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Winner to Be Crowned in the Inaugural African Poker Championship Tanzania Main Event
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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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.