Norman Cherry raised it up and earned two callers to the 6♠5♠4♦ flop, on which Alan Jung checked. Cherry bet 2,200 and Jamie Vilela asked what Cherry wanted them to do. "You can call, and put another six on the turn," he joked. Vilela and Jung indeed called and the latter checked the Q♥ turn.
Cherry now bet 3,200 and Vilela declared "I am out." Jung also folded and exposes the 7♥ while Cherry said he had a six.
The action after the dinner break has recommenced with one new entry in Bradley Moore. Table eight was pulled to the live stream and may be there until the very end of the night. All PokerNews updates for the time being will focus on the outer tables.
Max Deveson wins the 2025 SPT Time Square ZAR 50,000 High Roller
The ZAR 50,000 High Roller Event at the 2025 SunBet Poker Tour Time Square series in Pretoria has crowned a winner. After entering the final day fifth in chips, the UK's Max Deveson overcame a large chip deficit in heads-up play to defeat Ronit Chamani and claim the lion's share of the ZAR 2,016,000 ($110,880) prize pool in a field of 48 entries.
Ever since entering the South African poker scene, Deveson has been racking up impressive results and more or less became part of the close-knit community on the Southern tip of the African continent already. He has his work cut out, but Deveson was undeterred from being behind in chips from the get-go and ultimately came out on top to claim the top prize of ZAR 800,000 ($44,000).
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
Max Deveson wins the 2025 SPT Time Square ZAR 50,000 High Roller
The first seat open of the final day was Huawei Sun from Botswana, who got short and then jammed at the wrong time with Q♣2♣, as Chamani looked him up with the A♦A♥. There was a sweat on the 7♣4♥2♥3♣K♠ board but the aces held up. This pot propelled Chamani near the top of the leaderboard and it would get much sweeter soon after because start-of-the-day chip leader Marko Nortje bowed out next.
"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 the J♥6♣2♠4♥ turn with K♥6♥ for second pair and a flush draw. Chamani used three time bank extensions and then called with J♦2♦ for two pair, which held thanks to the 3♣ on the river.
The next casualty thereafter was Taiwan-born Rex Hsu, who three-bet jammed out of the small blind with A♠5♥. Chamani in the big blind four-bet jammed A♦K♣ to force out button raiser Deveson and a king appeared in the window. Hsu had a gutshot but missed to become the third place finisher on a board of K♠4♥3♣8♦6♥, leaving Chamani with a large advantage for the heads-up battle with Deveson.
While still being the same short stack he had been for most of the previous one and a half days, Deveson entered heads-up with nearly 40 big blinds. What followed was a battle of more than two and a half hours across six levels at a now reduced duration of 30 minutes each and ultimately, Deveson grinded Chamani down to fumes.
The last few chips went in with J♣7♥ and Deveson looked up Chamani with 3♠3♥. No jack or seven came on the 10♥5♦4♥2♣K♥ board and the Brit claimed his first SunBet Poker Tour trophy.
Ronit Chamani
Chamani only took a short break before jumping into the Main Event action but busted prior to the dinner break, then promised to be back the following day. She may very well end up at the same table as Deveson again, because he will take the remainder of the day off.
No further players joined or busted to send 31 contenders out of 55 entries into the 70-minute dinner break until approximately 7.22 p.m. local time.
Gavin Sardini lost the last hand before the break when he check-called out of the big blind for 10,000 on the Q♣8♣7♦5♦4♣ board. Nico Wiechers tabled the J♣10♣ for the flush and won the pot before they headed out of the tournament area.
Alan Jung re-entered right into the same seat he busted from while KM and Tristan Lombard entered the fray on their first bullet. The field has reached 55 entries so far of which 31 players remain.
Four ways to the 8♠5♠3♣ flop, Stephen Courtney in the big blind bet 2,600. Braam Van Huyssteen raised to 11,000 from under the gun to force two folds and it was back on Courtney, who glanced at his table neighbour.
"Let's go," Van Huyssteen smirked back at him and Courtney folded the 8♣ face-up, he was shown the 6♦4♦ by Van Huyssteen for the up and down straight draw.
Jedd Kossew raised to 2,500 and Gavin Sardini called in the small blind. Rubel Sher in the big blind clicked it up to 6,500 and Kossew folded, while Sardini called. On the 6♥3♥2♦ flop, Sardini checked before then folding the A♥ face-up when facing a bet of 7,500 by Sher.
"Were there three hearts on the flop?" Kossew asked and Sardini grimaced "if that was the case, I would have already piled my chips in".
On the 10♦7♠2♠ flop, Ronit Chamani was all-in for a short stack of 4,200 and Gareth Fourie pushed all-in over the top out of the big blind for the 31,200 he had left behind. They were both called by Joe Rahme and Fourie instantly said "I am gambling" as he exposed the J♠4♠ for the flush draw.
Chamani had 9♦7♦ for the second pair while Rahme was ahead with his 10♥9♥.
The J♦ turn gave Fourie the lead with a pair of jacks and the 5♣ river kept the lead in his favour.
"See you guys tomorrow," Chamani said and grabbed her belongings before leaving the tournament area.
Rajeev Poonhath got some chips back despite tripling up Brown banda, as Bradley Moore was eliminated in the three-way showdown. His [pc]AdKc] were ahead of Moore's A♠8♥ but the 7♠7♦ of Banda remained in the lead throughout the entire Q♣J♥6♠5♦9♦ runout.
