Australia’s Aaron Lim has become the first player to win two Asia Pacific Poker Tour Main Event’s after securing the Manila title at PokerStars LIVE in the City of Dreams.
It took the European Poker Tour (EPT) 10-years to find a two-time Main Event champion, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (AAPT) did it in nine. Aaron Lim following in the high heels of Victoria Coren Mitchell to take down the APPT9 Main Event in Manila two years after doing likewise in Seoul, South Korea.
Other than Lim the final table contained two more well known players. Terry Fan, who finished fourth, is a former winner of the Macau Poker Cup, and a WSOP final tablist, and Winfred Yu, who finished eighth, is the CEO of the high stakes poker room organization Poker King Club. Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan are some of the club’s most famous fans.
The heads-up action would fall between Lim and the Swede Per Olsson. Lim would start the match with a 7.2m v 4.5m chip lead, and it was all over after a little over one hour of play.
In the final hand, Lim opened to 240,000; Olsson called. The flop was [Qs] [Jc] [6h], Olsson check-called a 260,000 Lim bet. The turn was the [8h] Olsson checked, Lim bet 480,000, Olsson moved all-in and Lim called. Lim showed pocket aces, and Olsson showed [Jh] [9h] for middle pair and flush draw. The [Qc] offered no help to Olsson and Lim was declared the winner.
Final Table Results
1st. Aaron Lim – $131,780
2nd. Per Olsson – $73,761
3rd. Jessie Leonarez – $45,626
4th. Terry Fan – $34,803
5th. Thomas Lee – $24,041
6th. Hayato Kitajima – $19,122
7th. Iona Finkenrath – $15,571
8th. Winfred Yu – $13,113
9th. Yin Lin Chua – $10,927
The next big event for PokerStars LIVE Manila is the 23rd iteration of the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon August 28 – September 13.
