Byron Kaverman in Ironman Challenge

It looks like Byron Kaverman will put his life on the line and attempt to complete a triathlon in 13-hours or less after Bill Perkins dangled a $50,000 maggot on the end of the line.

Byron Kaverman is the latest target for serial prop bet bettor Bill Perkins. The American hedge fund manager challenged Kaverman to complete an Ironman in 13-hours or less.

@ByronKaverman has less than 6 months to complete an Ironman in less than 13hrs. @tsarrast and I wish him luck @PokerNews 50k on the line!

— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) 28 May 2016

Kaverman hasn’t officially responded on Twitter, but the tone of Perkins tweet suggests the bet is on with Kaverman having six months to prepare for the biggest challenge of his life.

What is Ironman?

Ironman is a triathlon completed by mental people. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim (most of the time accompanied by man-eating sharks), an 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon.

Competitors get 17-hours to end the madness. Hawaii host the Ironman World Championships. The Australian Craig Alexander holds the course record of 8 hrs 3 mins and 56 secs, and Australian Mirinda Carfrae holds the record for the fastest female at 8 hrs 52 mins and 14 secs (that’s what swimming away from crocodiles will do to your times)

Kaverman gets 13-hours.

According to statistics provided for by runtri.com analysis of more than 41,000 competitors revealed the average race time of 12 hrs and 35 mins.

Who is the Mug Here?

Kaverman is not short of cash. He has earned over $7.2m in live tournament winnings, and although he has a backer, one imagines he isn’t worrying about the bills.

He is a generous man recently joining a plethora of pro poker players who donated 3% of all final table earnings at the PokerStars Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP).

But, $50,000?

Kaverman must be doing this for the machismo challenge. Otherwise, there is only one mug here, and it’s the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder.

Perkins allegedly paid Jeff Gross over half a million dollars to have a rainbow tattoo on his neck. And Kaverman gets to kill himself for $50,000. When I first saw that figure, I assumed he had missed a zero off the end.

In 2013, the World Triathlon Corp. decided to make some rule changes after too many people started to die during the swimming portion of the event. There were 43 fatalities between 2003 & 2011.

What a shame, I know Kaverman was a Liverpool fan, but I liked the guy a lot.

Perkins The Prop Bet King

There are many hobbies in the world. I used to collect stamps and football stickers when I was a lad. As I aged, I exchanged stamps for porn.

Perkins has a slightly different hobby. He likes to give money away, and not to charitable causes like most Hedge Fund managers who end up with more money than they can handle. Perkins gives it to millionaire poker players.

Jeff Gross was handed $550,000 for the rainbow tattoo, Antonio Esfandiari was given $50,000 for lunging his way through the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), Dan Bilzerian received $600,000 for cycling from Vegas to LA, and Brian Rast was the recipient of a $600,000 gift when he completed the same ride, with less time to train, and more miles to pedal.

And now it’s Kaverman’s turn. Only, I think Perkins has had enough of being the whipping boy. This one looks like the toughest of the lot, and I am not sure if sitting on your ass for hours at a time is the greatest form of preparation for an Ironman.

Super High Roller Bowl Update

Both Kaverman and Perkins are appearing at the ARIA in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl. At the time of writing, there are 16 players left in contention for the $5m first prize and Perkins is still in the mix in 14^th position.

Kaverman made it to Day 2 but fell by the wayside as things heated up. He was recently on top of the world when a string of performances saw him reach the summit of the Global Poker Index (GPI). In 2015 he won the GPI Player of the Year award. He has since drifted out to 20th spot.

Here are the Day 3 Chip Counts at the SHRB