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The inaugural Main Event of the newly founded African Poker Championship has kicked off today at Le Grande Casino in Dar es Salaam with the first of three flights attracting a field of 51 entries. With a buy-in of $1,000, the crown jewel of the 2026 APC Tanzania series features a $200,000 guarantee, and plenty of poker enthusiasts from near and far are expected to join the action within the next three days.
After eight 60-minute levels, the field was cut by more than half, and 23 players bagged chips. Leading the way is Australia's Todd Hellyar, who has only a single live poker result from Tanzania to his name, according to The Hendon Mob. Hellyar bagged up 513,000 in chips and had even more chips at his disposal when he cracked aces in a three-way all-in.
A trio of players behind him is separated by ten big blinds, including Shaun Govender (345,500), Xianbin Li (332,000) and Biru Asefa (322,500). South Africa's Mark Da Matta was on his way out for an early exit but spun up a severe short stack all the way to 300,000 for an overnight top-five stack.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1a
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Todd Hellyar | Australia | 513,000 | 205 |
| 2 | Shaun Govender | South Africa | 345,500 | 138 |
| 3 | Xianbin Li | China | 332,000 | 133 |
| 4 | Biru Asefa | Ethiopia | 322,500 | 129 |
| 5 | Mark Da Matta | South Africa | 300,000 | 120 |
| 6 | Jaryd Jardien | South Africa | 293,000 | 117 |
| 7 | Sugen Singh | South Africa | 274,500 | 110 |
| 8 | Menesh Keshav | South Africa | 260,500 | 104 |
| 9 | Keegan Naidoo | South Africa | 259,500 | 104 |
| 10 | Moussa Soililti | Comoros | 242,000 | 97 |
The series is powered by the Monster Jam Poker Tour (MJPT) and founded by Marc Joseph, so it comes as no surprise that many players from South Africa made the short trip to Tanzania. Three of the country's most experienced players all advanced in the top ten for Day 1a, including Jaryd Jardien (293,000), Sugen Singh (274,500) and Menesh Keshav (260,500). Further down on the leaderboard are newcomers such as Jonathan Hyman (217,000) and Daniel Scott (153,500).
Among the last players to bust during the final hands of the night was Harold Brooks, who already has several live poker titles under his belt in South Africa. The sole participant from the island nation of Mauritius Patrice Ah-Nien, also failed to turn his first attempt into a bag, as did Gavin Sardini and Banks Solomons.
They all have another two starting days to enter the crown jewel of the festival on October 1 and 2, 2026. That will likely include many of the finalists of today's $3,000 High Roller, which drew a field of 65 entries to create a prize pool of $163,800. More than 1,000 viewers watched the conclusion of the final table on the MJPT YouTube channel, with the action heads-up between Mattia Festa and Obi Zhang at the time of writing.
Stay tuned for the exclusive PokerNews live updates from Tanzania for the remainder of the Main Event with Day 1b set to kick off tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time.
