker these days. I started out online and sometimes put in a Sunday, but I enjoy live a lot more. It just fits me better, I guess.
PL: You’ve travelled the whole world but this is your first time in Panama, right?
BK: Yes, my first trip to Central America. Panama City is pretty cool; I’ve been to a bunch of roof bars and good restaurants. But as a player you don’t get out too much.
PL: Player turnout is a little lower than expected. Do you still consider the event a success?
BK: Overall I’d say it’s been a success. The venue is very nice, the hotel is nice, and they’re doing a great job running it as always.
Some of the tournaments might be a bit small but all-in-all it’s been good.
PL: Some say EPTs used to give two million to the winner and now there’s only $300k. When did $300k become money to be scoffed at?
BK: Good point. (laughs) There are people complaining about the payout structures in the main event but I think they made the changes for good reason.
Also, they did a survey in Barcelona about the payout structure and they listened to what the players thought, so I think the way it is now is good.
PL: At the beginning of Day 5 the average stacks were over 60bb deep. Does the smaller field make this more of a real players’ tournament?
BK: I didn’t realize that but it’s true that a couple of players are pretty deep, now that I think about it.
PL: You're the biggest name of the players left. Who do you consider the toughest competition?
BK: I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a favorite with my chipstack. Denis (Timofeev) plays a lot online and is very good. The Belgian guy (Jonathan Abdellatif) seems to be pretty good, too.
The German guy (Robin Woznicziek) is in business school but seems to be totally in the zone and Kenny (Smaron) has had quite some success as well, so it’s a pretty tough table.
Kaverman proved to be very good at predictions. He busted soon after this talk in eighth place after losing a flip while Smaron, Wozniczek, and Timofeev were top of the leaderboard.
Watch the final table of PokerStars Championship Panama play out today on the live stream (cards-up) starting shortly after 1 pm local time.
