Asif Raja Crowned Latest DTD 200 Champion
Asif Raja broke through the $200,000 barrier for live tournament winnings last weekend when he bested a field of 474 entries in the latest £100,000 guaranteed DTD 200 event at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.
DTD 200 Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asif Raja | £20,000 |
| 2 | Peter Wigglesworth | £12,000 |
| 3 | James Martin | £8,000 |
| 4 | Jeff Large | £6,000 |
| 5 | Anonymous | £5,000 |
| 6 | Mark McCluskey | £4,000 |
| 7 | Mohammed Ifzail | £3,250 |
| 8 | William Bennet | £2,500 |
All eight finalists also received a £1,100 ticket
Raja is a familiar face at Dusk Till Dawn and has enjoyed his fair share of success in the poker room. In November 2016, Raja was the runner-up to Sanjay Patel in the £90 Grand Prix Poker Tour and banked £18,000 and more recently, Raja cashed in the £5,300 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS for a £15,000 score. Now he has a new largest cash after collecting £20,000 for winning the DTD 200 event.
A total of 163 players made it through to Day 2 and an additional 39 took advantage of the late registration policy to take the number of entrants on Day 2 to 202. The likes of Emma Tolley, Vahid Amirzahiri, Stuart Fox, Robert Boon, Paul Jackson, Colin McTaggart, Wahid Patel, and Jono Beck bust before the money places and left the waters slightly less shark infested.
Richard Wheeler was the unfortunate bubble boy, falling in 48th place when he found himself all in for less than a big blind and three players checked down the community cards with James Green’s top pair winning the pot and sending the remaining 47 players into the money.
Former DTD 200 champion Basharat Mahmood was one of the early casualties once the money places were reached, and he was followed to the rail by players such as Adriena Nutt and Richard Trigg, the latter crashing out in 12th place for £1,225. Adam Picken bust in ninth-place to set the official eight-handed final table.
DTD 200 Final Table Draw
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohammed Ifzail | 3,800,000 |
| 2 | Asif Raja | 5,550,000 |
| 3 | Peter Wigglesworth | 6,800,000 |
| 4 | Mark McCLuskey | 4,135,000 |
| 5 | Anonymous | 4,300,000 |
| 6 | William Bennet | 4,950,000 |
| 7 | Jeff Large | 4,380,000 |
| 8 | James Martin | 6,500,000 |
With blinds at 150,000/300,000/30,000a, none of the players were particularly deep stacked so it was no surprise that there was an early bust out from the final table. The first player eliminated was William Bennet who open-shoved for 4,150,000 with a pair of black kings and was looked up by Peter Wigglesworth holding ace-king. The cowboys looked like holding and securing Bennet a timely double, but the ace of diamonds on the river shattered those dreams.
Wigglesworth then sent Mohammed Ifzail to the sidelines on the very next hand. Ifzail moved all-in for 3,80,000 with ace-king and Wigglesworth found himself in bad shape holding ace-jack of clubs. The hand was flipped on its head when the flop came down with more clubs than Ibiza and gifted Wigglesworth a flush. The turn and river were of no consequence and Ifzail bust.
One hand later, Mark McCluskey’s tournament ended abruptly. McCluskey ripped his last 4,600,000 into the middle of the felt with pocket tens and a player wishing to remain anonymous called with ace-queen. A queen in the window was enough to send McCluskey to the cashier’s desk for sixth-place money.
The blinds increased to 200,000/400,000/40,000 and it seemed to trigger an unfortunate series of events of the anonymous player. After doubling up James Martin, the anonymous player found himself all-in with ace-ten and racing against the pocket sixes of Jeff Large. Large flopped a full house and Mr Anon was gone.
Raja then lost a large pot and became the short stack when he fell for Martin’s trick of limping in from the small blind with a pair of aces. Raja moved all-in with a pair of four, Martin couldn’t call quick enough and won the hand with no drama. Raja kept his cool and managed to chip back up again.
Four-handed play didn’t last long and ended when Large committed his final 12 big blinds with ace-four and lost to the suited ace-jack of Martin. Soon after, Martin, who qualified for the tournament via a $2.20 free ticket at partypoker, bust in third when his ace-six failed to get there against Wigglesworth’s tens.
After locking horns heads-up, it was Wigglesworth who finished as the tournament’s bridesmaid. The final hand saw Wigglesworth was all-in and at risk holding ace-queen of spades and Raja was behind with king-five of spades. Raja flopped an inside straight draw but the ten of spades took away one of those outs. The river was the king of hearts to send Wigglesworth home in second place and Raja into raptures.
The next DTD 200 takes place at Dusk Till Dawn from Jul. 14-16 and costs £220 to enter. Satellites and online Day 1s are available at partypoker where if you download the partypoker software via PokerNews and enter the bonus code “PNCOM” when making your first deposit, you’ll receive a 100 percent up to $500 bonus.
