THMC Main Event
Day 2 Completed
2024 THMC Cape Town Million
THMC Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 2
2024 THMC Cape Town Million
Buy-in
8,000 ZAR
Prize Pool
2,009,280 ZAR
Entries
299
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
80,000
Entries
39
Players Left
1
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
A winner has been crowned during the 2024 The Hendon Mob Championship Cape Town Million at the GrandWest Casino by Sun International. With a price tag of ZAR 8,000 ($440), one of the key events on the schedule of the final SunBet Poker Tour stop in 2024 doubled it's initial guarantee and generated a ZAR 2,009,280 ($111,193) prize pool thanks to an overall field of 299 entries. The trophy remained on home soil as Muaaz Gani and Sugen Singh agreed to a heads-up deal with the former claiming the bragging rights as narrow chip leader at the time.
Gani would have normally not agreed to a deal but a closer look at the trophy on the final table changed his mind. "Today was actually a day where I really wanted to have that trophy". Runner-up Singh had also cut a deal when he took down the SunBet Poker Tour Time Square Main Event earlier this year and now conceded the same honour for a bigger piece of the pie.
After his victory, Gani explained that the route to victory actually started in rather curious fashion. Having busted the Super High Roller, Gani and Ahmed Karrim headed to the nearby food court to grab some KFC and some noisy neighbours made them return to the poker room where he was presented with the opportunity to max late register for Day 1a. He took a chance and finished the opening flight with the largest tally while Singh was in third place.
Soon after the winner shots had been taken care off, Karrim and the eventual winner discussed the possible destination for the next international trip. As part of his victory, Gani has also earned a 2025 package to any THMC of his choosing and the stop in Dublin during the 2025 Irish Open seems to be the most likely choice.
Third-placed Florian Bock from Germany knows about that kind of additional value, as he won the stop in Malta earlier this year at the Portomaso Casino in a field of 313 entries. Bock was the chip leader during four-handed play but lost a big chunk when he jammed into Gani, who called all-in with ace-queen.
"He scoffed me when I called because it was ICM suicide, but some people just play to play as they say, you know. And this was just one of the spots where I wasn't interested in folding a big hand for an ICM jump. I was shorter than him at the time and that was a big hand to win, it was quite a decisive moment in this tournament," Gani explained the pivotal moment that turned things around.
Bock went on to finish in third place, while other notables such as Marko Nortje, Cliton Taliwanth and Wesley Blom also reached the final table.
2024 THMC Cape Town Million Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (ZAR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muaaz Gani | South Africa | 380,000 | $21,029* |
| 2 | Sugen Singh | South Africa | 350,000 | $19,369* |
| 3 | Florian Bock | Germany | 197,000 | $10,902 |
| 4 | Renier Britz | South Africa | 140,000 | $7,748 |
| 5 | Marko Nortje | South Africa | 100,280 | $5,549 |
| 6 | Cliton Taliwanth | South Africa | 80,000 | $4,427 |
| 7 | Clive Kikia | South Africa | 60,000 | $3,320 |
| 8 | Wesley Blom | South Africa | 50,000 | $2,767 |
| 9 | Braam Van Huyssteen | South Africa | 40,000 | $2,214 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
Across three starting days, 39 players qualified for the money stages and most of the contenders hailed from the home country, many of which have become regular participants in Africas Richest Poker Tour. During the frantic first two hours, the field of hopefuls was nearly cut in half and only 20 players were left by the time the first break started.
Jaryd Jardien was among the early casualties and the UK's Max Deveson vanished from the feature table shortly after being moved back there. Two double eliminations had thinned the line-up there further. Eventual runner-up Singh for example knocked out Rajeev Poonhath and Greg Mokgoathleng to gain early momentum. Jehan Richards then had a bad beat story to tell on the outer tables after his pocket aces were cracked by pocket tens.
The second two-hour session was not much slower and brought the field all the way to the nine-handed final table. Jedd Kossew and Jaco Mouton were among those to bow out, the latter running with pocket kings into the pocket aces of Singh. Nellie Park and flag hunting poker globetrotter Maureen Bloechlinger were next hit the rail. Bock then knocked out Gerhard Oosthuizen and Edgar Antezana to set up the final nine second in chips.
Despite starting the final table with just over one big blind, Cliton Taliwanth was not the first to depart thereafter. He made three pay jumps thanks to the eliminations of Braam Van Huyssteen, Wesley Blom and Clive Kikia before his luck ran out. Kikia ran with king-queen into the aces of Bock and Taliwanth's queen-jack suited suffered the same fate versus Renier Britz.
Nortje was one of the main characters of the day, which he started atop the leaderboard and his roller coaster ride ended in fifth place. Having escaped via one-outer right after the dinner break, he lost the next showdown to Bock. Britz's attempt at a comeback was flushed away by Gani, who then jumped into the lead thanks to the aforementioned key hand. Bock never recovered and departed in third place, which was the final hand of the night on the live-stream feature table.
