Alexandre Blanc Wins the 2025 SunBet Poker Tour Joe-Boy Rahme MonsterStaK Main Event
The final SunBet Poker Tour stop of the year has come to a conclusion at the GrandWest Casino by Sun International in Cape Town and it turned out to be a very long night until the crown jewel of the festival had crowned a champion. Out of 344 entries in the Joe-Boy Rahme MonsterStaK Main Event, French player Alexandre Blanc defeated South African veteran Edgar Antezana in heads-up with both players claiming the largest slices of the ZAR 4,334,400 ($251,395) prize pool for the ZAR 15,000 ($850) buy-in.
The tournament was named in memory of South African live poker pioneer Joe Rahme, who participated in this very event one year ago when Mauritius-based Australian player Saurabh Gulati claimed the trophy. Rahme passed away unexpectedly three weeks ago and a tribute video was played every day during the crown jewel of the series in his memory.
With an average of more than 50 big blinds at the restart, it took more than 16 hours to determine a winner and Blanc sealed the victory with a premium pocket pair, of which he picked up many en route to finish a memorable comeback story. On the final few tables, he was down to only five big blinds but patiently waited for his spot to get the chips in.
That discipline turned into a top prize of ZAR 908,900 ($52,716), while runner-up Antezana had to settle for ZAR 600,000 ($34,800). Antezana had only entered the tournament during the extended late registration on Day 2 after deep runs in the High Roller events during the days prior. Norway's Jon Persent and the United Kingdom's Alexander Rizvi were the only other finalists outside of South Africa to reach the final table.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (ZAR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandre Blanc | France | 908,900 | $52,716 |
| 2 | Edgar Antezana | South Africa | 600,000 | $34,800 |
| 3 | Jon Persent | Norway | 400,000 | $23,200 |
| 4 | Naven Naicker | South Africa | 260,000 | $15,080 |
| 5 | Mike Cupido | South Africa | 208,000 | $12,064 |
| 6 | Jedd Kossew | South Africa | 170,000 | $9,860 |
| 7 | Alexander Rizvi | United Kingdom | 135,000 | $7,830 |
| 8 | Franco Da Matta | South Africa | 110,000 | $6,380 |
| 9 | Jayson Zulch | South Africa | 92,000 | $5,336 |
Action of the Final Day
After the previous opening flights and lengthy Day 2, the remaining 43 players returned in the money and one could expect frantic action right from the start with many short stacks in contention. However, that wasn't really the case despite the rapid eliminations of Sugen Singh, Caleb October and Gareth Duncan, among others.
On the final four tables, Ariel Mazabow took a crushing blow when he flopped a set of eights and Mike Cupido went runner-runner for a flush. The very same table exploded with action thereafter spearheaded by Cupido, Rayhaan Adam and Marko Nortje. In a non-raised and checked down battle of the blinds, Adam jammed the queen-high river and Nortje reluctantly called with the rivered top pair, only for Adam to show his flopped nut straight.
Nortje had started the day as the chip leader and was suddenly short, but he stuck around for a while and even clawed his way back into contention all the way to the final two tables. By then, Cupido had claimed another high-profile victim when he four-bet jammed king-ten suited to crack the ace-king of Sascha Manns thanks to a turned flush.
Damon Fine lost all but one chip when Jayson Zulch hit his three-outer. The South African vlogger had secured the pay jump already, though, and finished in a respectable 23rd place. Adam's wild ride then ended on the feature table, going from hero to zero throughout several hands. Dean Hutchison was then unable to improve with a dominated ace to send the Scottish WSOP Main Event finalist in 2023 to the payout desk.
Not long after, Nortje found a pair and flush draw to go with, but saw his stack reduced to four of the smallest chip denominations. He doubled up two times in quick succession but couldn't get there with pocket fives against the pocket eights of Jedd Kossew. What followed was a tense affair en route to the final table which culminated in the elimination of the 2024 THMC Cape Town Million champion Muaaz Gani when Cupido rivered a flush with a dominated ace.
Cupido was still leading the way with a staggering 74 big blinds and Persent was not far behind, while Blanc was in the middle of the pack after notching up several double-ups in the lead-up. The torch of aggression was passed on from Cupido, who never really got anything going while especially Persent and Blanc dominated the action at the tables. Likewise, Franco Da Matta had been a big stack for a long time but lost all of his momentum once the final table was reached.
Zulch was the first to go when his ace-ten could not beat Antezana's pocket jacks and Da Matta followed thereafter when he check-called three streets at the wrong time against Blanc. The UK's Alexander Rizvi put on a master class of short stack survival but eventually ran out of chips in seventh place.
One of the local fan favourites was the next to fall in sixth and that happened to be the aforementioned Kossew. He got short after a topsy-turvy day and ultimately saw his pocket kings cracked by the ace-ten of Persent, who rivered an ace. Cupido also fell victim to the hot run of the Norwegian when he jammed king-trey into ace-trey and Naven Naicker made it three casualties in a row for the South African players.
Three-handed play vaulted Blanc into a commanding lead before the two short stacks traded double-ups. Persent had nearly closed the gap to the Frenchman when he "made one mistake" in the early morning hours and five-bet jammed ace-seven into the ace-king of Blanc. With a very healthy lead at his disposal, Blanc sealed the victory in a short-lived heads-up duel because Antezana "just couldn't catch him" to end the tournament more than sixteen hours after the cards went back in the air.
This concludes the PokerNews coverage of South Africa's richest live poker tour in 2025, but many other exciting festivals are just around the corner in one of the busiest months for the global poker community.