Welcome to Day 1b of the 2025 SPT Time Square Nahum Lum Memorial Main Event
At noon local time, the second of four starting days for the 2025 SunBet Poker Tour Time Square Main Event is set to kick off at the Time Square Casino in Pretoria, South Africa, a property of Sun International - the country's largest Hotel, Gaming and Entertainment Group. The live poker tour at the Southern tip of the African continent is held in cooperation with Monster Jam Poker Tour (MJPT) and the partnership between the two brands has turned this event into the richest live poker tour in South Africa.
The Nahum Lum Memorial Main Event in memory of the South African poker player who passed away recently comes with a ZAR 15,000 ($820) buy-in and carries a guaranteed prize pool worth ZAR 4 Million ($217,580). Just one year ago In 2024, Lum was among the contestants here in Pretoria and was widely considered as one of the fiercest competitors in SPT and South African poker history. One of last year's two champions Time Square champions was off to a great start yesterday as Harold Brooks bagged up the second-largest stack of 503,000 in the opening flight.
Only Keenan Pienaar topped that with 576,000 to his name and it remains to be seen if anyone will be able to surpass this duo in the remaining three flights.
Final Chip Counts Day 1a
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 1a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keenan Pienaar | South Africa | 576,000 | 144 |
| 2 | Harold Brooks | South Africa | 503,000 | 126 |
| 3 | Robin Moir | South Africa | 386,000 | 97 |
| 4 | Braam Van Huyssteen | South Africa | 326,000 | 82 |
| 5 | Greg Tucker | South Africa | 290,000 | 73 |
| 6 | Stefan Van Huyssteen | South Africa | 273,000 | 68 |
| 7 | Benjamin Lingenfelder Jr | South Africa | 245,000 | 61 |
| 8 | Yogesh Jeebaun | Mauritius | 191,000 | 48 |
| 9 | Gilbert Tin Fook | Mauritius | 161,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Rudolf Fourie | South Africa | 154,000 | 39 |
| 11 | Craig Hartland | South Africa | 96,000 | 24 |
| 12 | Norman Cherry | South Africa | 35,000 | 9 |
All participants start with 40,000 in chips, which is good enough for 200 big blinds in the first level of the day at 100-200 with a big blind ante of 200. The late registration and re-entry period is open for the first ten levels, all of which last 50 minutes each. There will also be an extended dinner break after the end of level seven as well.
Already underway is the final conclusion of the ZAR 50,000 ($2,750) High Roller with five hopefuls out of an 48 entry strong field returning to their seats on the live-stream table. They have locked up a portion of the ZAR 2,016,000 ($110,880) prize pool and Marko Nortje leads the way ahead of bubble bursterRonit Chamani:
| *Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Ronit Chamani | South Africa | 3,110,000 | 78 |
| 2 | Marko Nortje | South Africa | 4,065,000 | 102 |
| 3 | Huawei Sun | Botswana | 2,665,000 | 67 |
| 4 | Max Deveson | United Kingdom | 2,100,000 | 53 |
| 5 | Rex Hsu | South Africa | 2,615,000 | 65 |
They have resumed action with 13 minutes left at 20,000-40,000 and a big blind ante of 40,000. Even the shortest stack has more than 50 big blinds worth upon restart and it may take a while to determine a champion. You can follow the conclusion on the SunBet Poker Tour YouTube channel and the link to the live stream is embedded to the PokerNews live reporting. Expect to see each of the five finalists to also show up in the Main Event at some point in the final three starting days.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in ZAR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 800,000 | 44,000 | ||
| 2 | 554,000 | 30,470 | ||
| 3 | 360,400 | 19,822 | ||
| 4 | 201,600 | 11,088 | ||
| 5 | 100,000 | 5,500 |
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor throughout the remainder of the series here in Pretoria to provide all of the Main Event action until a champion is crowned on March 9, 2025. Furthermore, notable Side Event results will also be provided throughout the live updates as well.