Blanc Outlasts Marathon Final Day to Win SunBet MonsterStaK Title
Table Of Contents
The final SunBet Poker Tour stop of the year has come to a conclusion at the GrandWest Casino by Sun International in Cape Town and it turned out to be a very long night until the crown jewel of the festival had crowned a champion. Out of 344 entries in the Joe-Boy Rahme MonsterStaK Main Event, French player Alexandre Blanc defeated South African veteran Edgar Antezana in heads-up with both players claiming the largest slices of the ZAR 4,334,400 ($251,395) prize pool for the ZAR 15,000 ($850) buy-in.
The tournament was named in memory of South African live poker pioneer Joe Rahme, who participated in this very event one year ago when Mauritius-based Australian player Saurabh Gulati claimed the trophy. Rahme passed away unexpectedly three weeks ago and a tribute video was played in his memory throughout.
With an average of more than 50 big blinds at the restart, it took more than 16 hours to determine a winner and Blanc sealed the victory with a premium pocket pair, of which he picked up many en route to finish a memorable comeback story. On the final few tables, he was down to only five big blinds but patiently waited for his spot to get the chips in.
That discipline turned into a top prize of ZAR 908,900 ($52,716), while runner-up Antezana had to settle for ZAR 600,000 ($34,800). Antezana had only entered the tournament during the extended late registration on Day 2 after deep runs in the High Roller events during the days prior. Norway's Jon Persent and the United Kingdom's Alexander Rizvi were the only other finalists outside of South Africa to reach the final table.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (ZAR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandre Blanc | France | 908,900 | $52,716 |
| 2 | Edgar Antezana | South Africa | 600,000 | $34,800 |
| 3 | Jon Persent | Norway | 400,000 | $23,200 |
| 4 | Naven Naicker | South Africa | 260,000 | $15,080 |
| 5 | Mike Cupido | South Africa | 208,000 | $12,064 |
| 6 | Jedd Kossew | South Africa | 170,000 | $9,860 |
| 7 | Alexander Rizvi | United Kingdom | 135,000 | $7,830 |
| 8 | Franco Da Matta | South Africa | 110,000 | $6,380 |
| 9 | Jayson Zulch | South Africa | 92,000 | $5,336 |
Action of the Final Day
The final day began with 43 players already in the money, but the pace stayed controlled despite a few early exits. Things changed sharply on the final four tables when Mike Cupido went runner-runner to crack Ariel Mazabow’s flopped set, igniting a stretch of big pots involving Cupido, Rayhaan Adam, and Marko Nortje.
Nortje, who’d started the day as chip leader, saw his stack yo-yo before bowing out near the final two tables, while Cupido continued to surge, knocking out Sascha Manns and 2024 Cape Town Million champion Muaaz Gani to enter the final table as chip leader. Meanwhile, Blanc quietly rebuilt to a playable stack with a string of well-timed doubles.
Once the final nine were set, momentum swung away from the early favourites. Cupido stalled, Zulch and Franco Da Matta fell, and then Alexander Rizvi busted in seventh after short stack masterclass ran out of steam.
The defining run belonged to Persent, who eliminated Kossew, Cupido, and Naven Naicker in quick succession before a mistimed five-bet shove into Blanc halted his charge. That hand gave Blanc a commanding lead, and he needed only a short heads-up session to close out the marathon finale against Antezana, who simply couldn't find a foothold in the final stretch.
