(Credit: Photo courtesy of pokercentral)This years Super High Roller Bowl, hosted at Air Resort & Casino Las Vegas, acted as the kickoff broadcast for Poker Central’s new subscription service, PokerGo. Day 1 of the $300,000 buy-in, the largest of the year, saw the usual suspects surviving seven levels of action which trimmed the initial playing field of 56 down to 44.
Coming in first place is Bryon Kaverman, 2015 GPI Player of the Year, the only player in the field with a seven-figure chip stack of 1,247,000.
“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.”
Finishing second is King’s Casino owner and EPT Prague $50k Super High Roller champ, Leon Tsoukernik, with 912,000. Following closely behind with a stack of 803,000 in third place is last year’s runner-up, Fedor Holz.
The champs of the first and second season of this tournament – Brian Rast and Rainer Kempe are still in contention, ending the day with 375,500 and 517,000 respectively.
Other notables include Poker Central founder Cary Katz with 677,000, Justin Bonomo with 620,500, Jason Mercier with 605,000, Daniel Colman with 403,000, 2016 GPI Player of the Year David Peters with 342,000, Daniel Negreanu with 327,500poker blogger Doug Polk with 243,500 and Antonio Esfandiari with 151,500.
Hart Banters His Way Through
Perhaps one of the players drawing the most attention is actor and comedian Kevin Hart. He spent most of his day trying to do what he does best, livening up the table with his banter. However, his audience, unlike the ones at his stadium-packed stand-up shows, had their eyes on the prize and paid Hart little attention. This did not seem to faze the comedian, as he went on to produce some rather spectacular poker. Most evident by the fact that it was Hart who sent the fourteen-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth packing. He ended the day with just a hair below the starting stack.
The Fallen
By the end of Day 1, a dozen players had to say goodbye and take their leave.
First one to get eliminated was Haralabos Voulgaris, drawing the short straw with his two pair against Cary Katz’s straight. Following in line were Erik Seidel, Ben Tollerene, Ankush Mandavia, John Juanda, Ben Tollerene, Phil Hellmuth and Bill Perkins.
The second day of the tournament on Monday is scheduled to start on 1pm local time, and will be broadcasted on PokerGo with a 30-minute delay.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Stack |
| 1 | Byron Kaverman | 1,247,000 |
| 2 | Leon Tsoukernik | 912,000 |
| 3 | Fedor Holz | 803,000 |
| 4 | Cary Katz | 677,000 |
| 5 | Jake Schindler | 648,500 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | 620,500 |
| 7 | Jason Mercier | 605,000 |
| 8 | Nick Petrangelo | 592,500 |
| 9 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 585,000 |
| 10 | Rainer Kempe | 517,000 |
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