On the river of a J♠8♣7♥5♦9♦ board, Daniel van den Berg made it 3,000 to go from under the gun. Banks Solomons raised it up to 18,000 on the button and van den Berg mulled it over for a few seconds before folding.
The next bigger clash over on table nine saw Shemir Kamoula bet the 10♠9♠2♣9♦ turn for 4,000 and Jaryd Jardien called in the next seat. Kamoula then bet the 4♥ river for 13,000 and Jardien raised it up to 31,000. Kamoula used one time bank and called to get shown 2♠2♥ for deuces full of nines by Jardien.
The field has grown to 11 entries in the opening stages and new in the mix are Shemir Kamoula as well as Jaryd Jardien, among others. Both were involved in a single-raised pot to the Q♥7♠4♦ flop on which Kamoula check-called for 700. He did so again for 1,800 on the 3♦ turn and they checked the J♣ river, Jardien won the pot with the A♥7♠ for a pair of sevens.
Todd Hellyar stole the blinds with an open raise to 1,000 and then limpex in with Iqubal Mohamed and Daniel van den Berg coming along out of the blinds. They checked the K♦Q♦10♣ flop to the 8♣ turn on which Mohamed bet 600. Van den Berg called and Hellyar folded.
Mohamed also bet the 4♥ on the river for 1,000 and that was enough to force out his table neighbour.
While Day 2 of the $3,000 High Roller has grown to 59 entries with 12 players remaining, there are four players signed up before the start of Day 1a in the $1,000 Main Event. They are starting a staggering 333 big blinds deep and it remains to be seen if there will be major clashes in the first level already.
Level: 1
Blinds: 200/300
Ante: 300
One of the highlights on the schedule of the inaugural 2026 African Poker Championship in Tanzania is the $3,000 APC High Roller which has already smashed the $100,000 guarantee during yesterday's first tournament day with 56 entries, of which 26 players returned to their seats. The Prize Pool has already reached $141,120 and the action recommenced just after noon local time in the conference rooms on the ninth floor above Le Grande Casino in Dar Es Salaam with an average of 37 big blinds.
None other than Muaaz Gani is leading the way at the beginning and he is widely considered one of the up and coming live poker players in South Africa with $949,653 in recorded cashes according to The Hendon Mob prior to this stop. However, it is very likely he will cross the $1 million barrier as Gani took down the $5,000 Super High Roller in a field of 24 entries two days ago. Out of a prize pool of $100,800, Gani took home the top prize of $50,000 whereas Fedja from Germany finished in second place for $30,000.
Cliton Taliwanth earned a healthy min-cash of $20,800 after outlasting local player Muzamil Gothey on the money bubble. Other finalists included Costa Giannakopoulos, Thanos Vogiatzis, Praful Patwa, and Xu Yue, French player Raphael Bsiri bubbled the nine-handed final table.
Gani continued his dominance on Day 1 of the $3,000 High Roller to finish atop the leaderboard with four players increasing their 300,000 starting stack to seven figures. This also included Panayiotis Giannakopoulos, Sami Matar and Sheel Pattani while Costa Giannakopoulos narrowly missed out on it by a couple of big blinds.
$3,000 High Roller Top Chip Counts for Day 2:
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muaaz Gani | South Africa | 1,476,000 | 185 |
| 2 | Panayiotis Giannakopoulos | Tanzania | 1,317,000 | 165 |
| 3 | Sami Matar | Lebanon | 1,132,000 | 142 |
| 4 | Sheel Pattani | Tanzania | 1,040,000 | 130 |
| 5 | Costa Giannakopoulos | Tanzania | 964,000 | 121 |
| 6 | Jaco Mouton | South Africa | 880,000 | 110 |
| 7 | Tome Dinh | Viet Nam | 873,000 | 109 |
| 8 | Dimitri Hadjipaschali | South Africa | 717,000 | 90 |
| 9 | Cliton Taliwanth | South Africa | 661,000 | 83 |
| 10 | Dan Zvonaru | Tanzania | 630,000 | 79 |
The action of the final day for this event can be followed on the Monster Jam Poker Tour (MJPT) YouTube channel right here.
At 2 p.m. local time, the first-ever African Poker Championship Main Event kicks off for the new live poker brand in Africa, powered by the Monster Jam Poker Tour (MJPT) by it's founder Marc Joseph from South Africa. The inaugural stop in Tanzania has already been running for nearly a week at the Le Grande Casino in Dar es Salaam and features $500,000 in guaranteed prize pools.
Nearly half of that comes in the 2026 APC Tanzania Main Event, which has a guarantee of $200,000 and contains a price tag of $1,000. A quick glance at the early tournament result indicates that this figure will likely be surpassed as players from near and far have already been making the trip to Tanzania these last few days. It is also the first chance to earn the Tanzanian flag for The Hendon Mob, which will gather the interest of flag hunters such as Dominick French and Andrew Leathem, who just attended a Pot Limit Omaha festival in the nearby Nairobi, Kenya.
Even the mighty Dan "Jungleman" Cates will be here at the venue and players can battle with him in cash games the next few days.
The crown jewel on the schedule has three starting days from September 30 until October 1, 2026, and each of them will play eight 60-minute levels with a 60-minute dinner break included to finish around midnight local time. All survivors return for Day 2 on October 2 where another five levels of late registration and re-entry are available and the last minute entry would come with 25 big blinds to boot.
All players start with 100,000 in chips at opening blinds of 200-300 and a big blind ante of 300 to provide a very deep structure in the very first level. However, don't be surprised if there are already a couple of seat open even in the first two levels to kick off the shenanigans. Poker players can take advantage of the Let's Poker app from Romania to check out all of the available tournaments, cash games and join the waitlist for each as well.
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The action will also be broadcast on the MJPT YouTube channel and today's coverage includes Day 2 of the $3,000 APC High Roller Day, which has already crushed the $100,000 guarantee. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to keep an eye on the High Rollers while the main focus will be on the opening flight of the 2026 APC Tanzania Main Event.
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