Friday, 29th March 2024 01:28
Home / Uncategorized / EPT12 Malta: A familiar name heads the sweet sixteen in the €25K High Roller

EPT12_malta_25K_high_roller_day2_mike_mcdonald.jpg

Look who’ s got the chip lead!
One of the many certainties in the big events on the EPT is the redraws that take place with 24, 16 and 9 players remaining. Talk to any tournament director and the primary reason given is to ‘even out the luck’. The theory – and it’s a sound one – is that at this stage of a tournament if just one table were to break then the players moving from that table to those that remained would be at too big of a disadvantage. With the elimination of Huidong Gu in 17th the players who were still spread over three tables had to be condensed into two and so there was a complete re-draw. The random seat draw did a fine job of distributing the chips evenly amongst both tables as you can see below (all counts are approximate):

Table Seat Name Country Chips
1 1 Juha Helppi Finland 1,750,000
1 2 Mike McDonald Canada 2,850,000
1 3 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 650,000
1 4 Sylvain Loosli France 930,000
1 5 Nick Petrangelo USA 875,000
1 6 Christopher Frank Germany 1,050,000
1 7 Frederik Jensen Denmark 190,000
1 8 Jason Wheeler USA 520,000
Total Chips: 8,815,000
2 1 Byron Kaverman USA 2,750,000
2 2 Quan Zhou China 1,450,000
2 3 Dietrich Fast Germany 1,200,000
2 4 Benjamin Pollak France 550,000
2 5 Jeffrey Rossiter Australia 380,000
2 6 Andrew Chen Canada 900,000
2 7 Sam Greenwood Canada 1,350,000
2 8 Justin Bonomo USA 890,000
Total Chips: 9,470,000

EPT12_malta_25K_high_roller_day2_byron_kaverman.jpg

Byron Kaverman – chip boss at table two
 

Neither table are at a disadvantage when it comes to chips with just 655,000 difference between the two. The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that Mike McDonald has assumed the mantle of chip leader, although only by a sliver from Byron Kaverman.

The Canadian, who once came close to becoming the first ever two-time winner on the EPT has some unfinished business with High Rollers on their tour – be they regular, mid-sized, or super sized. It’s not for want of trying.

He’s a regular fixture in the high buy-in events on the EPT, but he’s been routinely close to the winner’s circle only to have the door slammed shut. His roll of honour in big buy-in events on the EPT (those with a €/$/£ buy-in of 10,000 or more) includes final table finishes in most places other than first and is simply outstanding:

2nd: EPT8 Prague €10,000 High Roller
3rd: EPT8 Sanremo €10,000 High Roller
4th: EPT10 Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller
5th: EPT7 Madrid €10,000 Turbo High Roller
5th: EPT9 Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller
5th: EPT10 Prague €10,000 High Roller
5th: EPT12 Barcelona €25,000 High Roller
8th: EPT8 Grand Final six-max Turbo High Roller
8th: PCA 2014 $100,000 Super High Roller.

He’s been there, done that, got the t-shirt but as of yet not the trophy.

Indeed his last recorded tournament victory was in September 2011, his last and indeed only victory on European soil was his EPT victory in Dortmund as an 18-year-old back in January 2008. We’re sure he’d love to end that wait here in Malta.

Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.

Begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS

 


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