Sardini's Quads Burst the Bubble on Day 1b of the 2025 SPT Time Square Main Event
Two of the four starting days of the 2025 SunBet Poker Tour Time Square Main Event have been completed and another 67 entries on Day 1b have boosted the overall attendance to 147 entries here in Pretoria. With a price tag of ZAR 15,000 ($820), the Nahum Lum Memorial Main Event is still some ways off reaching theZAR 4 million ($217,580) guarantee but another two flights remain on Friday, March 7, 2025.
It took almost an identical time as in the opening flight to reach the top 15% of the field today and the action concluded with the most spectacular hand of this stop so far, vaulting Gavin Sardini into the top spot with 579,000 in chips. Sardini flopped quads sevens and denied Huawei Sun from Botswana a berth on Day 2, who rivered the second nuts with pocket tens for tens full of sevens when all the chips went in.
For Sun, it was a rather unfortunate day on the poker tables, as he was also the first casualty in the money in the ZAR 50,000 High Roller. But he has another two chances to make up for it and compete for a slice of the six-figure prize pool.
All 11 Day 1b survivors hail from South Africa and that includes the former SPT Main Event finalists KM (367,000), Jedd Kossew (341,000), Cliton Taliwanth (240,000), Gareth Fourie (175,000) and Jaryd Jardien (165,000).
Final Chip Counts Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds Day 1b |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gavin Sardini | South Africa | 579,000 | 145 |
| 2 | KM | South Africa | 367,000 | 92 |
| 3 | JS | South Africa | 343,000 | 86 |
| 4 | Jedd Kossew | South Africa | 341,000 | 85 |
| 5 | Cliton Taliwanth | South Africa | 240,000 | 60 |
| 6 | Gareth Fourie | South Africa | 175,000 | 44 |
| 7 | Kinesh Pather | South Africa | 167,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Jaryd Jardien | South Africa | 165,000 | 41 |
| 9 | Jonathan Hoal | South Africa | 133,000 | 33 |
| 10 | Bradley Moore | South Africa | 103,000 | 26 |
| 11 | Norman Cherry Sr | South Africa | 70,000 | 18 |
Norman Cherry Sr (70,000) followed into the footsteps of his son, who was on the rail after bowing out earlier on Day 1b and had bagged up a short stack in the opening flight. Other familiar faces of the close-knit South African poker community who failed to advance were Jaco Mouton, Nic Ioannoy, Okkie Fourie, Giovanni Zanette, Rajeev Poonhath, Stephen Courtney, and Joe Rahme to name all but a few of today's casualties.
Max Deveson Wins ZAR 50,000 High Roller
As previously mentioned, the ZAR 50,000 High Roller Event concluded today as well and the UK's Max Deveson put on a heads-up master class to overcame a large chip deficit in heads-up play and defeated Ronit Chamani and earn the biggest piece of the ZAR 2,016,000 ($110,880) prize pool in a field of 48 entries for his first SPT trophy.
Ever since entering the South African poker scene, Deveson has been racking up impressive results but had the work cut out for him after entering the final five last in chips with a still very playable sub 50 big blinds. He eventually came out on top of a fierce heads-up encounter of more than two and a half hours to claim the ZAR 800,000 ($44,000) top prize.
ZAR 50,000 High Roller Final Result
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in ZAR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Deveson | United Kingdom | 800,000 | 44,000 |
| 2 | Ronit Chamani | South Africa | 554,000 | 30,470 |
| 3 | Rex Hsu | South Africa | 360,400 | 19,822 |
| 4 | Marko Nortje | South Africa | 201,600 | 11,088 |
| 5 | Huawei Sun | Botswana | 100,000 | 5,500 |
The first seat open of the final day was Huawei Sun from Botswana, who got short and then jammed at the wrong time with queen-deuce suited, Chamani looked him up with red aces and faded the pair and flush draw sweat. Chamani closed the gap to Marko Nortje and then knocked him out to become the run-away chip leader.
"It was a punt, you will be so disappointed in me when you see the stream. First against second in chips," Nortje told Cliton Taliwanth during level three of the Main Event Day 1b. Nortje had started the final five with the lead and jammed a jack-high turn with king-six suited for second pair and a flush draw. Chamani used three time bank extensions and then called with jack-deuce suited for top and bottom pair on the flop, which held after a brick river.
Taiwan-born local resident Rex Hsu then three-bet jammed at the wrong time out of the small blind with ace-five. Chamani in the big blind isolated with ace-king and Hsu missed his gutshot to see Chamani enter heads-up with Deveson holding a lead of more than three to one.
However, the tides changed slowly but surely as Deveson grinded down Chamani throughout six 30-minute heads-up levels and eventually won a flip with pocket treys versus jack-seven. While Chamani jumped into Day 1b of the Main Event and bowed out rather quickly, Deveson took the rest of the evening off. However, both are certainly be expected in the Main Event field tomorrow.
The penultimate starting day is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. local time and retains the 50-minute level duration, whereas the turbo heat in the evening has 30-minute levels during the registration period and 15-minute levels thereafter. Both remaining flights will play a maximum of 15 levels or down to the top 15% of the field, whichever comes first.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews for more of the exciting live poker action from South Africa.