For The Hendon Mob Championship, the live poker year 2024 is not finished yet as the next stop is right around the corner. After a five year hiatus, the live poker series returns to the Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford and teams up with the Unibet DeepStack Open (USDO) from December 3 to 8, 2024. Furthermore, Head of Partnerships at GPI/The Hendon Mob Roland Boothby announced during the event in Cape Town that the brand will return in 2025 with an increased guarantee.
This includes the PokerNews updates for the 2024 THMC Cape Town Millions, but the live reporting crew will stay in South Africa to provide more poker action from the SunBet Poker Tour Cape Town Main Event as of tomorrow.
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Life Outside Poker is a new podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the 21st episode, Connor speaks with Survivor legend Boston Rob, aka Rob Mariano, about growing up near Fenway Park, learning poker at the age of 6, studying psychology at Boston University, applying for Survivor and winning Season 22, his recent appearance on Deal or No Deal Island and filming an upcoming season of The Traitors.
Boston Rob also revealed a story about Costa Rican authorities raiding a mansion known to host high-stakes poker games during a 2006 filming that included Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh, David Williams, Michael Mizrachi and actress Cheryl Hines.
"(Gambling mogul) Calvin (Ayre) had a big party at the house, and they came in guns drawn," he said. "And we were fine, but we all had to stay at the party until they checked our passports and everything. I think it was a little bit of a shakedown. But we had a good weekend."
The Life Outside Poker podcast is available on major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud and iHeartRadio. You can also watch the interview with Boston Rob by heading to the PokerNews YouTube channel.
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
The remaining two players are now on a short break ahead of their quite deep-stacked heads-up duel for the title.
Florian Bock had earned his entry to this event by winning The Hendon Mob Championship on Malta but narrowly missed out on becoming the tour's first two-time champion.
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Florian Bock moved all-in from the button for 1,100,000 and Sugen Singh called out of the big blind.
Florian Bock: 7♠7♦ 
Sugen Singh: A♣J♣
The A♠J♠3♦ flop left Bock on the ropes and in need of a seven or running spades. Some hope came with the 3♠ turn but the K♥ river was a blank to end the run of the German qualifier in third place for ZAR 197,000 ($10,902)
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
4,700,000 | |
|
||
|
4,300,000
1,400,000
|
1,400,000 |
|
Busted | |
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Muaaz Gani opened to 275,000 in the small blind with K♠10♥ and Sugen Singh defended the Q♦J♦ from the big blind. Gani checked his gutshot on the J♣9♥6♣ flop and folded when Singh bet 325,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
4,700,000
-500,000
|
-500,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
2,900,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
|
1,400,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Sugen Singh made it 325,000 to go with the A♠K♣ in the small blind and Florian Bock defended the J♥4♥ in the big blind. The Q♦8♦2♦ flop and 9♣ turn were checked to the A♥ on the river. Singh eventually bet 175,000 and Bock mulled it over for a very short time before conceding the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
5,200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
2,700,000
300,000
|
300,000 |
|
|
1,200,000
-400,000
|
-400,000 |
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Muuaz Gani opened to 210,000 from under the gun and then called the all-in of Renier Britz for another 90,000 on top of that out of the small blind.
Renier Britz: K♥Q♥
Muaaz Gani: K♠6♠
Britz was in great shape to start a come back but the A♠4♠3♠ flop instantly left Britz with zero equity. The 10♦ turn and 6♦ river became a formality, as Brith busted in fourth place to pick up ZAR 140,000 ($7,748) for the efforts.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
5,000,000
500,000
|
500,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
2,400,000
-100,000
|
-100,000 |
|
|
1,600,000
-200,000
|
-200,000 |
|
Busted | |
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Sugen Singh limped in with the 7♣6♣ and Renier Britz checked the Q♦4♦ to see the A♣4♣2♠ flop. The shove by Singh with his flush draw followed and Britz laid down second pair.
Soon after, Singh and Britz clashed again. Britz raised to 350,000 and Singh called out of the big blind as they headed to the Q♣J♣2♦ flop. Singh check-called all-in for 820,000 and the following showdown emerged.
Sugen Singh: Q♦J♦
Renier Britz: A♣5♣
The Q♠ turn locked up the double for Singh with a full house, which he needed as the 6♣ came on the river.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
4,500,000
100,000
|
100,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
2,500,000
1,200,000
|
1,200,000 |
|
|
1,800,000 | |
|
|
260,000
-1,340,000
|
-1,340,000 |
Level 28
: Blinds 40,000/80,000, 80,000 ante
Florian Bock jammed from the small blind into the big blind of Muaaz Gani, who called all-in for 2,100,000.
Muaaz Gani: A♥Q♦
Florian Bock: K♣7♣
The 10♥6♦3♣8♠10♣ board was not without sweat but Gani held on to regain the lead by a significant margin.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
4,400,000
2,200,000
|
2,200,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
1,800,000
-2,100,000
|
-2,100,000 |
|
|
1,600,000 | |
|
|
1,300,000 | |