button in Safari"Birthday Boys" Solomons and Festa Top Day 1b of the 2026 APC Tanzania Main Event
The second of three starting days for the inaugural edition of the African Poker Championship Main Event in Tanzania has wrapped up with 16 players out of 46 entries advancing to Day 2. They are joining the 23 survivors of the previous flight, which had attracted 51 entries to bring the overall tally to 98 entries. That brings the $1,000 buy-in nearly half-way to meeting the $200,000 guarantee at the Le Grande Casino in Dar Es Salaam with one more starting day to follow on Friday, October 2, 2026.
However, the late registration and re-entry period will be open for another five levels on Day 2 before the final field size will be set.
South Africa's Franco Da Matta was singing "happy birthday" multiple times after the frantic action at the tables had propelled Banks Solomons (645,000) and Mattia Festa (580,500) to the top of the leaderboard, most notably during the final two levels of the night.
The fiesta for Festa continued after his triumph in the $3,000 APC High Roller the previous day as he ran up one starting stack after six levels to nearly six, while Panayiotis Giannakopoulos went from chip leader to bustout during the very same period. Da Matta himself would have liked to bag up more chips but will have to do with 128,000 after a roller coaster day.
As the sole player from the nearby island of Mauritius, Patrice Ah-Nien finished strong and bagged up 570,500 while Imran Bhojani (545,000) also advanced with a larger stack than the Day 1a chip leader Todd Hellyar. It was the logical result of an incredibly exhilarating first two levels that saw multiple all-in showdowns in rapid fashion.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banks Solomons | South Africa | 645,000 | 258 |
| 2 | Mattia Festa | Italy | 580,500 | 232 |
| 3 | Patrice Ah-Nien | Mauritius | 570,500 | 228 |
| 4 | Imran Bhojani | South Africa | 545,000 | 218 |
| 5 | Raphael Bsiri | France | 479,000 | 192 |
| 6 | Ivan Govorov | Russian Federation | 357,000 | 143 |
| 7 | Obi Zhang | China | 303,000 | 121 |
| 8 | Mr KING | China | 242,000 | 97 |
| 9 | Thomas Ye | China | 222,000 | 89 |
| 10 | Muzamil Gothey | Tanzania | 152,000 | 61 |
During the first ten minutes, Harold Brooks had already doubled up his stack before losing most of his stack in a three-way all-in when two flush draws collided with middle pair.
These two hands may perhaps not even make the top five of the most insane hands the second flight witnessed, as the craziness continued without too much remorse. Early front runner Dan Zvonaru then lost another memorable three-way all-in that sent Solomons to the top of the leaderboard, where he stayed for almost the entire remainder of the day - this was still in level one, by the way.
In the second level, Le Grande Casino owner Costa Giannakopoulos went from hero to zero in two hands when his pocket aces were cracked by the pocket kings of Solomons.
His son Panayiotis Giannakopoulos was running riot at the tables and went from short stack to near chip leader, even taking the overall lead on the live stream table after the dinner break thereafter.
The most memorable all-in showdown produced a triple knockout for Bhojani before Zvonaru then predicted a "straight flush in progress" on the flop which indeed became reality for Rajeev Poonhath.
Bsiri ran with ace-king for top two pair into the set of kings of Ivan Govorov but came back with a vengeance to score multiple knockouts en route to bagging up a big stack. Bhojani added to his tally with another double KO before Giannakopoulos went from first in chips at the start of level seven to the rail.
It was that kind of day, as the chips went flying left and right with barely any dull moment as the Day 1b field was cut into almost one third in extraordinary fashion. Whether or not the final starting day will produce the same fireworks remains to be seen.
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Day 1c is the last chance for poker enthusiasts from near and far to take advantage of the deep structure in the early levels to splash and dash the chips with a 2 p.m. starting time in Tanzania.
The very same eight levels of 60 minutes each with an extended dinner break are scheduled then and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide as many exciting showdowns as possible.