There are still 39 players remaining and almost all of them have returned to their seats despite the early morning hours. It shall take a while to get to the money bubble, let along the nine-handed final table so please make yourselves a cup of coffee or two.
At 10 a.m. local time, the first ever African Poker Championship $1,000 Main Event will recommence with 39 players remaining out of a field of 256 entries, all hoping to become the inaugural winner of the new live poker series at the Le Grande Casino in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. All of them have their hopes set on taking home a portion of the $215,040 prize pool but none of it has been awarded yet, as only the top 32 spots are paid at least $2,000 for their efforts.
When the cards go back in the air for level 18 with blinds of 5,000-10,000 and a big blind ante of 10,000, the average will be a staggering 65 big blinds and Panayiotis Giannakopoulos has three times as many chips at his disposal for a staggering 1,957,00. He already has a title under his belt during the festival, too, and is joined on the final day by his father Costa Giannakopoulos with a very solid 1,080,000.
South Africa's youngest WSOP bracelet winner Aidan Jacobs (1,404,000), Tome Dinh (1,269,000) and Day 1b chip leader Banks Solomons (1,070,000) are also among the chip leaders with six of the top ten hailing from the land of the Springboks.
Top 10 Chip Counts for the Final Day
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Panayiotis Giannakopoulos
Tanzania
1,957,000
196
2
Xianbin Li
China
1,550,000
155
3
Jonathan Hyman
South Africa
1,474,000
174
4
Tutu Russon
South Africa
1,410,000
141
5
Aidan Jacobs
South Africa
1,404,000
140
6
Tome Dinh
Viet Nam
1,269,000
127
7
Steven Radloff
South Africa
1,163,000
116
8
Costa Giannakopoulos
Tanzania
1,080,000
108
9
Banks Solomons
South Africa
1,070,000
107
10
Ryan James
South Africa
1,015,000
102
Other notables such as Marko Nortje (734,000), Cliton Taliwanth (540,000), Jaryd Jardien (507,000), $3,000 High Roller champion Mattia Festa (345,000), Wayne McGregor (299,000) and Patrice Ah-Nien (252,000) all have their eyes set on a deep run as well.
With an hour clock all the way to the final table, it may take some time to even burst the money bubble on the final day as even those near the bottom of the leaderboard still have plenty of big blinds at their disposal.
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Live Stream Table
As previously mentioned, the restart for the final day was moved one hour earlier to 10 a.m. local time with a potentially very long day get all the way to a winner. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor for the conclusion of the first-ever African Poker Championship and the action will also be streamed on the Monster Jam Poker Tour (MJPT) YouTube channel with cards-up coverage and commentary on a 30-minute delay.