A By: KomishAirms
CITY OF DREAMS Manila, Philippines
The history books have been rewritten again here at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila as Australian pro Aaron Lim becomes the first player since its inception to win two Main Event titles in an epic and swingy heads-up against Sweden’s Douglas Olsson. The 29-year-old from Perth also booked his seat for the season-ending Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) in October as well as the top purse of PhP6,016,250 (approx. US$ 134,000).
Lim bested the biggest field ever to see action in an APPT Main Event here with 585 total runners from 41 countries that included former champions, WSOP deep cashers and a local contingent that added a special flavor to the win. “I wanna thank everyone here in Manila for the hospitality and to Pokerstars and APPT for running an incredible event,” Lim later said after the final hand had been dealt. Quite fittingly, Lim used the best starting hole cards in all of NLHE to dispose of his pesky opponent: Pocket Aces. Olsson’s final hand was Nine Jack but drew a flush draw on the turn and that’s when all the chips went in the middle. The aces held and Lim duplicates his win in the 2013 APPT Seoul Main Event.
Lim adds this trophy to his already growing collection of accolades which includes in the 2012 Aussie Millions NLHE/PLO side event, the 2013 WSOP Asia Pacific (APAC) 6-Max NLHE and the 2014 APPT Macau Team Event. It is also his third cash of the year following two third place finishes in the ANZPT High Stakes Event and the HK$20,000 NLHE at the Macau Poker Cup. This championship will surely catapult him up the Australian moneylist, where he is currently ranked 13th all-time. Victory was initially within his grasp just after midnight, when both players were all-in and Olsson holding As3s against his A9o. Olsson, the reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) National Philippines Open Face Chinese (OFC) Poker titlist, rivered a three to double up and prolong the duel. Olsson, who has been residing in the Philippines for the past couple of years, won PhP3,367,500 (approx. US$75,000) for his runner-up finish.
Aaron Lim is the first player to win to APPT Main Event
The last Filipino standing happened to take “bronze” as Jessie Leonarez’s third place cash of PhP2,083,000 was the biggest in his young poker career. Notable that placed on the final day include Terry Fan (fourth-PhP1,588,900), final day chip-leader Iona Finkenrath of Germany (seventh-PhP710,900), Poker King President Winfred Yu (eigth-PhP598,700), Pokerstars online qualifier Fubo Huang (PhP336,800), Mike Kim (fifteenth-PhP274,400) and eventual KO Bounty NLHE champion Nikki “11Digits” Filart (23rd-PhP149,700).
Meanwhile, the last two events practically coincided with the end of the Main Event with Filart’s KO Bounty win and Henrick Tollefsen of Norway took down the PhP200,000 (approx. US$4,400) High Roller event. Filart’s victory gave the Philippines its third win in the competition and capped a truly remarkable staging of this prestigious undertaking.
Thank you for following somuchpoker.com all tournament long and keep it here for more coverages and stories from the Asian poker scene.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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