Event 10 Champion: Riyaz Abdulla

Riyaz Abdulla almost didn’t play in Event 10 of the TonyBet Winter Festival, as he was in transit from London that same day and arrived at Playground Poker Club just in the nick of time to late-register himself into the tournament. Fast-forward 2 long nights of poker later, and the jet-lagged traveller was sitting in the driver seat on the final table, on the road to victory.

Riyaz came into Day 2 as one of the bigger stacks, and maintained a healthy chip count throughout the entire night, taking over the chip lead in the later stages of the final table. When play fell to 4-handed, a ICM based deal was made which awarded him $11,695, leaving an additional $1,280 for the eventual winner. Chip leader at the time of the deal Shaan Siddiqui locked in $12,415, while shorter stack Todd Pierce guaranteed himself $8,740 and Viken Artinian took $8,300.

It didn’t take long before Riyaz knocked out two opponents to find himself heads-up with the chip lead versus Shaan, and heads-up play was an even shorter affair, as Riyaz managed to eliminate his opponent on the very first hand.

On a board showing , Riyaz check-raised his opponent, and then happily called off the 3bet all-in holding the stone cold nuts. His only had 4 full house outs to dodge versus his opponents , and the river sealed the deal. With that, Riyaz collected the extra $1,280, and was awarded a TonyBet Winter Festival Champion’s Trophy!