Wrecking Ball Marko Nortje Dominates Day 1c of the 2025 The Hendon Mob Championship Cape Town Million
For the second year in a row, The Hendon Mob Championship was visiting Cape Town in cooperation with the SunBet Poker Tour and the ZAR 8,000 buy-in of 2025 The Hendon Mob Championship Cape Town Million at the GrandWest Casino by Sun International once again turned out to be a popular affair among the close-knit local South African poker community.
Yesterday's opening two flights had attracted a total of 150 entries with 20 players punching their ticket for the money stages. However, both figures received a face-lift with the final two starting days garnering a very healthy interest. Day 1c maxed out at 119 entries and the top 15 finishers advanced while Day 1d had reached more than 70 entries at the time of writing to put the overall tally well ahead of last year's 299 entries. With at least 343 entries across the four flights, the ZAR 1.25 million guarantee was smashed and surpassed ZAR 2.3 million near the end of the late registration period.
The largest of the four flights also attracted the biggest turnout and it came as no surprise that the overall leaderboard was shaken up accordingly. Marko Nortje entered prior to the second break and went through the field like a wrecking ball, though all of it was kick-started by a literal gift in level six when he flopped a full house and Hans van der Hulst jammed king-high with zero equity.
Ultimately, Nortje knocked out several opponents and was also responsible for the money bubble to burst on Day 1c when his flopped trips prevailed against Craig Hartland's two pair and flush draw. That propelled Nortje to 635,000 in chips, surpassing Yoni Lipshitz (515,000) and Ariel Mazabow (500,000) at the top of the leaderboard.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1c
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 1c Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marko Nortje | South Africa | 635,000 | 53 |
| 2 | Yoni Lipshitz | South Africa | 515,000 | 43 |
| 3 | Ariel Mazabow | South Africa | 500,000 | 42 |
| 4 | Eben Lottering | South Africa | 334,000 | 28 |
| 5 | Kevin Boyer | South Africa | 263,000 | 22 |
| 6 | Mark Wright | South Africa | 174,000 | 15 |
| 7 | AB | South Africa | 172,000 | 14 |
| 8 | Franco Da Matta | South Africa | 171,000 | 14 |
| 9 | Chuck Levin | South Africa | 158,000 | 13 |
| 10 | Caleb October | South Africa | 142,000 | 12 |
South African live poker veteran Eben Lottering bagged up a healthy stack of 334,000 along with Mark Wright (174,000), Caleb October (142,000), Imran Bhojani (136,000), and Tanith Rothman (86,000). They have all secured a portion of the cash prize pool but may opt to late register the ongoing final heat in order to run up an even larger stack.
Nortje finished fifth in this very event one year ago and will aim to improve on that final position. Last year's champion Muaaz Gani and runner-up Sugen Singh were unable to bag up chips in the penultimate flight but jumped into the final chance Day 1d thereafter.
Among the other notable casualties on Day 1c were the likes of Norman Cherry, Nic Ioannoy, Cliton Taliwanth, Richard Barnard, Adrian Andritz, Wesley Blom, Stephen Courtney, Harold Brooks, Jaryd Jardien and Dean Hutchison to name all but a few.
Whether or not any of them will make it through to the money stages via Day 1d remains to be seen, as the action of the final heat is expected to conclude beyond 2 a.m. local time. The PokerNews live reporting team will be providing the chip counts and Day 2 seat draw the following morning.
For the final day, the level duration will increase to 40 minutes each and the action recommences at noon local time. The big blinds for the restart will be determined through the average finish time of all four starting days.
Once again, the PokerNews team will be on the floor to provide all of the action until a winner has been crowned. Furthermore, the live stream action is also available on a security delay of 30 minutes with cards-up coverage and commentary available on the SunBet Poker Tour YouTube channel.